Posted on 05/03/2020 4:07:53 AM PDT by Enduro Guy
We live on 15 acres pretty far out in the country and have a free roaming German Shepherd Dog that's quite the guard dog, to say the least. Our driveway is at least 750 feet long from the county road to our garage where I have a "BEWARE OF DOG" sign.
Our GSD is friendly to aloof with people, but ferocious towards vehicles. Recently he bit and pierced two front tires of a visiting friend's car as they were parking by our garage. That cost me $350. He's also done this to one tire on my nephew's truck. My nephew used his tire insurance to pay for the damage.
FWIW, I've been training the GSD to not attack tires on arriving vehicles but it's been a constant uphill battle. His instinct to bite tires really overwhelms him but I'm working on it.
Oh well, to my question:
Am I liable for the damage to people's vehicles, even if I have a "BEWARE OF DOG" sign?
That sign means nothing as far as liability.
Your liable. “Here’s Your Sign.”
If you can’t train or control the dog, don’t have the dog.
And yes I’ve owned several GSD’s.
I doubt the sign helps you anymore then if you dog bit someone on your property.
As a general rule, yes. You are liable for injury or property damage caused by your dog, although there will be some variance in case law state by state. You should probably look over your homeowner’s policy as many (most?) Homeowner policies will have a list of dog breeds (generally including GSDs) they will either not cover, or will only cover with a specific rider or endorsement.
Morally yes
Control your animal
Yes, the dogs actions are your responsibility. I suggest you lock the gate and install an intercom system so visitors can contact you prior to entering and the dog can be locked away.
You Need a Fence
You most certainly are. (And while the cost of replacing tires isn't negligible, be thankful he's not biting people.)
I think rather than spend hundreds of dollars on replacing tires, you might want to spend some money on having a professional train your dog.
If someone drives there care down your drive, tie up the damn dog and it won’t happen.
You have liability for the behavior of your dog, towards any person who you invite onto your property, or who has a legitimate reason to enter (mailman, etc).
You need to find a way to stop your dog from doing that.
Find a dog trainer who can advise you.
If you give a rip about your dog or other people/pets you don’t let your dog run loose. PERIOD!
Exactly
You and I agree
I’m not the original poster
Get a new sign. “My da dogs likes to chew tires. Toot the horn and I will tie da up.”
I think you also need to consider this tire thing your dog has going for it.
There are probably a lot of negative worst-case scenarios involved with that behavior.
Maybe doggie emergency care insurance would be a consideration as well.
Love German Shepherds. Had a beauty of one myself. But a few years before I had him I was stalked by one on my block as I motorcycled home from work in the dark. She was a sweet girl if I walked down the block she’d wag as I talked to her but she gave no quarter to me on my bike as I rode down the block. 5-10 times I would swerve enough and gun it to get out of her way....one night I decided I had enough and gunned it but didn’t swerve and stuck out my left, engineer boot and hit her with it in the head neck area. She rolled....then got up and ran home. It wasn’t at great speed and I limped a bit that night.
She ignored me for about two weeks and then the cycle began again. She ran towards me and barked But she stopped WAY SHORT of coming anywhere near me ever again
I once thought that it would be impossible for any dog to flatten a car or truck tire with a bite or two. Damn how wrong I was.
I kind of figured I’d get the answers I got to my question.
Looks like I’m gonna have to step up the training.
Yay...
Would you believe we also live on 15 acres, in heavy hardwood forest, 1/2 mile from paved road, out in the country, 4 miles from civilization and our COLLIE is exactly like your GSD?
Our 5th pure-bred collie in 40 years - years ago all our dogs would run away and we refused to fence or chain them....dogs are meant to run free. Someone said, “Get a collie - they are home-bodies.” And it is true. All have been great watch-dogs but people-lovers.
None of our other collies were like this. This one barks when vehicles arrive, but is no problem - UNTIL vehicles want to leave. He then goes insane, thinking any vehicle here is now a part of his herd that he must control and keep from leaving! As any vehicle begins to leave, he almost rabidly will circle the vehicle, barking madly, even biting the vehicle occasionally. He even does this on all our vehicles that were here long before he was - he doesn’t seem to recognize them as belonging here - or maybe that they do belong and he cannot let them leave.
We have successfully trained him with a shock collar to NOT do this. BUT, the problem is he is too smart. Take the collar off of him - and he immediately knows, “Now I can do whatever I want...” and reverts to his old behavior.
So we restrain him or put him in the house when vehicles leave if his collar is not on him. I have his bite marks on my cars and motorcycles........
Damn, that sounds familiar.
My Father who was an Air Police officer(I think they are all called mp’s now) used to tell us stories of one of his dogs, the ferocious Ajax, a GSD that apparently lost his tail to it being run over by a jeep. The dog was a very good guard dog but they had to keep it tied up when ever the OD drove up to the gate in his Jeep. One night, a new guard was on duty who hadn’t been warned about Ajax’s animus against jeep tires. The dogs weren’t as a general rule tied as they were trained to stay put so when the OD came to check the gate status and started to leave...there was a growl and a loud hiss as the jeep tire was bitten into. The jeep had a spare and Ajax was told to lay down and stay put. They replaced the tire but...as they got ready to leave...a growl and a hiss and the spare was also bitten into( there was always speculation that the dog always bit the tire in the same location that corresponded to when his tail had gotten run over...or the right rear passenger side). They had to call over to the garage for a new wheel and tire and in the confusion of getting the new tire put on...they quite forgot about Ajax. Yup...a third time...a growl and a hiss....which led to much cursing from the officer on duty and finally they remembered to tie up Ajax when they fixed the tire for a third time. 4 trophy tires in one night from steel jawed Ajax, his personal best.
They didn’t retire him for it....he was a very good guard dog, they just decided and an order went out into effect, to keep him under better control when Jeeps approached the gates, no other cars or vehicles excited Ajax’s interest...only the rear right side tires on Jeeps...he hated them.
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