***- So how would things have gone better in your ideal world?***
Never had a problem till the road was paved and joggers started using it. It is not a good jogging road as cars now fly up the hill here at a very high rate of speed. Won’t be long till some jogger finds he cannot jump into the 5 foot deep ditch on each side of the road to escape getting hit. We’ve seen quite a few car wrecks on this road.
Meanwhile, my dogs cannot establish their “territorial claim” and as a result coyotes and feral dogs, coons, which are worse are moving into the vacuum left and killing my chickens.
And like I mentioned, they don’t bother people walking, riding horses or bicycles, only joggers.
I don’t have any chickens, but many of my neighbors do-the raccoons and skunks are a real problem here, too and fenced yards do not keep them out. My neighbors herd their chickens at night into lean-tos fronted with game fencing or some other similar sturdy metal fencing with small openings that cannot be gotten through-I’m told that it works very well-have you tried something like that?
I come from a ranching family, but we had lots of chickens that we kids shooed into a big game-fenced area with a closed chicken house in it every evening. Gathering eggs while getting the crap scratched and pecked out of you, and counting chickens in the morning was also a kid chore-I do not like chickens to this day...
While walking a friend’s shepherd with my young daughter (nearly 20 yrs ago), the neighbor’s loose dog attacked us - he was apparently also territorial about “his road”. My friend’s shepherd nearly killed the loose-running dog, and I wouldn’t hesitate to say he saved our lives.The GSD we were walking put himself between my kid & the attacking dog - and so the attacker went after ME. Luckily, I came out of it with only a torn out kneecap and puncture wounds on my arms.
The neighbor came out and yelled at ME for walking the shepherd past his house (mind you I was on the road, not his property), and complaining about the severe neck wounds to his dog.
What’s the point of this story?
Well, for one, your dogs need to learn that the road is the road. It’s your responsibility to teach & train them. Dogs are clever critters and a little thing like a fence won’t stop them from going after people. We have 3 shepherds and NO fencing - and we don’t need it. They don’t go near the property line unless I give the command and allow them to visit the neighbors (or send them after an intruder) That’s what training will do for you.
Time teaching/training every day will save you thousands in lawsuits later. Trust me, having been through it (plus 2 surgeries to repair my leg).
PS...not trying to pick a fight, but why on earth would you let your dogs think the road is their property? Seems like you are just asking for trouble, in my opinion (again, not trying to start a fight, just want to know the reasoning behind it)