Dog Problems - Stray Dogs, Lost Dogs, Dangerous Dogs, File a Dog Complaint

stray dog

Stray Dog - If you find a stray dog, consider your own safety, but if it appears safe, look for a tag in case it's a lost dog and you can help find its owner. If it's a habitually stray dog and you wish to have animal services remove it, call your local office. You can find a list of almost all animal services in the country by clicking on this map.

Dangerous Dog - If you have a problem with a dangerous dog, please contact animal control ASAP. Avoid the dog and keep your own pets and children safe until it can be properly contained.

Barking Dog - Try to talk to your neighbor first, but if that doesn't work or isn't an option, call your local animal services and inquire. They should be able to help you. As a stronger resort, you can file a complaint with your local police department, and an officer may give an order to keep the dog contained.

Dog Cruelty - If you are aware of a dog that is being mistreated, please call your local animal control and report it!

Lost Dog - It's heartbreaking to lose your dog. Contacting local animal services and SPCA centers is a good start. You can also of course post flyers around town, tell neighborhood members to keep a lookout, and search yourself. Good luck.

Dog Adoption - Many local animal control centers and SPCA facilities have great dogs up for adoption to loving homes. Please consider saving a dog instead of buying from a breeder! They'll thank you for life!

Dog Vaccination - Your dog needs it vaccines to protect it from several diseases, such as rabies. Your local animal services can help you.

Dog Neuter - Given all the problems I've been made aware of regarding stray and feral dogs, I consider it a great idea to have your pet spayed or neutered. Most local animal control services and SPCA centers can do it for a low cost!

Additional Articles About Stray Dogs
How to protect yourself against dangerous stray dogs
How to catch a stray dog to bring it to the shelter
What to do when your neighbor’s dog won’t stop barking
What will the county animal services do with a stray dog?

Common problems caused by stray dogs
How many times have you seen a stray pup wandering down your street alone and unattended or watched a stray rummaging through garbage can on your street? Perhaps you were walking your own dog when you saw a lonely pup roaming around? Whatever the situation – what did you do about it? There are too few people out there that are actually willing to help strays out, in the form of feeding them scraps if they look hungry, or taking them to the local authorities such as dog pounds, shelters or the vet. Those that generally do tend to turn a blind eye could potentially be making the problem even worse, especially when you consider how many of these strays could actually belong to a loving home or could be easily re-homed if given the chance!

Let’s have a look at the common problems that stray dogs can cause:
• They can spread disease and fleas. They could interact with family pets in the park and pass on diseases; they can even fight with family pets, either in your own back or front yard or in public places, and cause injury or the spread of disease.
• They can make a mess by rummaging through garbage cans, and may even steal food that you have put out for your own pets. They are just hungry animals after all; they have been left to their own devices. If you were in the same position, there is a good chance that you would be scavenging for food also!
• They can mate with your family pets and cause a little of stray baby pups! This is a common problem in areas where dogs are allowed to interact, such as the park or local dog walking areas.
• The leave droppings everywhere which can cause massive health problems, especially for children!
• They can become aggressive and attack humans, pets and children. This is something that you should really expect from stray dogs – they become territorial over certain areas and are likely to have been hardened by the lifestyle they have to live. They are also going to be frightened creatures, and when dogs get frightened, they lash out.

Now for the solution. Let’s be honest about this; if everyone in the world was to say that the problems caused by stray dogs weren’t their responsibility, the problem wouldn’t get solved at all. How hard is it to pick up the phone and call the local dog pound, wildlife control center, vet or shelter? It will take a few moments out of your life and in reality; you could be changing the life for a very poop pup. You could find them a new home, get them handed back to their original owner that could be distraught because they lost them, and generally give them a new lease of life.

Look at the solutions that are offered to the above problems when you have them re-homed or put in a shelter – you remove the droppings on the ground, they will no longer have to root through garbage cans for food, they will be in a much happier and stable environment so they won’t be angry or aggressive… can you see a pattern emerging?

Below are some of the emails that I receive regarding dog problems. Please, call the local county animal services phone number listed on this website here before you call or email me. I will not personally be able to help you. I usually respond to these emails with the local county animal services number, but I simply can't answer all the emails that I get.

Hi, I don't know if you could help me, but I had a few questions about a vicious dog living next door to us. This dog is fenced in but we cannot go anywhere near the fence because it will attack at the fence. (It had already grabbed a hold of my fiance's shirt while doing yard work) We have two dogs of our own but we had to pay a good penny to buy more fencing to keep our dogs on the other side of our home and we had to buy rail road ties to put along the fence to keep the dog from digging under our fence to get at us. We had tried speaking with the owners but they refuse to do anything about the situation. What can we do. I really hope you can help. Im afraid to have my own family come to our home!!! Sincerely, Nicole
Dear Sir:
I need information regarding the dog strays in my neighborhood. The people here are not taking care of their dogs. They are becoming a nuisance, they are knocking over trash cans because the owners are not feeding them. The dogs tear newspapers on our yards. They have got to go. I personally have 4 dogs and I take care and feed my dogs. It breaks my heart to do this but something must be done. There is a golden dog, a white/black dog, a brown female that is about ready to dump a new litter. Please RSVP in kind to find out who to call or write to.
Yours truly, Neighbor at the corner of Prestwick and DollarHide.
Her Email: Is a racoon coming into your yard enough to costatute as an exposure risk to an unvaccinated animal or would it actually have to attack my dog?
My response: A raccoon would actually have to have rabies, which is extremely rare, and be staggering around drooling and foaming, and then somehow bite your dog. The infectious state for a rabid raccoon is only a few days before the raccoon dies, and it has to be transferred directly. Basically, there's a reason rabies is pretty much nonexistant.
Her Email: Thanks for the reply. I am having a problem getting the local animal cotrol officer to accept that. They seized my dog and cat on oct 7 due to the risk of exposure to a rabid racoon that supposedly happened on sept 25 he waited a whole week. I appealed to the Director of the health dept but he said i couldnt prove that the racoon hadnt come into contact previouse to this incident and because animal control official lied and said he had reason to believe otherwise.I even took a letter from the vet who vaccinated them after the fact saying they had no sighns of attack and had been issued a rabies vaccination. Unfortunatly I wont be able to save them, they have 7 days as of today to be placed with a vet for 6 months or times up.We have no resources to do that locally if i could afford it. I was there he never made contact, humans were closer than my animals were not vaccinated either but have they mentioned human exposure oh no.I appreciate your thoughts thanks for taking the time, the vet on the board of health wouldnt answer that. If you have any thoughts,opinions or suggestions feel free im desprate, if not I understand theres alot of it these days really you did than you had too.
My response: I do not know what else to suggest. I doubt the pets got rabies, but isn't the post-exposure treatment good enough? I think animal control is being very unfair.
It has been brought to my attention that there are several stray dogs that have been terrorizing the students at Elolf Elementary school in the Judson School District. The principal informed the district that she has made calls to animal control to have the strays picked-up, however to this date we are continuing to receive calls from the school and parents of the community about the problems caused on the campus with the stray dogs. A parent reported to me today that his child has been bitten several times by these strays and he has made a report to the Bexar Co. Sherriff’s office. Strays on our campuses create a very unsafe atmosphere for the students and community that visits the school. As an official of the Judson School District, I am asking you to please make another attempt to capture these strays. Our community is stressed, our children are frighten and the entire safety of the school is jeopardized. Please help us solve this problem. The school is located at Beach Trail in Converse.
My name is christopher, I am concerned about a dog that lives next door to me. It is very dirty and has many flies around and it and the owners do not clean him. I was wondering if you might be able to do something about this, i was thinking along the lines of taking a look at the dog. The address of the house is at The Alameda. Thank you, anything you can do would be greatly appreciated.
hi, my name is Tyler, im 14 yrs. old, and i was just wondering if you could possibly help me with a certain situation. my 8 yr. old dog Bubba has gone missing. last sunday, november 9th around 9:00, and a car had crashed by our driveway. now my dog usually never goes by the road, but when i went outside to see what had happened, he was gone, there were car parts in the road with a tiny bit of fur, but no blood anywhere. i feel like the person may have taken my dog somewhere to the vet by chance. we had a big search party around the woods in our neighborhood, but he wasn't found. also he has 3 legs, so if he was hit, im not sure how far he could go. i live in allegan county in dorr michigan, so you may not be the biggest help, but i was hoping that you could just maybe put up a missing dog sign in your animal control office and maybe in nearby clinics. i have tried to tell other animal control and vet clinics, but your the only one so far who had a remote chance of helping me. so please, find it in your heart to help me out a bit. he is a german shepard, real friendly, has only 3 legs, and is a typical german shepard color. if he is found, please call me. the owners are myself and wayne. if possible, please send this to other places for me. thank you ever so much for possibly helping me, because i dont want to lose my best friend like this. thanks again. Tyler
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, HI. I WANT TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS FOR THESE QUESTIONS I HAVE REGARDING A NEIGHBORS DOGS. THERE'S 2 DOGS THAT LIVE NEXT DOOR TO US IN THE BACKYARD TOGETHER OUTSIDE. ONE IS A LARGER FEMALE & THE OTHER ONE IS A SMALL MIX BREED DOG. ANYWAY, I NOTICE THAT THEY LIVE OUTSIDE LL THE TIME & ARE NEVER BROUGHT INDOORS HARDLY EVER. THEIR OWNERS ARE GONE A LOT OF THE TIME, BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO GO TO WORK. WE DON’T KNOW THEN VERY WELL & AREN'T REALLY OUR KIND OF PEOPLE WE HANG OUT WITH. THE DOGS ARE OUTSIDE IN THE HEAT ALL THE TIME. THEY DO HAVE A SMALL COVERED PATIO OUTSIDE & I'M ALMOST POSITIVE THAT THEIR BEING FED & WATERED. THERE'S ALSO A BIG DOG HOUSE IN THE DOG RUN IN AN AREA OF THE BACKYARD. I ALSO JUST WENT OUTSIDE IN OUR BACKYARD & COULD SMELL STRONG ODORS OF DOG WASTE BACK THERE. I ALSO NOTICED THEY HAVEN'T WALKED THESE DOGS FOR SEVERAL MONTHS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR & I KNOW I'VE SEEN THEM WALK THE BIGGER DOG ON THE RED HARNESS, BUT NOT SINCE THEN. I ALSO DON’T SEE THE OWNERS GIVE THEM MUCH ATTENTION. I BELIEVE THEIR BEING NEGLECTED ATTENTION WISE & EXERCISE WISE & FEEL BAD FOR THEM THEY HAVE TO SUFFER IN SUCH HOT TEMPERATURES OUTSIDE ALL THE TIME & THESE BACKYARDS ARE PRETTY SMALL ALSO. I NOTICED THEY'VE BEEN LEAVING THEIR CAT OUTSIDE TO FOR LONG PERIODS WITHOUT ANY FOOD OR WATER. I THINK IT WOULD BE AFRAID TO GET WATER IN THE BACKYARD, BECAUSE THE DOGS WOULD SCARE IT OFF. MY HUSBAND & I DON’T OFFER TO HELP WALK THEIR DOGS, BECAUSE THE LARGER DOG HAS DEVELOPED SO MUCH AGGRESSION OF NOT BEING WALKED & SOCIALIZED. WE WOULD BE AFRAID OF BEING BIT. IT JUST REALLY BOTHERS US THAT WE HAVEN’T SEEN THESE DOGS WALKED IN SO LONG & DON’T GET MUCH ATTENTION & THERE'S A STRONG ODOR OF WASTE NEXT DOOR. WE HAVE SEEN THEM PICK THEIR WASTE UP, BUT I'M REALLY NOTICING THE ODOR OF IT AS THIS TIME. WE'RE AFRAID TO REPORT THIS , BECAUSE WE DON’T WANT THE DOGS PUT DOWN & WOULD BE AFRAID OF THAT IF THE ANIMAL CONTROL TOOK THEM AWAY. DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS? DOES ANY OF THESE THINGS SOUND LIKE NEGLECT? PLEASE E-MAIL ME BACK. SINCERELY, JANET