Okay, I will start at the beginning.....
Our nearest neighbor lives about 10 acres from our house (our land joins his). He built his house about the same time we did. In all of these years, we have never seen or heard him or seen his dog.
About two weeks ago, we started having this yellow lab come to our land. We would see him out the window playing with our German Sheppard and Black Lab. This dog looks to be about 60 lbs and he is really cute.
BUT when we would go outside or come home or walk on our walking trail, he would jump and growl at us and bark...non-stop. We thought we tried everything to get him to go away. We thought he might attack us or Mojo, so we wanted to make sure he didn't.
The neighbor came over twice to get the dog - whose name is Rusty. He said that if he kept coming over to shoot him or that if he kept acting up, he was going to either shoot him or haul him off somewhere.
I asked the guy if anything changed over at his house because in all of these years, we have never seen that dog.....he said that he has had that dog before he moved out here and the his girlfriend just had twins. So, I'm sure this poor dog got pushed outside.
We felt sorry for the dog, but just could not get him to stop growling and barking at house....we would shoot the shotgun to scare him (not at him, of course) and even had my father-in-law come down with his pellet or BB gun....this didn't do any good........and I hated that, so one day, I got brave and just ignored the dogs growling and acting up.
I finally got him to play fetch with the other dogs and gave him a treat. That did it! He has been nice every since! He would come over a play with the dogs and just have fun outside. Every day for the last two days, the dog would wander over to our house and play and then our dogs would come in for the night and he would go home.
Well, today, the neighbor came over to get the Rusty. I had told him that he has been really nice to us (not barking and such) and that we didn't mind him coming over to play with our dogs, especially since he wasn't harming anything.
The guy just said that he needed to stay home and then he grabbed Rusty by the scruff of his neck and pulled him to his truck!!! He said that he didn't know what he was going to do with him since he has been acting up so much lately...all of his acting up is because of him being pushed outside since the new babies, I'm sure.
My daughter and I have just been sick for the last hour thinking about that poor dog! Thankfully, we have not heard any gunshots!!!!! I have even said a little prayer for poor Rusty! He is a pretty lab and seems to know commands and just loves to play and give kisses! He is just craving the attention that he once had. It makes me sick how some people treat their dogs....just because there has been a change in the family!
Is there anything I can do? Or what would you all do?
Would you please keep this little yellow lab (Rusty) in your thoughts and prayers?!
Thanks (and sorry for the long post).