Sick Of Neighbors Letting Their Dogs Run Free!  

I live in an apartment complex. I have a corgi mix and she's very high energy, so she needs to go on frequent walks throughout the day.

A handful of the neighbors who live in the complex have large dogs that they let run free outside during the day. And I'm starting to get pretty annoyed by it.

My dog is great with other dogs, unless she's on a leash and the other dog is running loose. If she's on a leash, and an off leash dogs approaches her, she growls and tries to bite the dog out of absolute fear. This fear and behavior intensifies the larger the dog is. And luckily this has never happened, but I'm always aware of the fact that this behavior could set off the other dog and there could be an all out dog fight.

So now when I take my dog out, and I see dogs running loose, I have to take my dog to a completely different part of the neighborhood and just hope the dogs don't notice us.

They are very sweet, friendly dogs. And they get along great with people and other dogs in the area. I just worry that my dog is going to start a fight, and sometimes it is nearly impossible to avoid these dogs!

Plus these loose dogs run around in the street a lot, and I always worry that they're going to be run over. And they go to the bathroom everywhere and obviously no one is there to pick it up, which is very unsanitary.

My friends and family tell me that I should call animal control, but I don't have it in me to do that to a dog! I volunteer with the local county shelters, and they are absolutely dreadful places. Plus, the law in this state is that once a stray dog is picked up, the owners have 3 days to come pick up their dog before they can legally euthanize the dog. And the shelters are packed and overcrowded all the time, so they have to euthanize a lot of dogs there.

The apartment management is always outside all day long, and I know they see the dogs running about. I don't know if they've ever done anything about it. I've considered complaining to the management, and I probably will if the problem continues.

So yah, I mainly just wanted to rant for a minute. It's a pretty frustrating situation. Has anyone been in a similar situation? What did you do about it?