Austrailian Shepard problem

United States
February 2, 2007 10:46pm CST
Hopefully someone out there will have some advice. We moved here over a year ago and a neighbor of ours (about a mile away) has an Austrailian Shepard. B, as we will call her, used to wander through our yard about twice a week. We got used to seeing her and eventually she would allow us to pet her. She always left after a few minutes and never stayed more than an hour. Over time B seems to have developed a like of us and began coming over to play with our dogs. She's stand at the front door and bark until I let mine out. (I'm not kidding) When I would bring my dogs in, she'd stay for a bit and rest and then head out to where ever it was she goes. We live in the country, so we're all used to everyone's dogs running around and we all know who they belong too. Anyway, about a month ago B showed up and barked like normal. I let our two out to play and since it was a nice day they all hung out for quite awhile. It turned dark and I was worried about her still being out so I ran her home. The next day she was back. She stayed until dark again and I figured that eventually she'd wander home. The next morning I didn't see her. By mid-morning she was barking at the door again. Mine went out to play. That evening I ran B home around 8pm and spoke with her owner. I told him where she had been and that I was concerned about her being out after dark, but he didn't seemed stressed at all. I noticed as I was leaving, she was heading down the road in the opposite direction. Needless to say this pattern repeated itself and twice more I have taken her home after dark. I finally just stopped and she hasn't left. I noticed that she was losing weight, so I fed her and didn't feed her again for 3 days thinking that maybe she'd go home if she got hungry. Each morning when we get up, she's still here. She now sleeps on our porch and last night she was sitting on our patio table looking in the window at us. Each morning she walks the kids to the bus and then returns to the house. She follows my husband in the car to the end of the driveway then returns. A couple of days ago my hubby ran the trash out and she followed him all the way to her owners house, but Chris said she didn't go in the yard and by the time he returned from dumping the trash, she was back. Everyone in the neighborhood knows this dog, they know who owns her and it's not possible that he doesn't know where she is. I'm wondering why he hasn't been down to get her or even driven by to see if she's here. His brother lives across the street from us! We had freezing rain the other night and I finally let her in at 5am when I saw she was still on the porch and now we let her in each night at bedtime because it's cold out there and we know she's not going home. I don't know what to do. The dog is great and she obviously likes us, but I thought these dogs were supposed to be incredibly loyal to their owners. I don't understand why the sudden change. She used to wander all over the neighborhood before and now she won't leave our yard. Why hasn't the owner driven down here to pick her up? Any advice would help. I know we shouldn't let her in and yesterday we broke down and fed her again, but it's killing me to see her lose weight and with the weather as bad as it is I can't leave her out on our porch all night. Especially when I see her sitting on our table looking in. Help.
No responses