When he was younger, and still in his puppy phase, he was a little more agressive. Neighborhood kids would pester him; throw rocks at him and smash their bikes against our fence (at least this is the only stuff I witnessed). So he would bark at kids who walked by. Once the neighbor's daughter ran up to our gate quickly, and he jumped up and nicked her a little on her arm (I'm not exaggerating). The neighbor said he was cool with it, the dog was just doing his job of protecting the property. That was months, maybe over a year ago, I'm not sure. Since then he's really calmed down. I'll see people in the yard next door, and people walking by, and he doesn't get all worked up. He only barks at large, loud trucks, and other dogs, naturally. And I've been malicious about people shutting the gate behind them (it's a gated driveway).



So when my father-in-law leaves the gate open, and the dog gets out and chases a kid on a bike (supposedly, I never saw what happened, this is just what he claims happened), I was pissed. My wife was inside the house, and didn't even know that her dad was in our yard, otherwise she would've made sure the gate was closed. The neighbor has a right to be upset, but he makes it sound like we're irresponsible, like we regularly let him wander about terrorizing the 'hood, and he makes false claims of the dog's behavior, even after my f-i-l explained what happened.