Dog Court: Bear the Rotweiler

Brian Kenney owns Bear the Rottweiler. The 3-year-old, 98 pound male got off property and terrorized a person in late July. “He’s never gone after somebody before,” said Kenney. “I’m not sure what happened that morning. I wasn’t there. I don’t know how close he was to my yard, but he doesn’t go after people.”

The 4-foot high fence apparently is not tall enough. That was the main concern for the dog court panelists. “I think maybe we should give him some leeway to get a fence up, because what he has now is not a proper fence at all I think,” said panelist John Boozer.

So what is a proper height? In the panelists mind, it needs to be six feet. “I think a privacy fence is it. He has roommates there. He won’t have to worry about the roommates,” added Joyce Bradley, also a panelist. “I’m not saying they’re not responsible but we see this so often where roommates are involved and all of a sudden you open the door and you say I’ll be out there in a minute, but by the time the minute is gone the dog is gone and you certainly don’t want this to happen again.”

Rottweilers are a protective breed and they are quite territorial. Wednesday night the dog court panelists gave Brian Kenney 60 days to install a privacy fence.

When this is done the dangerous dog label will be removed for Bear the Rottweiler, and the dog will be found not guilty.