Last night after returning from a long road trip to LA I was cleaning and washing the car in our driveway. The dog was hanging out with me, just doing her thing. Around dusk she started going nuts and I turned to see a hispanic male walking down my neighbors driveway, but coming from the house not the street. Red Flag. We back up to a large park/greenbelt here in Austin, so our backyards are up against parkland and are not fenced. Our neighbor had just left to go pick up some take-out, but his two teenage daughters were alone in the house. I was carrying but made no hint of this. Rather I calmed my dog and told the gentleman he needed to leave. I asked where he had come from and informed him he was on private property and should finish his walk out to the street and get a move on it. He actually got angry that I would suggest he move along. He said he wasn't on my property (about 2 ft from it) and I should _______ (good edit, insert rotten thing here). I started to get a little angry and my dog could tell. She started growling and moving around him, still on the neighbors property. Eventually he made his way to the street, but rather than walk away from my house he chose to walk in front of it (end of a cul-de-sac, so either way leads out). He started walking slowly trying i think to solicit a response from my hearding dog, who at this point was walking slow circles around him growling, 5-6ft away from him. Mostly steering him away from our house/yard.
Eventually he pulled out his cell phone and started to call the cops, presumably to report our 'aggressive' dog. I called her back when he got to the edge of our yard, moving away. At the end of the block I saw him, still on the phone, reading the street sign, clearly he had no clue where he was. More proof he didn't belong.
It was a tense 10 minutes, but at no point did I feel like I was not completely in control of the situation. I was glad to have such an alert dog (the neighbors labs would have licked him to death) and I am glad she did such a good job making him feel not welcome. I'm also glad I finally dumped the range ammo for some hydra-shok. I half expected a visit from a LEO later that evening, but never got one. I guess it would be hard to tell the 911 operator that a dog was barking at you while you trespassed in its yard.
Not really a 'Never Again'. Though when my neighbor got home and I told him we agreed it was time to post up some new no trespassing signs. It also cemented in my mind the need for a camera on the driveway. Had this gone differently I would have liked some visual back-up.