My Neighborhood Dilemma-To Shoot or Not Shoot a Dog w/ Collar

I'll try to keep this short-

Last Sunday a dog (some sort of mutt) broke into my chicken coop and killed one of my chickens. I have seen this dog wandering around the neighborhood before and thought it was a stray even though it had a collar. I just chalked it up to bad luck.

Saw the dog in the neighborhood yesterday when I was riding the 4 wheeler with my daughter. So I stopped and was whistling for it to come over to see if there was a phone number on the collar. A couple outside a nearby house was looking at me funny so I asked them if they knew who this dog belonged to. They said it was theirs. So I told them what happened. The husband didn't say anything, obviously the wife wears the pants. She said sorry and what could she do. I said all I want is for them to keep their dog out of my yard. She said, well, he's just a puppy and we are trying to train him. That makes no sense at all. They seemed like they were pretty clueless. I didn't want to really get into it with them since my daughter was right there, so I left it at that.

I'm sure it's inevitable that this dog will come back into my yard. I'm a pretty passive fella, so I know I won't shoot the dog unless it is attacking my children, but what are my options here? Call the pound? Go back their house with their dog in a stranglehold? Dead horse head in their bed?

My biggest fear is that if this dog would break into my chicken pen and kill a chicken, will it ever be aggressive to kids?

:nccs: