Of course, there are exceptions like when a dog attacks for reasonable reasons as in protecting themselves or another either human or animal or an invasion of their territory. The problem with an electric fence is that other people and other animals don't know it's there. All the time people walking their dogs let their dog on the edge of the properties of other people to sniff at something, pee on a bush, etc. An electric fence needs to be not so close to the edge of the property as to allow for other people and other animals wandering on it. What if a child should fall off a bike and land on the property? What if someone's walking past the property on the sidewalk becomes frightened at a car horn or other loud noise close to them so that they jump back and land on the edge of that property? To the dogs that live on that property those people/pets are fair game. I REALLY wish that electric fencing in front yards was illegal - it really should be.
What type of fence they have isn't really the problem here though. State laws require that dog owners contain/control their dogs in such a way as they can't cause anyone or any pet harm. Whatever the problem is with their electric fence doesn't matter - it's not containing their dog/s, and one of them was able to attack your dog while yours was on a public sidewalk.
You don't need to do any research about right of way, etc., etc. The laws in all states already provides that dogs have to be controlled/contained at all times where ever they are. If your daughter and your dog where INSIDE THEIR HOUSE they're still at fault for not controlling their dog from attacking yours. The police know the dog laws far better than any research you could do about it, and frankly, you'd just be wasting your time. I can already tell you that ANY time, ANYwhere someone's dog attacks another person or the pet of another person they are responsible. Of course, there are exceptions like I mentioned above.
In these dog attack situations it's always best to not involve the owner of the offending dog. You never know how they may react especially when you involve the police. If this is a first incident of this dog (as far as the police know) all they'll do is go and talk to the people and tell them their responsibility in controlling/containing their dog, let them know about the incident that brought them out, and make sure that the people sufficiently contain/control the dog on their property so that it isn't able to attack anyone or anyone's pet.
Sidewalks are public property. Of course your daughter and your dog should have been able to use that sidewalk without someone else's dog attacking your dog. If they had an actual physical fence their dog obviously couldn't get to anyone using the sidewalk. If their electric fence doesn't work to keep their dog/s from having access to anyone using the sidewalk then it's not a sufficient fence. Doesn't matter if the fence is electrical or physical - it didn't do its job in containing/controlling their dog/s.
A physical fence keeps the dog on the property and also keeps anyone on the sidewalk from stepping onto that property even accidentally. Dogs aren't responsible either if a person reaches over or through a fence if they get their arm bitten. The whole purpose of a fence is clear: keep all your appendages off of my property, and I'll keep my dog from being able to attack anyone that's on public property. Even someone having a fence that a dog can get its head over that is so close to the public property that it can lean forward and bite someone walking past the fence but not intruding any part of their body beyond that fence into the air space of the property is an insufficient fence.
One of my neighbors a few blocks away has such an insufficient fence. Their dog goes mad when anyone walks down the sidewalk that their fence is right up against the edge of the sidewalk, and now that it's full grown it can stick it's head over the fence and bite anyone just walking down the sidewalk. Thankfully, my dog just prefers the opposite side of the street, but many times I've seen other people walk by that fence and nearly had a shoulder bitten off. I told myself to call the police about that but forgot about it, but now I'm going to today just because of this discussion. I'm embarrassed I'd forgotten about it for so long.
I'm serious as a heart attack here and can't emphasize enough you NEED to report this to the police. You're just lucky that neither your daughter or your dog (or you if you were there) got hurt. But this WILL continue to happen to unsuspecting others, and they might end up getting hurt and maybe a small dog being killed or a small child being bitten and frightened to death... you just don't know, and it's far too dangerous a situation to just brush off or try to deal with yourself. You owe it to those future others to do the right thing and tell the police the problem and let them handle it, and the sooner, the better.
In future, it's never a good idea to talk to the owners yourself. You don't know these people and can't know how they might react. Let the police handle it so that you can remain anonymous and avoid any possible blowback. Don't feel bad for the people. Any dog owner not able or willing to control their dog, and the dog attacks anyone or anyone's pet all bets are off. This is the kind of thing that the police are for, and they have tons of experience in all kinds of other dog attack situations so they know the various laws inside and out and assess each scenario as to who's at fault or is anyone at fault. Clearly, the fault in your situation is that of the owners of the attacking dog because their electric fence doesn't work appropriately in containing/controlling their dogs.
Please let us know what happens. I'm so sorry that this happened to your daughter and your dog but very glad neither was much harmed.
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