is guilty of allowing her dog to stray and bite another dog.

Linda Horton is charged with allowing her dog to stray on July 5 last year and owning a dog which bit another dog that day.

Last week Magistrates' Court heard from Horton's neighbour Felicity Cole who alleged that Horton's dog, a Rottweiler and Labrador mix, bit her English Setter at 7.15 a.m. that day.

Horton told the court on Monday that her dog was "very loving, very obedient'' and had "never caused any trouble to anyone on or off our property''.

She added that over the nine years she had the dog, "he has been allowed to enjoy the freedom of the nearly one acre of yard that we have''.

The alleged attack took place on Callan Glen Rise Road, which borders the Horton property, and Horton said she had rights to that road.

She said she was out of the Country on business on July 5 but had "instructed everyone in my household to ensure that the dog was restrained at all times, and as far as I was aware, he was restrained''.

Horton added that the dog was restrained with a long chain that attached to its collar on one end and a tree on the other.

Under cross examination by Crown Counsel Graveney Bannister, Horton revealed there was not a fence around her property.

It also emerged that Callan Glen Rise was a public road and not private, which Horton said she did not know.

Mr. Bannister then put it to her that she had allowed her dog to stray on July 5 but she replied: "I can only tell you what measures I took before leaving the Country to ensure that he was restrained.'' He then suggested that the measures she took to restrain her dog were not adequate and that the person put in control of the dog was incapable of exercising effective control over the dog.

"That is a matter of speculation'' replied Horton. "I can only report to you that I had insured, prior to departure, that the dog was restrained and family members were on alert to make sure he stayed so.'' Judgment was delayed until May 17 pending Horton's return to the Island.