DENVER -- A Lakewood man was given community service and probation for shooting his neighbors Jack Russell Terrier, authorities said Monday.

Ryan Cullen Hayes, 51, was found guilty of misdemeanor animal cruelty, two counts of reckless endangerment and one count of prohibited use of a weapon under the influence in February, said Pam Russell of the First Judicial District Attorney's Office.

Russell said Hayes lived with his mother and was drunk on July 3 when his neighbor brought the 18-month-old terrier, Patches, to the house for a visit.

The neighbor, Marlys Duggan, testified that while she was visiting with Hayes and his mother Hayes left to go take a shower and that Patches, who was very fond of Hayes, followed him.

Duggan said that within five minutes she heard the loud boom and ran to the back of the house, to Hayes’ room, and found her dog dead.

Duggan immediately took her dog to a critical care veterinarian even though she knew the dog was dead.

She told the vet what Hayes had told her, that the dog was playing with the loaded gun on the floor and it went off.

The veterinarian told Duggan that the injury could not have been self-inflicted and she contacted Lakewood police.

Hayes testified in his own defense and told jurors that the dog was batting his loaded .357-caliber pistol around on the floor when he grabbed the gun and it went off.

Defense attorney Walter Gerash said Hayes was horrified after the shooting, and that Hayes had a tender relationship with the dog.

Prosecutors told the jury that the trajectory of the gunshot wasn’t consistent with the .357 magnum going off accidentally. They said that it was consistent with Hayes standing over the dog and firing downward into his snout and into his chest.

Hayes will serve eight years probation and 100 hours of community service, enroll anger management classes and undergo a substance abuse evaluation and treatment as a condition of probation, Russell said.