Say something or not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you say something or not?

My backyard neighbor is in her 70s, lives alone, and is very friendly to me and my kids. She does not own a dog, but she has her family member’s dog at her house 90 percent of the time, and has for at least 5 years. Maybe longer but I didn’t have my own dog before that. I’m not sure why, but for all intents and purposes he is essentially her dog.

The dog is big, looks like some kind of German shepherd lab mix. I have two small 20 lb dogs. We used to have a 4 ft picket fence between our yards and her dog actually bit one of my dogs on the nose two years ago through the fence slats. After that, we replaced the fence with a 6ft full privacy fence but the dogs still “fence fight” and bark at each other every time. A lot of the time I resort to taking my dogs out on a leash in my own fenced backyard to avoid the hullabaloo.

Right now, her dog almost always hangs out on a screened in porch with a propped open door. So he’s not left outside all day per se, but as soon as we step out, he leaps off the porch and charges toward our fence anytime between 8am and 8pm. Lately if she notices him barking and flipping out, she calls him in, but it’s only sometimes, he doesn’t really listen, and my dogs are already on edge and covered in mulch from kicking up their back paws defending their turf.

I’m honestly so sick and tired of not being able to sit on my patio or let my dogs enjoy our yard in peace. It’s been years of this and he is hogging the use of the yard constantly! He could sit on the porch with the door closed. She is retired and home and could easily let him out to do his business as needed. The only time we get a reprieve is when it’s snowy or freezing.

That said, I don’t know if it’s reasonable to request she keep the door closed more or do something different in her own yard. It’s already slightly awkward after the bite incident, which I witnessed because I was out there taking out my dog, and she did not witness because she was in her basement at the time.

This dog means a whole lot to her and she has some other family stuff going on right now. But it’s been YEARS. What would you do?

I would definitely let animal control know. If their dog bit your dog, they can be removed from the property and likely destroyed too.

My gosh you people are insane. They are not going to destroy someone’s dog who was in its own yard and the other dog was reaching through the fence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: He could sit on the porch with the door closed. She is retired and home and could easily let him out to do his business as needed.

OR...

You could train your dogs to not GAF. I've trained highly-reactive dogs to ignore other dogs. It's not hard. Quit trying to control your neighbor and just control your own dogs.

This is the only answer!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call animal control definitely. They will remove the dog.

It is hanging out inside a private screened porch and a private fenced back yard.

What the heck?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Call animal control definitely. They will remove the dog.

For being inside a fenced in yard?

For the noise violation, presumably.

All of the involved dogs are barking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call animal control definitely. They will remove the dog.

From its own yard? It has never gotten out. They would have no reason to get involved simply because OP doesn’t like using her yard when the neighbor dog is out.

[Anonymous]

One other idea, can you put your dogs on long leashes and take them out in the front yard? My dog loves this when we are doing yard work in the front.

[Anonymous]

Teach your dogs to behave.

[Anonymous]

My neighbor has a small yappy dog and I have a medium. If my dog responds to to the yapper we go inside. If he ignores we stay outside and play.

So far that has worked

[Anonymous]

Run a hot wire on the inside of your fence so your dogs will stay off it.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/american-farmworks-2-mile-solar-fence-energizer-esp2mn-afw

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you just ask her if there’s a particular time of day that the dog isn’t in the yard? If so, you can let them out then. If not, oh well.

Maybe this is a nice way to ask. Thank you.

We had a similar problem and agreed with the neighbors that there was a window they would keep their dog inside so we could put our dog out. It was just a small window but that was really all we needed. And the conversation increased their sensitivity so it wasn’t a big deal if we had construction or there was a snow day or something that required a shift. They didn’t want the fence running much than we did!