Neighbor is afraid of dogs and scaring my kids and dogs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP, your neighbor is batshit crazy and is scaring her family. You might want to keep your distance and ignore her!

OP here, my neighbor is not batshit crazy. She was scared and she had a point. What all of us (five houses around the clearing) have been doing is technically against the leash law. All of our homes have steep slopes in the back yards, so we really don't have backyards, just California type slopes - hers does too. You have to take your kids down into the clearing to find some flat land. Because the closest neighbors have, up till now, sort of designated it as informal play and run area, we didn't really consider that someone would be afraid and go all legal on us.

Of course we'll try to work it out with her, but if she is truly afraid, then the good times will just be over. I'm upset, and I have to be careful to not allow my children, or the other "dog" friendly children blame her kids for it.

How I wish they hadn't moved in.

I'm a HUGE dog lover and I have two very friendly dogs who love to play with kids. But you are wrong here, OP. You shouldn't have bought a house with no usable yard if off-leash dogs were a requirement for your enjoyment of "good times" with your family and neighbors. The new neighbors may have overreacted, but based on your posts I suspect you may have also let your emotions cloud the way you handled it. It sounds like you are popular in the neighborhood, so now you have to decide if you're going to use this as an excuse to make the new family feel unwelcome. I hope you don't, but it sounds like your mind is made up.

[Anonymous]

some laws are dumb. in this case, it sounds like a dumb law and I wouldn't worry about it. but obviously, if you break the law (even a dumb one), you need to be prepared to pay the price if you get caught.

I let my lab off leash all the time, because I know her and trust her. the german shepherd I keep on leash, because she will run away if she sees a deer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:some laws are dumb. in this case, it sounds like a dumb law and I wouldn't worry about it. but obviously, if you break the law (even a dumb one), you need to be prepared to pay the price if you get caught.

I let my lab off leash all the time, because I know her and trust her. the german shepherd I keep on leash, because she will run away if she sees a deer.

My inlaws used to let their dog off-leash all the time because they knew and trusted her. At least until the day when she was off-leash and a kid of about 7/8 ran up to her to say hi and startled her. She bit him in the face.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My four year old cried before he went to bed because he was convinced she was going to kill our dogs. I don't understand why people can't work things out instead of threatening to call the police and scaring my kids.

Perhaps the new neighbor can't understand why you let your dog run around and frighten her child. Where did the child get the idea the new neighbor was going to kill the dogs? Have they actually bitten someone?

[Anonymous]

It appears that there are some bitches on this thread that are behind on their rabbies shots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP here, I wouldn't mind the occasional ticket, but that's not the point. What I mind is that the friendly gathering place has turned into conflict. As her neighbors we can't let a situation continue that scares her children or causes her to go nuts. That's not fair to her. I am just totally sad that five families that really enjoyed an area (exclusive really to just our homes) are going to have to quit meeting with our dogs because of one family. Like I said, we will try and work it out with her, but I kind of resent that some of you posters are assuming that we don't care about our neighbor's feelings.

My four year old cried before he went to bed because he was convinced she was going to kill our dogs. I don't understand why people can't work things out instead of threatening to call the police and scaring my kids.

Yes, it's unfortunate, but the leash ordinances were created for a reason. Even the most reasonable dog when startled or feeling threatened may lash out. And a person or child who has a problem with dogs, or is startled or frightened may lash out, perhaps trying to keep the animal away with a stick, umbrella or whatever, and cause the normally reasonable pet to respond and bite. There are many instances of where a normally rational and completely friendly pet will lash out and bite and that is why leash ordinances were put into place. It's good that you realize that the neighbor has a right to feel safe and to feel that her children are safe wherever they roam, including into the woods. And when they hear the noise and fun going on, her children probably just thought to join and came down and then were surprised and frightened by the dogs. It's definitely unfortunate. Hopefully you can talk to the neighbor and work something out, whether to schedule a time for the dogs to play (if she's willing to stay out of the area and keep her children out of that area at that time). If not, then perhaps you and the neighbors can work something out to set up some area to cordon off for dogs to play.

As for why people can't work things out, perhaps this new neighbor had no idea that there were people that would just ignore leash laws out there. She and her kids heard neighbors playing and having fun and thought to join and then were startled by dogs who are supposed to be leashed approaching unleashed. Unless you warned her in advance, why would she assume that there would be unleashed pets running around and scaring her kids? I'm a dog lover (don't have one because my spouse is severely allergic to dog dander) but I would never assume that there would be unleashed dogs around here in any area that was not a fenced in area without any prior warning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would keep playing with my dog and let her call the police. We have an open field near us where a lot of people play with their dogs. One lady moved in across the street and hated dogs and started calling the police every time she saw a dog off leash in the lot. They would come, sometimes, and vaguely ask us to put our dogs on a leash and then go away. This went on for years and no one every got a ticket or in trouble in any way. The police do not care about stuff like this and hate when people use threats of "calling the police" to settle spats between neighbors.

The lady in our case eventually got angry and called in that a dog was attacking someone. When the police came and this wasn't the case they threatened to cite her for making a false report using 911. She stopped calling and we all still play at the lot.

You're lucky that this woman didn't know better and called the wrong people. It's unfortunate that the police did not enforce the law as they are supposed to. Even if they feel the law is wrong, they are supposed to uphold the law and ticket accordingly. However, had the lady called animal control, then they would have had to have taken in any unleashed pet and you would have had to pay a fine to retrieve your pet from the pound (there was a thread several months back about a dog owner ranting about how inconvenient it was to retrieve their pet from the pound and she got no sympathy). Some places charge as much as $250 to retrieve your pet or they'll euthanize. This is the appropriate way to discourage people from willfully breaking the law. If you want to own a dog and want to have that dog run free, you need to live near a dog park or other fenced facility or pay to fence in your yard. It's part of the cost of owning a pet. People like you are irresponsible pet owners.

[Anonymous]

OP, can you invite everyone over to your yard and carry on there in lieu of the open area?

[Anonymous]

OP, would anyone be using this wooded space if not for the dog owners and their kids? Would there be any gatherings taking place at all if the dogs couldn't be off leash? How secluded is the area? Is it a worry that delinquent teens and vagrants would use the space if not being visited daily by dogs and owners? Sometimes dogs off leash are the least of a neighborhoods problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, would anyone be using this wooded space if not for the dog owners and their kids? Would there be any gatherings taking place at all if the dogs couldn't be off leash? How secluded is the area? Is it a worry that delinquent teens and vagrants would use the space if not being visited daily by dogs and owners? Sometimes dogs off leash are the least of a neighborhoods problems.

That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard. So when the unleashed dogs get out of control, what should they import to keep them in check? A wolverine?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know you OP and I am familiar with the incident. You have quite a reputation in the community. This is not the first incident of this type. The way you raise your children leaves a lot to desire too.

Stop your costant complaining and attacking people, or please move away.

Busted again, OP!

Do tell!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would keep playing with my dog and let her call the police. We have an open field near us where a lot of people play with their dogs. One lady moved in across the street and hated dogs and started calling the police every time she saw a dog off leash in the lot. They would come, sometimes, and vaguely ask us to put our dogs on a leash and then go away. This went on for years and no one every got a ticket or in trouble in any way. The police do not care about stuff like this and hate when people use threats of "calling the police" to settle spats between neighbors.

The lady in our case eventually got angry and called in that a dog was attacking someone. When the police came and this wasn't the case they threatened to cite her for making a false report using 911. She stopped calling and we all still play at the lot.

You're lucky that this woman didn't know better and called the wrong people. It's unfortunate that the police did not enforce the law as they are supposed to. Even if they feel the law is wrong, they are supposed to uphold the law and ticket accordingly. However, had the lady called animal control, then they would have had to have taken in any unleashed pet and you would have had to pay a fine to retrieve your pet from the pound (there was a thread several months back about a dog owner ranting about how inconvenient it was to retrieve their pet from the pound and she got no sympathy). Some places charge as much as $250 to retrieve your pet or they'll euthanize. This is the appropriate way to discourage people from willfully breaking the law. If you want to own a dog and want to have that dog run free, you need to live near a dog park or other fenced facility or pay to fence in your yard. It's part of the cost of owning a pet. People like you are irresponsible pet owners.

No. She did call animal control as well. They refused to come. They will not come in response to an off leash dog when an owner is present unless the owner is abusing the animal or the animal has ALREADY harmed some one. I know that there are people in this thread who don't think this is as it should be, but don't pretend that this isn't how the system actually works. The threats "I will call the police" or "I will call animal control" are empty threats since there are not a bunch of public employees waiting around for a call about an off leash dog ready to spring into action.

If your dog gets loose and runs away from home and is picked up by animal control, then you will have to go and pick up your pet and pay a fine. Animal control is busy dealing with actual problems. This kind of thing does not rise to the level of their interest. Talking to your neighbors is a much more productive route.

[Anonymous]

pp, how could you possibly know that she called animal control and they refused to come? i think you're gaslighting now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:pp, how could you possibly know that she called animal control and they refused to come? i think you're gaslighting now.

I assume "gaslighting" = "freestyling" That's what we call it where I'm from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:pp, how could you possibly know that she called animal control and they refused to come? i think you're gaslighting now.

I assume "gaslighting" = "freestyling" That's what we call it where I'm from.

I don't know what gaslighting is, but we do know what happened because we worked with the city to try to work out a compromise and sometimes the cops who came by to "investigate" after she called would chat with us. The city didn't really see a problem with people using the lot as an unofficial dog park. The city was great about it, actually. We had a few public meetings, tried to see if they could address her "concerns", and meet her halfway. She wouldn't budge, kept calling the cops and Animal Control, and we stopped trying to work with her and started ignoring her.

Most people are reasonable and they understand that space is limited and it needs to be used for various purposes by different people at different times. We felt it was better to use an abandoned lot (or in the OP's situation a piece of woods that doesn't really have another use) than to have people trying to exercise their dogs in all different places at all different times. I would love if every neighborhood would built a dog park in the same way that they build playgrounds. I think dog parks are the ideal. But, people won't make space for them and won't pay for them, so people will make do. The same people who complain about off leash dogs are often the same people who complain about the noise or the expense when a dog park is proposed.