I hate my neighbors, too!

UGH. I'm so LIVID right now!

For brief background info, my neighbors have a labrador that they keep outside on their tiny little deck, approximately 6' X 2-3'. For years, their dog has barked its head off and, for years, I refrained from making a call to the AC. Recently, I spoke to another neighbor who confirmed my belief- they, too, had already contacted the AC several times and considered it animal abuse. They said that these people should not even have a dog. I suppose the severity of the situation finally set in as my neighbors have recently begun to bring the dog in more often. However, it still barks, and we've never made a public complaint.

HOWEVER, they, on the other hand, are free to criticize us. For example, when I first got Ivy, they complained about her barking. Why did Ivy bark? You guessed it. Because their dog was barking. We trained her out of it. She does not bark at all anymore. Then, today, on THE FOURTH OF JULY WHEN EVERYBODY IS SETTING OFF FIREWORKS, they complained about my dogs again by taping a nice, little letter on our front door with their name and number. Are they completely unaware that my DOGS probably barked out of fear and chaos when their dog spent its entire life up until this point OUT ON A TINY DECK???? Are they aware that they are the ONLY neighbor who has EVER complained about mine??? It's JULY FOURTH for crying out loud! How do you expect dogs to deal with the fireworks?! And, perhaps they don't know, but our dogs are given the choice to be out/in via a DOG DOOR. They make it sound like we purposely force them out when we aren't home!

They've also accused us of not cleaning up tree debris on the border between our properties. The tree debris, by the way, was cut by the city and later cleaned up by the city. I truly hate these "people". They are the epitome of malice and hypocrisy. :mad:

I'm surrounded by neighbors as bad and worse than that. I'm not silent about any of my complaints about them though. Any one of them can tell you I freely call the police or animal control for either the kids or the dogs. I had to laugh though, the oldest neighbors kids (who's we sort of have half trained now to stay out of our yard) saw one of the newer neighbors kids wandering into my yard and I heard them hollar at the younger kid "you'd better get out of that lady's yard or she'll call the cops on you" ROFL Guess they do learn after all.

Sitting by in quiet rage only enables them to walk all over you and think they are doing no harm because no one is complaining. Put the police and animal control on speed dial on your cell phone, and feel free to USE it, I do!

I have a drughouse next to me. Been going on for 7 years. No one will do anything about it. Although the woman has been arrested for drugs and on probation, it still goes on. :mad:
And yes, as Catlady said, you have to stand up to these people or they will walk all over you.

Take a page from their book and start to leave notes on their door. That way you don't have to face them if you're one to avoid confrontation. Tell them that your dogs only bark in response to hers and your dog's barking last night was ion response to fear. Ask her what does her dog bark at. I she claims nothing, then give her a link to uploaded videos of her dog barking at different times of day on different days, in different weather, etc. Then ask her again what does her dog bark at, but also provide the answer: everything.

Think of it this way: at least your neighbors don't break in and rob you! Or they don't tear up your lawn with a backhoe and "forget" to reseed it. At least their dog doesn't use your yard as their toilet.... their golden has NO grass in her backyard. Not one blade. So she uses our yard and they "forget" to pick up the poop. I'm too afraid to say anything to my neighbor for fear he'll retalliate. We know he's going to be ok to us as long as he likes us.... but once you're on his bad side? Watch out. We'd prefer to stay on his good side, seeing that if we're on his good side and THIS is what he does, then I don't want to see his bad side personally. I've seen what he can do to someone he dislikes, not a pretty thing.

The happiest day of my life came last week when my next door neighbor put a "For Sale" sign in her yard. Now if we could just get rid of the guy next to her, I'll be ecstatic.

The bad feelings I have toward her and her children are because they're the typical family that gets a puppy for Christmas and don't ever care about the dog again. I have battled and battled with her over her dog. She finally built a privacy fence so I can't see how the dog is doing. I haven't seen the dog lately so I don't know where she is. I just hope and pray she might be in a better place. :(

When this neighbor moves, I'll have a huge party!!

Good luck with your situation. I feel your pain :(

Why do people like this have dogs? They're not lawn ornaments. I have neighbors that leave their Lab out on their back deck all day. Then they banish her to the shed at night. :rolleyes:

They were probably the ones out setting off fireworks with their friends that upset your dogs. :rolleyes:

I see two sides to this. One like Catlady711 said....call, and keep calling, the police and AC. Then again on the other hand I see catnappers point that you don't want to upset them in fear of retaliation. However, if they have the nerve to complain about your dogs then there shouldn't be a question about complaining about theirs. So I vote for CALL AWAY!!! Good Luck Sophie. :)

You guys are the best!! :D

Oh man, I wish I had the guts to call AC or retaliate. I thought long and hard about it last night, but I just don't have the guts. The other neighbor I spoke to, who did call AC, told me not to be afraid and call. But I'm just too darn chicken :p I did, however, think of the same idea as Catnapper. Everytime their dog goes on a barking spree, I'm going to videotape it and, if I ever get another complaint about ANYTHING, they're going to see my collection. Even if I can't take that dog away from them, I hope they'll feel a little shame.

They tried adopting a dog from Hopalong but returned it a few days later because "it could not be potty trained". I'm sure 3 days is sufficient time for a dog to be housebroken! And he told me, verbatim, that they didn't have enough time to deal with it. In other words, they're incompetent owners. Well no duh?? It makes me happy to know that the neighbors on their other side are incredibly introverted as well. As a matter of fact, they don't have many friends in this neighborhood. That always makes me happy =)

Giselle, Maybe they think you are the one who complained? I don't know my neighbors dogs are outside most of the time also, it does make me wonder why they got dogs.