New Neighbors!!!!!!!!!

[NoobtoSalt]

So most of you know I was on a vacation last week. When I got back on Friday night I was told that my new neighbor wanted to talk to me about my dog possibly jumping over the fence. I've had him for almost 2 years and haven't had this issue yet with either of my side neighbors so why would he decide to jump the fence now????? I let him out tonight to go to the bathroom and play for a bit in the yard and he started to bark so I went out there to see what was going on and low and behold he was barking at my new neighbor looking over my fence!!!!

 

So now I have to add more trees in my backyard because of the "new guy" and he's already complaining that my dog was barking but he has a freakin' german shepard as well as a small dog that were barking too!!! I've lived here for 3 years and I don't know what type of seniority I have for this but I am not very happy about this. I have a feeling that this guy will sooner or later complain enough for me to get rid of my dog!

 

Max is a great dog that's still getting out of his puppy stage. He's a 65lb boxer! They have a lot of energy, what is he expecting??? It's not my fault if he hangs over the fence and the dog starts to bark!!!

 

Ok so enough ranting on about this............anyone have any suggestions for me to deal with this guy. I already told him I wasn't pleased to come back from vacation to deal with the new neighbor complaining.... That probably didn't help any..(flame)(flame)(flame)(flame)

[lewisriverfisherman]

i dont think your neighbor should be looking over your fence anyway. and if he is looking over your fence he is just making your dog bark.

[madmike]

I had a D-bag neighbor who always complained about my dogs (min-pin and french bulldog) barking. He had two large labs that would bark all the time! I've got no problems with dogs barking, its just what they do sometimes. He called animal control multiple times and we would get letters on our door telling us about the complaint. It depends upon where you live, in some areas there are ordinances and other areas there are not. We were lucky enough not to be in a area with specific rules so they basically said all they could do was keep giving us letters. We just ignored him and he finally moved

[NoobtoSalt]

From what I've been told I live down the street from you mike so maybe that's a good thing in my favor....lol

[Algae]

Dogs do things we don't want because they are bored. Saying that: very few of us have the time to give dogs unlimited attention. Trying to correct you dog constantly would be daunting. You would have to wait for the neighbor or the other dog to be out in his yard and be standing next to your dog or have a long lead.

You might try to enlist his help and schedule training sessions with both of you and your dogs out in your repsective backyards. This way you could both simultaneously correct your animals and you might get him on your side when her knows that you are working on the problem?

Good luck!

[madmike]

From what I've been told I live down the street from you mike so maybe that's a good thing in my favor....lol

 

Are you stalking me??? lol

[culp686]

just let the pup eat him. problem solved.

[MarkBirkett]

New freekin neighbor

 

Before he starts more shi? I think you should jump the gun and call animal control on him. If he calls them after it will be viewed as a retaliation call.

[NoobtoSalt]

Are you stalking me??? lol

 

I hope you weren't the guy I was telling off....lol

 

I live in Hazel Dell I was just told you were around here as well.

 

Culp686--- I thought about just cutting a hole in the fence so the dogs could play together.

 

He said he was a reasonable person but want's to enjoy his new house..

We will see what happens. My wife and I were looking for a larger yard for the dog but I don't want to find a place just based off this guy!

[Emerald525]

Be careful Jesse. We had a crazy neighbor on the other side of the street that noone got a long with and one night we came home to the dogs acting funny and we took them to the vet and I believe he drugged them.

 

I went to his house and told him what I thought about him. As far as the law, the city usually doesn't do much. They will encourage the neighbor to try to work things out with you.

 

Just don't leave him out in the yard unattended and make sure you have a good relationship with the rest of the neighbors because when he tried to stir up stuff nobody backed him up.

[gradth]

Well if he has dogs that are barking then he has no room for complaint. If he complains, complain back.

 

Second, if my neighbor was just staring into my back yard for no apparent reason I would have to call him on that. Im lucky, I like my neighbor and he never has complained about my loud mutts.

[ReefSafari]

I have a feeling that this guy will sooner or later complain enough for me to get rid of my dog!

 

ABSOLUTLEY NOT! NO WAY!!!(threaten)

 

I TOTALLY feel your pain, I live in a small town, and EVERY neighbor I have is elderly and retired, they do nothing but sit at home and stew about things to complain about...

 

YOU where there first, if he has dogs that bark...guess what, he can join the barking dog club...I deal with the same thing, My neighbor came over and asked if we could quite our dogs down, at 3pm on a saturday...I replied very nicely..."Sure, My dogs will stop barking as soon as yours dose..no problem"...lol

 

Don't let this new guy bully you into giving up your pup, he is the new guy on the block, and some people like to push and test how much control they can have in thier new surroundings...if he doesn't like you or your dog...guess what...HE CAN MOVE!(threaten) Your not doing anything illegal, and if he calls animal control (if you have that where you live) you can explain to them that his dog barks too...you can't have your cake and eat it too...(enforcer)

 

I hate neighbors...Wish I lived on 20 acres...with my house right in the middle of it...lol

[NoobtoSalt]

I told him I'm just going to put up some large arbovitates to block the fence but it's more so I don't have to see him anymore over the fence.....lol

 

I think I'm more pissed that I'm going to have to spend money on this type of project this summer when I could be spending it on my tank!!

[mattv]

OMG Jesse how long have you lived on the other side of my neighbor? I have had the

B!tc# call me at work on my cell to tell me that my dog is barking. She runs a practice out of her home and has her clients enter thru the back door of her house so they have to walk down the side yard between our houses. I have a 6' fence and it does no good.

My dog barks at those she doesnt know and is just trying to protect her home. Most of her clients are kids that I have caught taunting my dog on more than one occasion.

She threatened to call me in so I did the same to her for seeing clients in her home without approval and written consent of her neighbors and backed it up with a hand delivered copy of Portland zoning requirements. Funny thing is that we never had any issues till she moved in.

[Michael7979]

Why don't you call the police and ask them what can be done about a neighbor that is always looking over the fence and is enticing your dog to bark. That way when/if he calls the police for your dog barking, you are already on the books as a "concerned" citizen. They would have to believe that it isn't your fault that the dog is barking. After all he is just protecting his yard from a potential burgular.

 

What would be even better is if you can talk one of your "liked" neighbors into calling the police for you.......... having them say "Someone is crawling over my neighbors fence and I know they are not home".

 

 

Good luck to you! I love dogs and hate A-holes!!

[Emerald525]

Hey Jesse, here's the link about barking dogs if you are interested:

 

http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dbcs/pets/barking.shtml

[Lowman]

Set up a nanny cam pointing toward the fence you share with your neighbor. Chances are he is antagonizing your dog to bark. My neighbors did that. They were throwing rocks at my dogs. After I found a BB in my dog's head, I set up nanny cam and voila, caught the neighbor on tape throwing rocks at my dogs. After I showed him the evidence, he quit *****ing about my dogs barking

[reefboy]

dont know the laws there but here unless its after a certain time at night dogs can bark there heads off after that time they right you a ticket but thats like at 10pm lol and if he was looking over my fence I would do what Bob says or set up under your fence wait for the SOB and say HI and not freindly eithier.

[NoobtoSalt]

I think I'm more worried about this guy feeding my dog something bad than anything else. I don't really care if my dog barks at him. We live in Clark county so I guess we will have to see what the laws are here if it becomes a problem. I just don't want my dog to be stuck inside the house during the summer because of this jerk!

 

If it doesn't rain on Wednesday I'm going tree shopping!!!

[Beckie]

Bob has the right idea. So does Michael. I had neighbor taunt my dogs every time I was not out side. I called non emergancy # and asked what I could do. It worked out great, a dog loving officer showed up within an hour. He promptly went over and informed them that the dogs have every right to bark at strangers.. thats why many people have them. He informed them that "any" further issues complaints or god forbid harm came to my dogs he would be right back to see them. I would set up a video cam when he thinks your not around. In any area dog's can bark if it is not concidered excessive. Many cases have been solved by catching even a still photo of him over the fence, peepking though fence boards would just as well. You do need to make the 1st call though. It puts the issue on record that you, your dog and others have gotten along just fine until he created the problem.

 

Just my experiance

Beckie

[jgf86123]

Set up a nanny cam pointing toward the fence you share with your neighbor. Chances are he is antagonizing your dog to bark. My neighbors did that. They were throwing rocks at my dogs. After I found a BB in my dog's head' date=' I set up nanny cam and voila, caught the neighbor on tape throwing rocks at my dogs. After I showed him the evidence, he quit *****ing about my dogs barking[/quote']

 

At that point, I'd have a dead neighbor......

 

 

You don't @#*^& with my animals, period, that's a death sentence where I come from.

[Ku'ulei]

I let him out tonight to go to the bathroom and play for a bit in the yard and he started to bark so I went out there to see what was going on and low and behold he was barking at my new neighbor looking over my fence!!!!

 

So now I have to add more trees in my backyard because of the "new guy" and he's already complaining that my dog was barking but he has a freakin' german shepard as well as a small dog that were barking too!!! I've lived here for 3 years and I don't know what type of seniority I have for this but I am not very happy about this. I have a feeling that this guy will sooner or later complain enough for me to get rid of my dog!

 

Ok so enough ranting on about this............anyone have any suggestions for me to deal with this guy.QUOTE]

 

Sad to hear this and to say that I have had your exact same problem. My advice will be in my story of what happened to me. You need to CYA, keep records (times and dates of irritating events), stick with the law and hold your neighbor to the same. Ask him to meet you at a local coffee shop on a Saturday (just you and him) so that you can go over the city rules and work together to find solutions. Keep notes, (take minutes records). You don't want escalate the situation because it will all by itself if you ignore it or if you add fuel to it. People have neighbor rage and shoot each other these days, and lack of sleep plus negative vibes is not a nice place to come home to at the end of the day. There is no point in retaliation, aggression, or moving house though I know exactly how you feel. If you will have neighbors in the new place you would move to, this may just repeat itself all over again anyway. No point in spending money on landscaping or anti-bark devices. 90% of the time, none of it works anyway. If you keep notes, you won't run the risk of having to 'get rid of your dog' by order of the courts.

 

Here is my story:

Same kind of creepy neighbors except BOTH husband and wife kept peering over our joint fence and even into my house windows; they got two chihuahuas that constantly bark day and night at nothing and they never come out to reign them in, correct them or scold them. My dogs did not like their vibes, yet I corrected both dogs not to bark at them or their little dogs so they stopped. Rule number one: Never, ever, give your dog permission that a stranger is OK or a 'friend' if you don't really know them and you don't like them either. Dogs know things you don't and they react first on body language then on vibes. Some dogs will forever and always trust a stranger after you tell them that person is 'OK' as you try to be polite but not really meaning it.

 

I still got complaints posted on my door with no names of which neighbor was having a problem; I got letters sent from the city and warnings when I was at work. I had the entire back fence redone so that there were no spaces between the slats so the dogs could not see each other $500. I had trees planted $200. I tried bark spray collars $60 for my dogs and ultrasonic devices $120 to deter them. All the money and time I spent was for nothing. The neighbor kept peering over my fence and antagonizing my dogs; my dogs kept barking at them, and they kept sending in complaints. After a certain amount of complaints, you have to go to court.

 

Put a video camera up $150 and found that they let their kids and any of their guests throw things over the fence and into my back yard and dog kennel when I was not home. They threw socks, small rubber balls, golf balls, acorns and pine cones for my dogs to chew and choke on. I finally put up a video camera with sound because of the stuff i was finding in my yard and the fact that my dogs would never bark when I was at home so I couldn't understand why they would when I was gone. Found out that my dogs do not bark unless antagonized, and are otherwise quiet. Had to take my dogs into the vet from the poisoning from the acorns and the pine cone needles puncturing their intestines $500. Golf balls and small rubber balls are choking hazards. I was livid beyond belief because my dogs are a part of my family and were getting harrassed and abused by bulling/control freak neighbors who did not do anything to control their own dogs or kids.

 

Went to court, all the judge tried to do was to get us to 'work together' to 'find a solution' and 'be friends' despite all the evidence. Fence, Trees, Video Camera, Court, Sheriff, Vet bills....everything did not work. No use spending good money on trying to appease and change a weird situation where the weirdness is with other people because people don't/won't change. My neighbor had pictures of my house, backyard and would video tape my dogs barking at him as he is hanging over the fence video taping them as 'proof' that they bark. Ridiculous.(nutty)

 

The only thing that worked was the law and confronting them face to face and telling them how it is (always backed by the law). Do not be mean or agressive but be firm and absolute. Some cities have noise ordinances. My city has a noise curfew from 9pm until 7am the next morning, so my dogs sleep inside my house at night so there is no chance of barking during that time. There is an ordinance that if a dog barks for half an hour or at a certain frequency of how many times per five minutes than it is reportable as a barking dog noise violation. There is an ordinance that says dogs are not to be unsupervised for longer then 24 hours otherwise it is considered animal abandonment. So, I take them with me on trips where I will be gone longer than that.

 

See what your city ordinances are, and use them. Knowledge is power. Ignore stupid bullying complaints where you and your dogs are not doing anything illegal. For example, my dog barks at kids screaming on the side of the fence- not a reportable offense.

 

I confronted my neighbor about all the laws and how it applies to them and that I will follow the ordinances but I will hold them strictly to it too; and about privacy and that the next time they spy on me, I am calling the cops and reporting them as a 'peeping tom'. Also told them, the neighbor kids (and with the help of the sheriff)- told them that the next time they abuse or harass my dogs I will get them formally charged with animal abuse and cruelty.

 

Nothing worked, except for the half hour sitdown at the coffee shop. Now, my neighborhood is quiet and the complaints have stopped. We have not had a problem with each other for almost 6 months now so it was worth the effort.