Obnoxious Neighbor - Vent

[Beryl]

I have a neighbor who crossed the line yesterday. The neighbor and I share a 6' fence at the end of our properties which are each on about 1/4 acres. This means that our houses are about 1/4 acres apart. This guy has called me 3 times in the 14 years that I've lived in my house. I think he moved in after I built my house.

Call #1 (late in the evening)
Him: "Will you turn off your back porch light? It shines in my bedroom window."
Me: "No, I'd rather not. Xcel Energy and public service announcements advise us to leave on our porch light in the summertime to deter criminals. Can you use your shade?"
Him: "You have a big German Shepherd Dog so why are you worried."
Me: "I am not worried. I'm sorry the light bothers you though."
Him: "I'm asking you to turn off that light!"
Me: "Good evening." (I hang up.)
My porch light is lantern style and is dimmer than the front lamps which automatically come on in the front of everyone's homes. All of us who have bedrooms in the front (half the neighborhood) use shades to keep out the light. When the bulb went out, I neglected to replace it so it was out for about 2 years.

Call #2 (2 weeks ago and 8pm in the evening)
Him: "Beryl..." (Who told him he could call me by my first name?) "What happened to Lance? We liked Lance."
Me: "He is dead."
Him: "Your new dog...."
Me: "He is barking."
Him: "Yes. Ha Ha! Please quiet him down"
Me: "I will. I just got Boo and working on his behavior." (I hang up.)

I brought him in and felt bad since it was late in the evening. He was barking for about 5 minutes and I was waiting for him to shut up before bringing him in.

Note: My dogs are never out for more than 1 hour at a time and I never allow a dog to bark for more than 15 minutes. I would normally stay outside with them and quiet him at night or at dawn.

Call #3 (12:30 Saturday afternoon)
Him: "Beryl, your dog is barking too much and you need to stop him immediately."
Me: "Yes, I just put him out and he just started barking 5 minutes ago.
Him: "You need to bring him as soon as he starts barking."
Me: "I understand what you want and know the barking is annoying. However, I just rescued this dog less than 3 weeks ago and training him. The proper way is to wait for him to stop barking. This avoids reinforcing the bad behavior. Can you give me a few more minutes?"
Him: "No, you need to stop him right now."
Me: "Aren't you the same guy who called me a few years ago about my back porch light?"
Him: "Ha, Ha! Yes, it is the same person."
Me: "Hmmm... Let's agree on this. I will never leave my dog out for more than an hour, never at night and will shut him up within 15 minutes. Agreed?
Him: "No. I want you to bring him in as soon as he barks."
Me: "All I ask for is 15 minutes."
Him: "No. I'll never call you again but I will call the Sheriff."
Me: "Fine. Do what you must. I'll talk to the Homeowner's Association about this issue and inform them that you will not give me 15 minutes." (I hang up.)

By the time the sheriff gets here, the dog will be in the house again.

He is the only neighbor who has ever complained about anything in all of the years I've been in my home and it is always something dumb.

My next door neighbor is the president of the association. We also share a fence and we built our houses at the same time. I approach her about the matter on my way back from walking Boo. She tells me that she only heard the dog one time when he was barking at the same time her dog was barking. She didn't understand why she didn't get a call. She tells me that we have no covenants about dogs except for a limit of 2 or 3 dogs (some lady had 6 dogs) but I should check with the county on noise laws. While we were standing outside her dog started barking. Boo was quietly standing by us. She laughed and I said, "He'll stop in a minute." We both shrugged.

She agreed that he was being ridiculous and advises me to change my backporch light bulb and leave it on because he probably thinks that I turned it out because he asked me to. He thinks he can control me.

I changed the bulb and left the light on all night. He probably watched me change the bulb.

I needed to vent.

[IceyBlueSibes]

Wow, what an obnoxious neighbor! I can understand the barking though, but like you said... he's a rescue and you're working on his training and all. I think you're neighbor is right though. He thinks he can control you since your porch light burnt out... so he thinks you've never turned it back on.

Hope he doesn't call you again! I'd take his number down and just ignore it LOL

[anaconda]

That's terrible... what an idiot. Ignore him. It must be pretty hard -congrats on keeping your temper, I would have yelled at him and driven him mad. Idiot.

[mrsgrubby]

What a story, geez!!!! You realy handled him well, congrats

[Beryl]

Thanks all. I hate drama and confrontation with folks who don't believe in compromise. Also, there are a lot worse things in the world so why make a deal of petty things?

[mrsgrubby]

I hate drama too, unfortunately, i'm having some with my neighbor as well.

We have a neighbor with a really mean Choc. lab mix. They have a three year old son who sometimes opens the door and lets him out. While we were in Kyrgyzstan the kid opened the door and the dog ran over and jumped right through my front screen into my living room. The dog sitter got it out, but got cut up from it's toe nails, and my dogs freaked out. She called the police and they came out and made a report.

The next day the same thing happened again, the dog got out and ended up in my living room. My screen door it all torn up, but the actual frame from my wooden door is all torn up too, and I can barely shut the entire front door now.

The people told the police that they would replace it when we got back home, but so far they have been hiding from us, each time we come outside they hurry up and go inside.

I am waiting for a call back from the police officer tomorrow.

In the meantime, my dogs just freak now everytime a dog goes past the window. poor girls, they are tramatized.

[Beryl]

Now that is some mess, MrsGubby, and worth complaining about. Their dog not only invaded your space but also did damage to people and property!

What is going on in your neighbor's house that makes the dog want to leave there and come to your house?

[sammy]

There ya go- turn that porch light on and really stick it to him LOL I can't believe a light that it 1/2 acre away could be a problem!!

I had an image of this guy in my mind as I read that dialogue. I wonder if my mental image was anyting close to real life.

[Carrie]

When your dog is outside barking for 15 minutes, what is he barking about? Do you know? Is it because he wants to come in? Or is he barking at something else or just to hear himself bark? I don't think you'd be reinforcing his barking by bringing him in if you quiet him first by distracting him...then bring him in. And to reinforce, coming in would have to be what he wants. Doesn't he want to be outside barking? If he barks to tell you he wants to come in, is that OK? Like a communication to you? I rely on my dogs giving me a bark or two to tell me they want to come in. How else is a door man suppose to know? LOL. If he's barking at something, sometimes he just needs you to come and look with him and make sure everything is on the up and up. You could try and distract him then and when quiet, add a cue, like "enough." And praise/treat for the second or two that he can be quiet. If it's just to hear himself bark, (some dogs just love to bark, believe me. LOL) that is self rewarding behavior so that in and of itself is reinforcing and will tend to not teach him to bark for shorter durations.

I think 15 minutes is kind of long to listen to a dog barking when someone lives that close. It would probably annoy me. But I do have a rather low threshold for a lot of noise and I'm spoiled...living out in the sticks with lots of space around me. I usually let mine bark for about 15 barks and then tell them "enough." If they don't stop, I go and get them and distract them. Then praise them for stopping. I have 5 acres and only a few neighbors, the closest one about 800 ft away. LOL. I feel embarrassed and guilty if I my dogs bother people.

I don't mean to sound argumentative....just thought I'd give you my take....a little different angle. And I know you haven't had him very long and these things take some time.

I think though, that that neighbor does sound like a pain....the light bulb???? Good grief. If he can't pull down his shade, tell him to move out in the toolies, get 20 acres, get a telescope and view the stars. They're further away and won't bother him as much as a light bulb. Just don't send him up my way. LOL.

If all that fails, I was thinking...some night very, very late, let your dog out, let him bark long enough to wake up your neighbor, then fire a pistol into the air. Bring your dog in and wait for the phone call. Tell him that your dog was barking so you went to look and you saw a prowler trying to work the lock on his door. You scared him away, or at least you think you did. He has you and your dog to thank.

[Ritz459]

Neighbors like that are so annoying...we've had some situation's like that around here (I can count them all on one hand), but generally everybody is really good about not jumping the gun when it comes to petty things. It seems like everybody out here knows everybody and everybodies' dogs run loose and barks at night, so they don't really have room to throw stones.
Loupie, our neighbor's old dog, once attacked a new neighbor's Labrador, so they called our house thinking that the dog was our's. They just went off on us and my mom calmy told them that it wasn't our dog but they kept saying, "Well it stays at your house, how can it not be your dog?" and since our dogs were also out at the time and were barking (not fighting, just barking) at her dogs, she was going to call animal control on us.
Now I think that was stupid of us to let our dogs run loose (we have no fixed that problem), but we had never had a problem before. But the only thing that came out of that was Loupie being put on a chain and neglected by her owners for the last couple months of her life. She got food and water, but that was about it.

We have lots of dog-aggerso dogs running loose out here, but we don't really complain unless it gets way out of hand, because the dog-aggreso dogs normally stick by their house and don't bug us.
We were out walking our dogs last night and a guy came by on a bike and said to us, "Finally, some dogs who won't chase me." I felt bad for him, but it was true. Our dogs are the only dogs I've ever seen on a leash out here, except for an elderly lady's greyhounds and cocker spaniel.

Anyways, good luck with your neighbor and I hope that you guys don't come to blows!

[IceyBlueSibes]

Originally Posted by Carrie

If all that fails, I was thinking...some night very, very late, let your dog out, let him bark long enough to wake up your neighbor, then fire a pistol into the air. Bring your dog in and wait for the phone call. Tell him that your dog was barking so you went to look and you saw a prowler trying to work the lock on his door. You scared him away, or at least you think you did. He has you and your dog to thank.

HAHAHA! Although that is really funny, it's actually a very smart, creative idea!