GRRRR my neighbor threatened my dogs

[Sube Ru's mom]

I can not describe my anger right now. Last night my husband, a friend and I went to Red Hot and Blue for dinner, we were gone for 1.5 house MAX. We put bailey and faith in crates and Subi had the run of the kitchen.
We got home and there was a note from our next door neighbor, we live in a duplex and he is connected to us. Anyways in his note he wrote " your dogs have been barking non-stop for the past several hours. you must know that this is a great annoyance to me and would be for anyone only a thin duplex wall away from the source of the annoyance. They seem to have no control, at all, when you go out in the evening and leave them alone. Please do something about it. I,m afraid that if you dont try to stop the barking habit, I will have to begin documenting the disturbences and calling and writing the homeowners association, the police,m and the SPCA."
GRRRR first off, we were gone for an hour and a half NOT SEVERAL hours,
second i have NEVER heard my dogs bark unless someone is in front of my house.
Third, he has never said anything to us about this, this is the first we have ever heard about it
fourth, he THREATENED US :mad: :mad: :mad: , calling the SPCA???? they would LAUGH IN HIS FACE, they would see how well our dogs are taken care of and that we work with the rescue and LAUGH.
but this makes me mad to never talk to us and the first time he does he threatens us. NOT A SMART THING.
So today we vidoetaped the dogs when we had to leave and meet with the rescue. they did not BARK once, we were gone for 3 hours and they NEVER barked, so i told pat we are going to keep this tape and another one so if the police or SPCA ever come we have proof that they never barked.
Any idea what i should do??? I AM SOOO ANGRY:mad: :mad: :mad:
THanks for letting me vent :mad: :mad: :mad:

 

[Peggy G]

Thats a horrible note. A very rude approach even if your dogs did bark that night. He certainly didnt leave the door for mature communication open which now makes it hard to even discuss it with him.

My first thought was to write a note back but that would only make things worse. (at least the kind of note I had in mind ) The video is a great idea. Hold onto it just in case. Hopefully, you will never need it. You dont have any worries as far as the SPCA is concerned. Your work in rescue speaks for you. Document the dates and times you go out just in case his are exagerated like in his note.

Why do some people have to be so nasty? That approach never gets you anywhere. It only puts people on the defensive. Even if he was in a fowl mood when he wrote the note, why didnt he think to himself, "these people are my neighbors, how can I word this subject in a respectful way."

My blood would have been boiling if I came home to that note.

 

[Tulsa-Dan]

I agree with Peggy. He sure took the chicken-sh*t way out, didn't he. Coward. If he had a problem with you or your dogs, the proper thing would be to have come and talked to you personally, like a gentleman, about it and see if there was something that could be done about the problem.

Excellent idea about the video tape. Seems to me if the dogs did this all the time, he'd have mentioned it (or written another threatening note) long before this.

Next time he posts a nasty, threatening note for you, post one back with the name and phone number of your lawyer! Tell him if he has anything further to say to call your attorney. That should shut him up.

Sorry you had to go through this. I know how angry it can make you when someone treats you with such disrespect.

Good luck and give your dogs a big hug from us!

 

[myrocky]

You did the right thing! :D I am proud of you and making the video is an excellent idea. I probably would be making one for every single time I left the house, just so if anything happens I would be able to say "Well OK< here is are tapes of my dogs home alone for the past two weeks." People would know you are serious and leans more towards your side. I would of been very angry, and I most likely would of marched right on over to his house asked if there was a problem and to explain it to me NOW! Not in a note, as we are all adults not middle shcool kids. However I tend to go to the extreme sometimes

I know what it is like to have nasty neighbors. I live in an apt so I have people below me and above me. Well everynight Scott and I play "keep-away" with Rocky (consists of him chasing a ball between us) between 7-8pm. It lasts for about 1/2 an hour to 45 minutes. Then he gets bones or something else quiet for the rest of the night and goes to bed. This had been going on since we adopted him last september. Well about a month and a half ago my downstairs neighbors starting banging on the ceiling whenever we played with him, I guess they thought it was loud (real mature way of telling us :rolleyes: ). So we just kept doing it because he needs to play. Then the guy came up one night and asked us if we could stop the dog from running in the apt. because he can hear it and he doesn't want to. Well I am sorry but he is a puppy and he needs to play. Besides that it is only for 45minutes max, I think you could deal with that. Also he has a newborn baby who I hear all day and everynight crying. I didn't ask him to keep the baby from crying. We told him that living in an apt complex you are going to hear your neighbors more than you would want to and that is to be expected. He needed to deal with that and move on. We didn't hear from him again and they moved out not to long ago. Joyous day that was, Scott and I had a party! :D

Sorry, didn't mean to take over! :o I just wanted you to know that I sympathize and I think that you are doing the right thing. I agree with Dan if you ever get another note tell him to start passing the notes directly to your lawyer in studyhall!

 

[Sube Ru's mom]

Thanks for all the replies and support. i talked to my parents and they said we should go over to our neighbors house and talk to him, i told my mom that i would not be able to (control my anger) so if anyone went over there pat would have to (my husband) when i told pat he was like that is not a good idea, i might not be able to control myself either, these are our KIDS, would he say anything to us if we had a baby that cried a lot??? no so what is the difference between us owning a dog? JERK!!!!
Thanks again for all the advice and i think i am going to record the dates and times that we go out for like the next 2 weeks.
Today is a boxerbash so i am taking the girls there. he better not say anything, there are going to be like 20 boxers there from boxerworld that will be able to vouch that they were not home.
I will keep you posted on what happens. ALso the lawyer idea was GREAT, and i know one of the best attorneyes in DC.

 

[Scorpio]

This guy first of all is a coward for not facing you, and if its happened so many times before, why didn't he say something?

I have another approach though, I would simply go next door, knock on the door, and say, I got your note, I am very sorry for what happened I had no idea my dogs barked like that, I want to thank you so much for letting me know, but why didn't you tell me sooner? again I'm so sorry, I do hope your okay? (he probably wouldn't know what to say! ) sometimes you can get further with a little bit of honey!

I know in the pool business we meet a lot of irate customers that start yelling etc, when we come back very calm and collected they just melt! anyway just an idea!

 

[Gwailo]

It actually happened to me

We have some real bozos in an apartment complex near our back yard. A few years ago someone actually called Animal Control, claiming our Lofu barked for hours. The Officer came out and we introduced him to Lofu and told him that he hardly ever barked. Only when someone came by the house would he bark, and then less than a minute.

The Officer seemed to think the report was B.S. and we had no further problems.

If any "neighbor" does this again, he/she may find themselves on the receiving end of some complaints. They better not have anything in the yard - litter complaint. Burglar alarm goes off? Another complaint. Party? A noise complaint.

When someone starts something, they had better be prepared for what will happen as a result. I have never called the police or animal control on anyone. I don't start trouble with the neighbors and only request the same courtesy.

Cheers,

Gwailo

 

[Scorpio]

Have to agree wtih you gwailo, it just starts a viscious circle.

 

[Peggy G]

This reminded me of an apartment story many years ago. The people directly above us came down one day and said they were going to be having a party and if it gets too loud just let them know. I thought that was so considerate. Well, it was a loud one! I didnt really care...until about 2AM when the people above my then 3yr old daughters bedroom were going at it big time. You could actually hear the bed jumping up and down across their floor! :eek: My daughter kept waking up. Thats when I decided to go on up in a neighborly fashion and ask if they could keep it down in that one bedroom. When I went up, there in the hallway about 4 people were pulling a very drunk 1/2 dressed individual (he was on the ground) out into the hallway. I didnt even have to say anything. The girl just looked at me and said...the partys over...everyones leaving. I could not help by laugh.

 

[BoxerFun]

I lived in a duplex when I got Murph. I also had a rescue Jack which I had before Murph. My neighbor complained many times of barking. I thought it must have been the Jack and returned him to rescue since I wasn't going to debark him...he was deaf as well.

Well, turned out to be Murph was the barker and in the end it was get rid of the dog or move...this coming from the landlord. On good terms, I moved. Murph never barked when I was home, but after moving I did hear him throw a fit after I left and boy was he loud! No wonder the neighbor threw a fit!

I think Boxers have a separation thing!! now with2 Boxers that are old enough and trustworthy enough...they aren't crated and I believe are quiet when we are gone.

I think your neghbor was just at his wit's end...I myself HATE listening to someone's dogs bark and bark.