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SOOOOOO…..
yesterday I am having a perfectly nice day when I get a knock on the door.
It was the neighbor behind us. I thought he was coming over to thank us for the Christmas fudge we left him.
Instead he tells me that the neighbor next to us has (supposedly) turned him into the city because his dog bark incessantly. “Allegedly” the report states our dogs are not part of the problem. AHHHH….
See, it cannot possibly be his dog. His dog is trained to not bark. It is my dog being mistaken for his. My dog barks from 6:30 am to 10:30 pm everyday.
Um, OK!! Chardonnay (our lab) has never been outside after dark that we can remember. Yes, she barks when there are deer, fox, coyotes and racoons in the open space next to us. Yes, she barks if another dog is there too. She barks, she stops. She never, ever barks for no apparent reason.
He threatened that if I didn’t get her a bark collar he would turn us into the city. And he would work with the person next to him to file a claim for $1000 because they are sick of being blamed for Chardonnays behavior!
Apparently, our dogs have ‘bothered’ him since we moved in 1 1/2 years ago but he is just now bringing it to our attention. Convenient timing as he was just served by the city.
It was like an out of body experience, I just stood there like “Are you serious???”
So, lets get your take on this. I decided to video this am.
Here is the angel dog that never barks. That is Nala (our other dog) running towards me and the dog ‘in question’ is in the corner the first few seconds. You can hear the barking:
This is the dog that lives next to the one ‘in question’. I have over an hours worth of this from one morning.
What makes me really mad is that we thought that we were friendly neighbors (remember the Christmas fudge?). Not once in 1 1/2 have they ever said anything to us. In talking to other area neighbors we found out that he has turned in the two previous owners of our house as well.
What really makes Bob mad is that he waited til he knew he would be at work to come over and threaten me rather than talk to him about it.
I took all the videos in case we do end up in court with this delusional idiot. Oh, and I have video that he was home while all this went on!
What else should I do to protect ourselves from this crazy trying to turn us in? Have you ever dealt with barking dogs in your neighborhood?
to my little corner of the blogosphere. I am Barb, an ex-public school teacher turned blogger and forum owner. Read all about our family antics as we muddle through the chaos that occurs daily when you mix a work-at-home-mom with an unschooled, wheeling, tween and a teen in Catholic school. Not to mention my very traditional high school sweetheart turned husband of 17 years. Hey, at least I am giving my kids something to talk about in therapy when they get older...
If you think he'll seriously try to take legal action and get money from you then I believe I'd report him and show them the video as proof and also report him for threatening you! Sounds like a major jerk!!! So sorry you have to deal with someone like that.
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Oh no! I'd definitely document things. You may want to call the City and find out if there's a way to get his threatening you on the record?
The only time I've dealt with barking dogs, we've been on the other end of it. We don't have a dog, and the neighbors next to us do. Those dogs would bark from dawn until after 10pm. I tried talking to them in person, to no avail. In our City, it's harder to get the authorities to do something…and I wasn't sure I wanted to get THAT involved. Well, one day, I snapped. I worked from home, and had listened to the yipping for 10+ hours STRAIGHT. For REAL. It didn't help that I was pregnant and all hopped up on hormones. I snapped, and I called every number I had for them and left rather scathing messages.
They apologized.
They kept their dogs inside from then on.
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Good luck!!
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Loved your Tastey Treats post!
We had the police come to our house 3 times within 2 weeks because "someone" had called and complained that one of our 2 dogs had been barking for hours. Every time we had been home and the dogs had been in the house with us. It was SO frustrating because we obviously knew it wasn't our dogs. We asked the police what we should do and all they told us is that until "someone" identifies themselves there won't be any charges brought. The police officer was very understanding and also told me that he has noted in his report that every time he had arrived at the house there was no dogs barking. After the third time we had had enough of it. We went to the four houses that were the closest to us and talked to our neighbors and explained what was going on. 3 of the 4 neighbors said our dogs had never bothered them and they had never heard them barking continually. The 4th house didn't admit to calling the police but said (almost word for word) what the police told us the caller said, that our dog had barked for 3 hours straight Sunday morning. I had been home that Sunday with a sick kid so I knew for a fact that the dogs didn't bark that morning. We told them it couldn't have been our dog and my husband also pointed out another dog that we had heard barking a lot and the neighbor didn't even realize that there was another dog.
The calls stopped. It's been a year and we have never had another complaint. We are pretty sure we know who was complaining. It frustrates me that they didn't just come talk to us because we had talked to them while out in the yard and we have always gotten along just fine.
None of that really helps you though but I can relate. The one thing the police told us was to document stuff but how do you document stuff that ISN'T happening, right?
I hope it all just goes away for you.
That is the really frustrating thing! How do I prove our dog won't go out at night? Even if I wanted to I couldn't get her out in the dark. She hates the cold and hates the dark. That is the funny thing. Here in Denver is has been really cold the last month. She goes out to go to the bathroom and that is it. She is 12 for goodness sake. Its not like she is some young pup full of energy. She would much rather lay by the nice warm fire inside.
Thanks! We are talking about if we should do anything other than continue to document at this point. Must be nice to have so much time on your hands that something like this is important to him!
wow, so sorry you have such a jerky neighbor! I think you might want to call the animal control person and invite them to your house to let them know you are being threatened, and maybe so they can see, while they are at yourself, which dog is really barking. I'd also make another tape or two, but maybe do it from inside one of your windows so you can't be accused of baiting the dog to bark. And I'd watch my own dogs real good, if he is really jerky, he might tease your dogs into barking and then tape it, so I'd try to make sure you are supervising when they are outside.
so sorry for you, sending a big prayer that this neighbor up and decides to move!
Thanks so much Jen. I thought about that with the baiting thing. Today I just wrote down whenever I heard it. That is a good idea to call them out proactively.
I would keep a log of the comings and goings out of your dogs as well as the times you have heard the crazy neighbor's dogs barking…Keep this as evidence as well as your videos.
You could then use them in either a complaint to the city or proof next time you crazy neighbor comes a knocking…ughh idiot. Good luck, Kim
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