Neighborhood dog issue

[Moxie]

We just moved to a nice neighborhood. We are the only people on our street without a dog. There are no fences and the dogs roam where they want. I don't mind that but one of them keeps pooping in our front yard. No idea which one. How do I stop this? Dog poop makes me ill.

[Remudamom]

Oh, that's a bad one. If you complain to animal control it makes you the new bad guy in the neighborhood.

 

I'd think about fencing in your yard. If everyone has dogs it's going to be tough to keep them out.

[Moxie]

Fence is out due to the odd shape of the lot. Is there no spray that will keep dogs out?

[Pawz4me]

If your yard isn't too big, or if the dog has a favorite spot, I'd consider a motion activated sprinkler. There are various brands, this is just one example.

[mellifera33]

That's a hard one. People get so defensive about this kind of thing, and if everyone in the neighborhood does it, complaining will put you on their...list. I think that the sprinkler is a good idea. Good luck!

[Lisbeth]

sprinklers...

[Remudamom]

I've got one of those sprinklers in my garden to zap my kitties. Works great AND it's hysterical to watch, especially if you can trick your kids into "getting something for mom out of the garden"!

[QueenCat]

Hmmm.. not sure on the answer but do consider your approach. I like having good relationships with my neighbors so whatever I approach I take on issues takes that into consideration.

[StephanieZ]

Good fences make good neighbors.

 

If you truly, absolutely can't fence it, then you can use the motion activated sprinklers. Or, you can just suck it up.

 

If you go to war with the neighbors, you'll be miserable.

[Anne in CA]

My experience is that people are just not reasonable about their pets. Their pet does not bark, scratch, hiss, poop ect. People who say otherwise are haters, lol. I would fence, pay one of your kids to dispose of the poop, put in an underground electric fence, but complain I would not do. Your last option is more time consuming. Put up a game camera, figure out which dog does it and what the pattern is and shoot the dog with a big super soaker whenever he tried to come on your lawn. If he is not stupid he will learn. My cousin trained my aunt's neighbors dog this way. It barked too much so he sat on her roof and sprayed the dog with water whenever it barked during the day and it's owner was gone. It took a week.

[Pegasus]

Poop scooping is a great character builder for the kids. :huh: I'm sorry for the situation but I agree with the previous posters. A little dog poop is better than hostile relationships with neighbors.

[clarkacademy]

I would find out which dog take a pic print it and put it on the owners front door. I am not cleaning up after anyones dog and I would care less about being friendly with those who had such little respect.

[Moxie]

Poop scooping is a great character builder for the kids. :huh: I'm sorry for the situation but I agree with the previous posters. A little dog poop is better than hostile relationships with neighbors.

 

No. If I wanted my kids to pick up poo we would get our own dog. We all have large yards. There is no reason for poo in my yard. I'm not looking to start a fight but there are things I won't tolerate.

[Pegasus]

Given a choice, dogs will always go in someone else's yard. They like to keep their own area clean. Unless you convince all your neighbors to start abiding by a leash rule, confronting them about their dog(s) pooping in your yard will not solve the problem. You could try the sprinkler suggestion. I just did a Google search on dog deterrents and there are apparently several products on the market. I can't vouch for how well they work.

 

I understand your annoyance. I have a dog who stays leashed when outside and I clean up after him. I STILL don't want to clean up after inconsiderate owners who let their dogs eliminate in my yard. I just haven't found confrontation to lead to a peaceful resolution in these situations. I wish you luck.

[laundrycrisis]

I would not confront the neighbors. However, I would do this: Save plastic grocery bags. They work well as very temporary gloves. PIck up the dog turds from your yard and hurl them into the middle of the street, and leave them there. Every single time. You will not have poop in your yard once it's been hurled. Your neighbors will find your poo-flinging habit annoying, which will either give them the message that you hate dogsh1t in your yard, or compel them to ask why you keep throwing it into the street for everyone to have to see, and then you have an opening to sweetly say how much you hate other people's dogsh1t in your yard. BUT you will have made your point, although didn't run griping to anyone.

[deannajo]

If your yard isn't too big, or if the dog has a favorite spot, I'd consider a motion activated sprinkler. There are various brands, this is just one example.

 

 

 

Oh my - the user photos are HILARIOUS :-)

[Celia]

I think the sprinkler is a brilliant solution!

[StephanieZ]

No. If I wanted my kids to pick up poo we would get our own dog. We all have large yards. There is no reason for poo in my yard. I'm not looking to start a fight but there are things I won't tolerate.

 

I completely understand that it is obnoxious and irritating for dogs to crap in your yard. I have a couple neighbor dogs who roam, and I get pissed when I see them crapping in my front yard. (My dogs don't roam. We built a nice, huge, expensive fence before we even moved in . . . to both keep our dogs in and neighbor dogs out.)

 

Well, I think you are likely in for a miserable time in your neighborhood since you've already said that all your neighbors have free roaming dogs. I'm sorry about that.

 

The only way for the neighbors to teach their own dogs to stay out of YOUR yard is to lock them up; there is not really any way for them to teach their dogs to stay out of your yard specifically. If the entire neighborhood has free roaming dogs, this is going to make for some very pissed off neighbors. You'll likely be very regretful someday about that.

 

So, YOU can teach them to stay out of your yard if you want to invest a lot of time or money in motion activated sprinklers, etc.

 

Or, you can move.

 

Or, you can make war with your neighbors. Yoikes.

 

Before you make war, you should check local laws. Free roaming dogs are NOT illegal in all places. If they are not regulated by the police, then you will be making war but guaranteed to lose. Lose, lose, lose.

 

In some places, you can hire companies to clean up the poo. That is another alternative if you can't stand it. LOL, you could hire neighbor kids, but that might be counterproductive. ;)

 

But, really, if this is so upsetting to you, I am afraid that you should move to a house where you can fence your yard, as you are going to be miserable here either way -- because you are either going to have dogs crapping in your yard, or you will have hateful relations with the neighbors, or, most likely, BOTH, because the neighbors will be pissed at you for complaining/demanding, but they STILL will let their dogs roam. People who let their dogs roam tend to be VERY committed to continuing to do so. Some might not let the dogs out if they see you are home and awake, but they will do it late at night and they will do it when you aren't home. Most might get better about it for a few weeks after you yell at them, but will rapidly return to their habits. Some will just do it anytime anyway, and unless your police are very responsive to you (doubtful), you will have dogs roaming, and nasty neighbors to boot. I guarantee that you will NEVER be able to change the "entire neighborhood" of their dog roaming habits.

 

We once had a neighbor whose dogs repeatedly roamed and harassed our chickens (who were in a barn in the middle of our 8 acres, so not exactly right near the neighbor's yard!) We talked to them about it a few times. They always claimed it was the OTHER neighbor's dog. (They all had similar looking dogs.) On the other hand, the neighbors on the other side of us would have conniption fits (screaming, threatening to kill the hens, etc) if any of our hens happened to wander on their property (happened very rarely). After that living hell, we decided that every home we bought would have a solid fence around the property before we moved in. it is expensive, but it is just a cost of housing for us to have harmonious relations with our neighbors.

 

For our current house, we did that for the back and side yards, but left the front open as it is pretty much just decorative. If we had big problems with roaming animals in the front yard, we'd try to motion activated sprinklers. But, the few poops a week that the neighbor's dog does in our yard is tolerable. (I admit that I seethe when I see someone LEASH WALKING their dog and allowing them to crap right in the lawn! 80% of the land in the neighborhood is wild woods, so why wouldn't they make the dog wait till they get to the woods?!? I seethe, but I keep my mouth shut . . .) What we would NOT do would be to piss off the neighbors. Unless you really enjoy confrontation, then making enemies of the neighbors will just make being home a miserable place to be. THAT isn't worth it, IME. I've BTDT in that one house, and I learned that I would tolerate a great deal before I'd make enemies of the neighbors.

 

As Oprah often said, "Would you rather be right or happy?"

[QueenCat]

Again..... you have to decide what is more important to you.... Cleaning up the poop, preventing the poop (water sprinkles may still upset the neighbors) or having good relations with neighbors. Do my neighbors occasionally annoy me? Sure... does my dog annoy them (yes, and yes, I do my best with the dog). Ultimately, I like having good relationships with my neighbors. That is why we seek house in subdivisions... so we can quickly find people to cook out, with have walks with, evening drinks, or whatever.... when the kids were little, it helped in finding quick playmates.

[Moxie]

Again..... you have to decide what is more important to you.... Cleaning up the poop, preventing the poop (water sprinkles may still upset the neighbors) or having good relations with neighbors. Do my neighbors occasionally annoy me? Sure... does my dog annoy them (yes, and yes, I do my best with the dog). Ultimately, I like having good relationships with my neighbors. That is why we seek house in subdivisions... so we can quickly find people to cook out, with have walks with, evening drinks, or whatever.... when the kids were little, it helped in finding quick playmates.

While I want a good relationship with the neighbors, that needs to go both ways. If someone thinks that their doggie should get to run around and poo in other yards without any consequences, we probably weren't going to be besties anyway. We're going to try the pepper and then the sprinkler.

[QueenCat]

While I want a good relationship with the neighbors, that needs to go both ways. If someone thinks that their doggie should get to run around and poo in other yards without any consequences, we probably weren't going to be besties anyway. We're going to try the pepper and then the sprinkler.

 

I do get that.... from your op, I also got that it is not just one neighbor but rather the "culture" of the neighborhood. My view would be slightly different if it were a one neighbor problem. We have friends that live in a neighborhood where it is the culture of the neighborhood for the dogs to roam and people just take care of each others pets. As in, you'll find large water bowls at pretty much every house, even those without dogs. At the end of the day, the dogs seem to know to head home. From what my friends tell me, new people have conformed (with the exception of one) rather than resisted.

[QueenCat]

I'm assuming the pepper doesn't actually hurt, right? I don't think it would go over well if the dog was actually harmed.

[clarkacademy]

I'm assuming the pepper doesn't actually hurt, right? I don't think it would go over well if the dog was actually harmed.

I am a dog owner and if my dog goes in your yard feel free to soak it in pepper spray. Yes it hurts, that's the point. If they were worried about their dog they would take care of it. You let a dog run deal the outcomes.

[zoobie]

There's a mixture of flour, cayenne, and mustard my dad uses to keep cats out of his garden.

 

No free-ranging dogs in our neighborhood, but the previous owner planted a mix of prickly shrubs along the front that keep dogs on leashes from squatting in our yard.

 

A neighbor would have to have pretty big cajones to be irritated that his dogs got wet while pooping in your yard! I'd do landscaping, fencing, and sprinklers and be really irritated that people are so irresponsible!

[Pawz4me]

IMO pepper spray is a really, really bad idea. Mostly because some dogs will react aggressively when sprayed with it. But it's also a bad idea (and not likely to work) for several other reasons. It's rather expensive. You have to catch the dog in your yard. With multiple dogs in your neighborhood, that can be a problem. Spraying a dog won't necessarily teach it to not go in your yard. It will likely teach a dog to not go in your yard when you're in it (dogs think very specifically, not generally). I assume you don't plan on staying outside 24/7/365? If not, you're likely fighting a losing battle.

 

I'd also want to check local/state laws before deciding to use pepper spray. Some laws specify it can only be used in self-defense, so spraying a defecating but non-threatening dog would technically be illegal. And it's not outside the realm of possibility that you'll be opening yourself up for a cruelty to animals charge.

 

Before proceeding with anything other than the motion activated sprinkler, I really think you need to first check and make sure there's some type of leash law in your area, and see what it covers.

[QueenCat]

I am a dog owner and if my dog goes in your yard feel free to soak it in pepper spray. Yes it hurts, that's the point. If they were worried about their dog they would take care of it. You let a dog run deal the outcomes.

 

 

I meant "cause injury"... as in, not just in the moment, but more "dog needs to go to the vet" kind of thing. If one actually injures a dog, one could end up liable for the cost of said injuries.

[Anne]

I think that the key point in all this is that this is a neighborhood culture rather than the behavior of one neighbor. Changing the behavior of one dog/neighbor might result in success (although judging by some of the bad neighbor stories I've read here, I'm kind of doubtful!), Changing the behavior of a whole neighborhood of roaming dogs stands very little chance of success, and is far more likely to result in you winding up on the outs with all of your neighbors, which might be really unpleasant also.

 

I do understand how annoying this is - I *own* a dog - and I'm still annoyed when my neighbor's little dog comes over and leaves "gifts" for me....!!

 

Anne

[Moxie]

Leash laws--dogs are supposed to be on a leash at all times.

 

I'm not spraying the dog, I'm putting pepper on the ground in the hopes that the dogs will go somewhere else. No idea if it will work but it is the cheapest place to start.

[QueenCat]

I'm not spraying the dog, I'm putting pepper on the ground in the hopes that the dogs will go somewhere else. No idea if it will work but it is the cheapest place to start.

 

THANK YOU for clarifying!!! I was worried about both your safety and the dog's when I was imagining a spray.