Need advice dealing with problem neighbor

[bmcd308 0]

I figure there are lots of different types of folks on the forums, so I thought this would be a great place to get insights from people with lots of points of view on what has become a very serious problem for me.

My next door neighbors are in their mid-to-late 50's, and they have a daughter in her late teens or early twenties. The parents are not home much, and the daughter basically lives in the house with her boyfriend and her dog.

The problem is that the dog does not live in the house. He lives in the yard. She leaves him out there until all hours of the morning, often 3:30 or 4:00 AM. He barks constantly when he is outside. Not at passing cars or leaves or sirens, but at nothing. It is the loudest alarm barking I have ever heard from a dog, and it is impossible for me to sleep. Both me and the people who live on the other side of me have gone ever there and been very nice about it asking them to keep the dog in. I have been over there three times over the course of about three months, not counting the times I have been over there to find no one at home.

The day after Christmas, I went over at 8:00 in the AM (the time I am supposed to be at work) to tell them that I did not appreciate their leaving the dog out until 4:00 the previous night. The daughter answered the door, told me it was rude of me to wake her, and then shut it in my face.

So anyway, fast forward to this morning, when I back out of my driveway and realize that my right front tire is flat when I start going down the hill. As I look over the tire, there are four nails side by side in it.

I am figuring that the four nails were propped up against it so that they would puncture it when I backed over them. This could have been a random act by some vandal, or I could have happened to have run over four nails when the same spot on the tire was down, but I can't help but think that the only unpleasant human interaction I have had recently has something to do with it.

Anyway, I need dog advice, car advice, neighbor relationship management advice, and any other stuff you guys think might be helpful.

Thanks.

Brent

----------------------------------
www.jumpelvis.com

[indyz 1]

Call the cops. Outside of killing the dog (or your neighbors) it's probably the only way to get results. Young adults can be such assholes.

[ernokaikkonen 0]

This thread had quite a few suggestions.

[narcimund 0]

I've developed petty revenge to an art form. I highly recommend it.

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[riggerrob 643]

Clearly your neighbor's daughter is not very bright.
She does not understand that dogs are pack animals. Dogs live to be part of a family. The poor beast is lonely and he cannot understand why he is being punished by being left alone all night.

Four nails in one tire! That is no accident! I hope you reported it to the police. Start writing down times that the dog is barking and collect signed statements from your other neighbors. It is also handy to have a long string of noise complaints on the police phone logs. Police won't bother to respond, but they will get tired of your calls at odd hours. The next time you complain to the police, give them a fat file of evidence.
The selfish daughter may be able to tell you to f-- off, but she cannot tell an entire police force to f--- off.
It is a shame that poor dog is is suffering because of her selfishness.

[bmcd308 0]

Every time I think I am starting a new thread, it turns out it's already been through the forums at least once. Thanks for the link.

----------------------------------
www.jumpelvis.com

[ernokaikkonen 0]

The "Search posts" function is your friend...

But if we talked about each topic only once, the forums would be pretty silent by now...

[tadbad 0]

I have dealt with similar issues and there are two suggestions I can offer you. Keep a log...when the dog is out barking, what damage they do to your property, etc. This will be helpful in court and for refreshing your memory. Second...call the cops on every occurence. This will seem useless at first...but eventually the cops will get sick of playing mediator and issue you a court date (I had a similar situation with a noisy neighbor). You will then have a chance to argue your case in front of a judge. Chances are the judge will give them one more chance to correct the situation without taking action...but don't give up. Just keep calling the cops each time it happens. Try and get copies of all the police reports so that you have them when you go to court. This will be a pain for you...but hopefully they will get the picture...and the parents will get involved. I would avoid all confrontation with the neighbor...you don't need to give them any ammo to weaken your arguement. Good luck!!

-----------------------------------------------------
When you're going to extremes...you taste adrenaline!!

[DJL 235]

Hmm, the nails thing is F'd up. Did you keep them? You should go over there when the parents are home and say that you're doing a project and you only have four nails left. They look like this ____. Would you happen to have any that I could use?

Edit: And then when Dad gives you the matching nails you tell him that you actually pulled them out of your tire the morning after you came over and politely asked his daughter to bring the dog in earlier.

-Doug

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

[jlmiracle 7]

Let's find the dog a new home. Someone that will take care of it and love it.

Give the dog to Trent, he works odd hours or to Kevin - cause that's the closest thing to a girlfriend he will get and he needs to stay out of the titty bars.

If it shows up at the dz, dave will always feed it. We just have to hide it from Mike.

Judy

Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

[gemini 0]

Last year there were two neighbors fueding over their lawns and common driveway. You know---"Your leaves are in my yard." That kind of stuff. It escalated to tossing dog shit into each other's yards. One of the guys got a video camera and set it up for low light at night with a 24 hour tape loop. Several days after setting up the camera, the video showed one of the neighbors bashing the other on the head with a shovel. Guess which one is in jail?

Blue skies,

Jim

[skeletor 0]

Quote

Every time I think I am starting a new thread, it turns out it's already been through the forums at least once. Thanks for the link.

So, we will eventually get to a point where there won't be anything more to post because it has already been discussed before.



rich

[psw097 0]

I completely agree. If that doesn't work you can always scale up to a full blown feud'n.

[DYEVOUT 0]

Do they have animal control personnel in Memphis? It sounds like the critter may be neglected, as well as untrained. It is important to remember that though your neighbor sounds like a steaming pile of shit, the canine is not at fault.

It is okay to waste your neighbor, but leave the pooch out of it.

----------------=8^)----------------------
"I think that was the wrong tennis court."

[flyangel2 2]

Quote

Let's find the dog a new home. Someone that will take care of it and love it.

Best idea yet. It's not the dogs fault that he/she is left outside to bark. I suggest contacting some kind of dog rescue group and tell them what is going on. Tell them that the dog is being neglected and they will give the dog to a loving home.
I have three dogs and my neighbors never complain about noise or a messy back yard. It's all in the care that is given to the animals. Afterall, they are living, breathing creatures of God's creation.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[billvon 3,031]

>I suggest contacting some kind of dog rescue group and tell them what
>is going on. Tell them that the dog is being neglected
>and they will give the dog to a loving home.

If a dog is fed and relatively healthy there's no way any rescue group would try any means (legal or otherwise) to separate a dog from its owner. Dogs bark. If, in this case, the dog is unhappy, that's too bad, but rescue groups try to save animals from inhumane conditions - not unhappiness.

[gary350 0]

Two different thoughts.

One is to talk to your county animal control officials, rather than the police. In my county, there is a very strict ordinance against animal noise that continues for more than 15 minutes.

>(Lane County, Oregon) 7.115 Continuous Annoyance. An animal owner who permits any animal to cause annoyance, alarm, or noise disturbance for more than 15 minutes at any time of the day or night, be it repeated barking, whining, screeching, howling, braying or other like sounds which can be heard beyond the boundary of the owner's property commits a Class C violation.

If you document the offense and file a complaint, an animal control officer will first give a warning, then start issuing tickets with increasing fines. When personally faced with a noisy dog problem, I wasted a lot of time and emotion before figuring out that these are the people who can help.

Next tack - purely hypothetical, untried, possibly not good. Needed: signal generator capable of sustained 20,000 Hz + modulated output; Amplifier (really big - perhaps measured in KW); Big horn speaker capable of handling above specs.

You probably get the idea. . . Crank that sucker up by day - the beast will either be all barked out or insane by night. No human will hear it.

[DYEVOUT 0]

Very nice.

Abuse an onnocent dog.

----------------=8^)----------------------
"I think that was the wrong tennis court."

[bmcd308 0]

I agree with you. The dog shows all indications of being in good health and receives adequate care in terms of food, water, and shelter. I can't imagine that a rescue group would try to take it, and if they did, I would probably be on my neighbor's side of that particular dispute.

I just want it to STFU.

----------------------------------
www.jumpelvis.com

[Iflyme 0]

Without reading every reply to your post, I suggest videotaping the offending critter, then going to the local police. Dont fu@k up by doing something stuupid ... take the high rad, and let the lwa deal with t. You've taken every measure a respectable person could be expected to.