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Neighbor dog pooping in my yard.
Yes, that describes my neighbor. They have a really nice black lab, but he roams our neighborhood unattended. During his galavanting around the block, he leaves “calling cards” on the lawns of our neighborhood, including ours. Yuck! We live in a new home and when we bought it, we didn’t have grass, trees, or anything. This summer, we had landscaping done — grass, 14 trees, and a bunch of cement work. So, we’re a little sensitive to poop on a brand new yard. Here’s a picture of our front lawn on the day the landscapers finished their work:
What do I do with the Poop?
Any suggestions? I’d love to hear how others have approached this problem. At first, I thought about placing the poop carefully on their front step with a note stating that “your dog crapped in my yard. please be thoughtful and take care of your dog” — something like that. But, the neighbors are pretty private and anti-social. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very nice to them and go out of my way to talk and to help them with things, but they’re a little different and very unapproachable.
News about the neighbors
Well, they’re moving; so, maybe I don’t have to deal with this anymore. But we have new neighbors and I just had a frank chat with them. They’re really nice and confronting your neighbor is really the best approach – just total honesty and openness.
To conclude, let me go back to where I began . . .
Neighbor dog pooping in my yard — Yes, I like the dog, but the owners aren’t that thoughtful. To make the matter worse, the dog owners know about their dog’s habit. Any suggestions?
Dog Poop off Lawn by Pooper Scooper
Pete Abilla
www.shmula.com
Product Review
Aug 18, 2006
It’s a decent sign, but best approach is just to speak with your neighbor 1:1.
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{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
I live on a corner and have the same problem from time to time. I’ve thought about getting a motion-sensor activated sprinkler like this one:
http://www.smarthome.com/6120.html
I have had similar experiences with barking dogs.
You should explain the problem to your neighbors and ask them politely to keep their dog out of your yard. If that doesn’t solve your problem you should call the local police or animal control and report them. Most cities have laws and ordinances forbiding people from letting their dogs run loose. The authorities will probably warn your neighbors for the first offense and fine them for subsequent offenses.
With all respect to the previous poster (who probably doesn’t know the owner of his problem dog), you shouldn’t buy motion sensors and other gadgets just to avoid a confrontation with the neighbors. Putting up with with a problem to avoid talking to someone, regardless of how anti-social they seem, is cowardice.
Don’t listen to Gideon unless you want a neighborhood war. Calling the police and/or animal control will only cause problems.
Just have a friendly and polite talk with them, introduce yourself, offer your assistance, and ask them to clean up the poop. If they are un-approachable, leave a card with chocolates or a small gift with the same sentiment. It is better to have friends in your neighborhood, than enemies. “Kill ‘em with kindness”
http://www.angryflower.com/dogkil.html
I’m not sure I’d buy chocolates for the neighbor, but I certainly wouldn’t avoid the converstation. 75% of the time, talking with them will solve the problem. Even if they don’t care, they won’t want to deal with talking with you again, so they’ll fix the problem. If that doesn’t work, ask them 1 more time, then start calling animal control. In that situation, it doesn’t do the dog, the neighbor, or your sanity any good to put up with it. They’re also your neighbors, so you don’t want to make them angry since your lives are intertwined for a while. So … be nice and confront the problem in person. If that doesn’t work, show ‘em some tough love. You shouldn’t have to pay for sprinklers/fences/etc… for someone else’s illegal negligence.
I agree with all the forementioned suggestions. If the neighbors fail to respond, however, tough love might look like this: scoop up the poop in a baggie and put it in your neighbor’s mail box.
I always wondered what makes people think it’s alright to let their animals use their neighbors’ lawns as a toilet.
Actually give the chocolate to the dog. It will never bark ever again
Did you actually see their dog(s) pooping on your lawn? If not, and you are going on the assumption of finding dog droppings in your yard, it could be someone else’s dog(s). I know many people in my neighborhood who walk their dogs in the dark, who think after big Duke does his duty on their lawn, they can just scamper back home into the darkness. This happens nightly to our lawn.
I have two little dogs and they totally are not capable of putting out the huge piles I am finding in my yard. I mean something that size won’t come out of 8lb dogs.
For over a year now I have asked my neighbor nicely to please not let their dog do his business on my lawn they have a black lab..Since I am a seasonal resident there isn’t much I can do while I am not at the house but my lawn service calls and complains that they are walking into it often enough..So now I have resorted to picking up the last poop and plopping it right on their lawn and instead of getting an apology I got laughed at and ridiculed.. they were not happy at all about having to clean up their own dogs mess..i told them that it belonged to them and that now they know how i felt having to pick it up for the few weeks that I have been at the house..thenI simply called the dog warden and will continue to document each episode ..eventually their dog will either get picked up or the owners will be fined..I will be returning every 3 months and inspecting the property..if I find more poop I will not only return it to them after taking a picture of it to document it I will be calling the dog warden again..enough complaints should eventually turn into a civil suit…maybe they will put up a fence or at least keep the dog on a leash.
I got a good laugh about “killing your enemies with kindness.”
& a good laugh out of giving the Dog Chocolate.
Our Neighbor claimed that the dog that barks has a bladder problem & is therefore kept outside & the two younger dogs pick on him (the older) dog. They brought it inside & for 1-2 days & told us about the dog having a medical problem.
Likely storey: L.O.L.!!
Now what? I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now. My husband is the one who knows what to say, & how to put it politely, however: I do not believe that is fixing this situation.
I do not feel we should have to get into some kind of fight with our neighbor, nor to have to cause some scene.
I do believe something needs to be done.
Why did I laugh about the chocolates? Well, Killing the neighbors with kindness sounds good along with another idea that I have:
The neighbors dog came into our yard & had attacked my husband while outside in our yard (almost), good thing he had some kind of steal rod with him at the time: the dog then ran off. However, the dog comes into our back yard as though he owned the place & he will not come into the yard if there is more then one person in the yard. Unfortunately, dog owners do not realize their dog is mean around others without them being around.
I’ve got this idea in my head to have chocolate with Ex-lax in it: In our yard, for the dog. And my husband can make some chocolate cookies for our neighbors.
If an issue comes up, we didn’t feed your dog anything, he came into our yard & helped himself: & get it on candid camera.
If this doesn’t help you, then you can @ least get a good laugh about it, as I’ve not done it yet: however the idea sounds good. The dogs stomach would be so upset, he will not want to leave his own yard & probably wont even feel like barking. Besides, from what I’ve heard, Chocolate isn’t good for dogs: L.O.L.
In looking for a solution: I may have found it. I should also make a sign: No-Dog Trespassing aloud: Mainly for the owners of the dogs since dogs can’t read: L.O.L.
He (the dog) jumps over our brick wall, I am thinking of attaching an electric fence @ the top of it: to keep him out, along with a zapper & a dog dazer. This dog needs to know where the property lines are & how he can avoid getting himself into trouble. Out our office window is where our back yard is located: we see this dog, in action.
Our home is our place of refuge & this dog is going to find out where the property lines are!!
Note: The neighbor is only allowed to have 2 dogs & has 3 dogs.
Hi–
Sort of a cliche, but how about a fence? Yes, this avoids confrontation, but it certainly protects your yard and offers protection for your children. Personally, I like the look of fences and the sense of hominess they offer. If you don’t like the look of a fence, try planting a row of hedges and put a green wire garden fence behind them. Everybody wins.
Your neighbors are thoughtless, but you are not going to change them. The dog may be the one who really suffers in the end. It’s not his fault.
#
Toni said,
July 30, 2008 @ 5:24 am
Hi–
Sort of a cliche, but how about a fence? Yes, this avoids confrontation, but it certainly protects your yard and offers protection for your children. Personally, I like the look of fences and the sense of hominess they offer. If you don’t like the look of a fence, try planting a row of hedges and put a green wire garden fence behind them. Everybody wins.
Your neighbors are thoughtless, but you are not going to change them. The dog may be the one who really suffers in the end. It’s not his fault.
I cringe at hearing this: “You should call the local police or animal control and report them. Most cities have laws and ordinances forbiding people from letting their dogs run loose.” (Forbidding is the correct spelling by the way)
I agree with Toni, build a fence and keep them out. I am sure you do things that are just as irritating to your neighbors. We all live close together and we all poop in each others yards in some manner. What is more important, winning the poop war or having a good relationship with a neighbor? A short white picket fence would look nice around your house.
By the way, I linked one of your articles to our website. I hope that is all right.
How about a low power BB gun or paint ball gun to light up his butt? I assume this is not legal but if I’m not mistaken so is letting your dog run loose. Just don’t get caught.
I have a similar, but slightly different problem. I live in a big city and have two tneighbors with dogs who live above us in the same building. They are leaving the dog poop all day long, and occasionally, not always, pick it up in the evenings or the next morning.
I have two small children who like to play outside in the yard. One of them is still at the age where he would potentially eat the poop if he accidentally comes into contact with it. I have asked the neighbors politely to pick up the poop, I have written an angry e-mail and my husband has asked politely as well. I have had several conversations with one of them who argues with me about this and says, “oh, it’s no big deal–I get it at the end of the day.” I have explained to her that my children are playing outside DURING the day, so this is useless. She dismisses my requests and continues to say it’s not a problem because “the poop is just in the one little area in the yard.” I never know where the poop is and clearly polite conversation/confrontation has not worked, nor has anger. What should I do? Right now, I’m combing the yard for poop before my children go outside to play and picking it up myself.
I understand the sentiment behind the advice that people have given about just putting up with the crap or putting up fences (good fences do make good neighbors, after all), but at the end of the day, it IS the responsibility of dog owners to control their dogs, and you should NOT be required to alter your life or property to accommodate their negligence. Unfortunately, however, the people who are willing to allow their dogs to run loose are the very people who are unwilling to take responsibility or make changes, so their victims are left to play defense.
Do call animal control, especially if you have children or small animals of your own. Dogs that are left loose to relieve themselves on your lawn are not dogs that are under control, and their misbehavior can easily escalate to physical attacks. Period.
We just experienced an episode of this sort of escalation this week. We have a neighbor who has let her small dogs out unsupervised for several years. They clearly are under the impression that the entire neighborhood is their playground, and leave piles all over the place, in addition to blocking postal and UPS delivery trucks and chasing cats and children on scooters. A couple days ago, they finally got their jaws on a cat and tore its throat out.
Unleashed dogs are no joke. Put your foot down.
I baste the poo with leftover bacon fat, the next time the dog comes around it takes its last deposit with it. this usually means there is always one poo on the lawn but it is now a most entertaining poo, there are some who say “don’t abuse the dog” but as far as I am concerned they eat poo all the time so no harm done. You could always kindly inform the dogs owner that this WILL be your tactic if they do not contain their dog.
Unfortunately, we’ve found that talking to the owner of the dog does no good, for the dogs wouldn’t poop on your lawn if it were not for the owners. I believe some of the owners do not want to take responsibility for their dogs actions, so they are in denial that there is even a problem.
We need more responsible dog owners that care to leave good rather then bad impressions.
We are responsible dog owners & well…….since we’ve gotten a dog & Ironically our neighbors dog barks less. & their dog rarely ever tries to jump our fence, or to pup on our side of our yard anymore.
Maybe the neighbors are learning through observance what a responsible dog owner is like & should be like. People learn through observance. If you can’t keep a dog properly, how then do you expect them to?
I find people get too upset about dogs going on their yards (playing the devils advocate), if you care so much about your yard and your property, then you wouldn’t mind building a fence or having a hedge around the perimeter. No one is going to go on your yard that way, and then you can find something better to do other then trolling your windows.
If you allow your dog to constantly \go\ in a neighbors yard, then you are disrespecting them in a major way. If they talk to you and you continue to do so, then whatever they do to you in retribution is warranted since you are technically in control and by ignoring their requests you have brought in on yourselves. You idiots that think it is ok for a dog to go in your neighbors yard are just that……. idiots.
I never said it was ok for people to let their dog go on your lawn, and yea I agree with your whole warranted retribution spiel, but if you have some wide open yard basically inviting dogs to squat, its inevitable. If you have some big garden at the curb, what do you expect? There is always going to be that one idiot as you call them that will let their dog go on your lawn. Get a fence or a hedge around your property, and then you won’t have to come up with these ridiculous schemes because your ego is hurt.
I am asking anyone for advice on what to do. I am having a similar problem. My neighbor is letting her dogs out to do their business on my lawn.
I have:
1.) yelled at them when they are on my property. She is on her porch watching so I see no reason to go over and talk to her about it. She knows that she is a dirty birdie.
2.) I basted her dogs turds with bacon grease. My dog has a pen so I know which piles belong to her animals. I figure dogs eat crap anyway and if they clean up after themselves, everyone wins. Apparently the dogs are smarter than their owner, they wouldn’t eat their own feces, bacon grease or no bacon grease.
3.) I called the police. The police have been to her house a number of times. She has been issued at least one ticket. I overheard her 3rd conversation with the police officer regarding her coming visit with the magistrate.
At that time she told the officer that our dog frequents her yard. We have an 86 lb GSD that hates dogs and people and that I DO NOT trust off leash, the end. If my dog was in her yard she would have a bigger problem than improper doggy defecation. So not only is she retarded, she is a liar as well.
I have not attempted to collect the droppings and leave them at her place. I do not want an altercation or her charging me with trespassing etc.
Our neighborhood has a no fence law. Otherwise this would be our obvious next step. I have thought about a scarecrow sensor sprinkler, but I am having a hard time spending upwards of 60 bucks on something that may or may not work. I would hose them down myself, but when they hear me open the back door they pinch it off and finish their job in my next door neighbors yard. I don’t want to hurt the dogs, because it is not their fault that their owner is a derelict imbecile, but each passing day it gets harder and harder.
I previously left a comment on here about my neighbors, who are our friends and still leave their dog poop, in spite of our numerous requests. There are three families who live in the same building as we do–we live in a big city in a condo building and share a yard. My children play in the yard and have stepped on dog poop numerous times. I have told them this and they still do it. After writing all of this on here last year and spending a long time being angry with them because they did not do anything about it, I finally bought a pooper scooper and some doggie doo doo bags and started combing the yard myself for dog poop before my children play in the yard. Acceptance has made my life peaceful again! I don’t think people who have been asked numerous times are ever going to change behavior, so my final advice to all who have visited here in anger with their neighbors is….acceptance! As soon as I did, my anger went away. The friendship with the neighbors is obviously not as close as it otherwise might have been had they picked up their dog’s poop, but nonetheless, we’re still friends and I am now at peace picking up the poop!
@ Alice, I am not ready yet for acceptance. I bought the sprinkler for $57 with free shipping on Amazon.com. When it soaks her dogs, then I will call the police and tell them that the dogs were in my yard again as they are wet (proof) and we can do this every day until one of us moves or she dies or whatever. I am currently unemployed so she is my new project. I was up late last night and noticed that her cat was in my yard marking as well. My yard has become one big latrine. I am thinking that this sensor sprinkler should take care of all the problems without hurting the animals. Of course in the winter,when it is below freezing, I am back to square one. With any luck her animals will be reprogrammed by then.
Recommended:
I posted about the same problem prior to getting a motion sensor & a dog. We now have an inside dog. We go outside a few times daily & now the next door neigbhor tells his dogs to be quiet. They are not home much, so when we catch their dog who is sensored: we tell the dog with authority to go home (in a firm voice). He goes home & rarely bothers us much anymore.
The neighbors have a different kind of stench about them, as they smoke in their back yard & while out there, I can bearly breathe, so I have to come back inside: it is too bad i can’t call an Environmentalist to come & lock them up.
I’m glad this world is not my home!!
@Cyndi
Sounds like you need to have a scarecrow sprinkler for your neighbor. Watch it hose him while he is trying to light up. Maybe he could use a shower too:0)
I’m having a similar problem…I live in a townhouse, with no yard but a small patch of grass, right in front of where I park my car. Every Sunday, the woman next door has her daughter visit. Her daughter has a very loud, annoying dog that continuously barks for no reason..so I know every time it is outside…I’ve watched, on many occasions, her daughter (who is in her 30s and should know better) come outside with a leash and purposefully bring it over to where I park my car, so it can poop. I wouldn’t care, if i didn’t have to walk through it every day to reach my car. My husband comes home from work at night, and has stepped in the poop. I have asked her to take the dog somewhere else, or at the very least, clean it up, but of course, it hasn’t stopped the problem. I’m fed up..is it acceptable to call the police at this point?
I tried this and it worked! It looked funny for a couple of days but the neighbor got the picture.
http://www.cafepress.com/whatbugsme.459147444
People who let their dogs go and not clean it up are pyscopathic anti-social bastards who hold animals in a higher regard than humans. I heard a story from a friend who had the problem. He put the poop in a baggie and duct taped it around the dogs neck like a necklace. It never happened again.
Currently there is an asshole in my tract who is burying dog poop under my ground cover. I think I’ll call the cops.