Anyone have German Shepherd hating Neighbors? - Page 1

Our next door neighbor has done it again.A year ago he called the police because my German Shepherd was barking at him at the fence line at about 7 pm one night.He has also confronted me about riding my horse past his house and "kicking up too much dust"LOL.Our front yard is completey chain link around the front and is much larger then the back yard so that is where I let the dogs out to run and use the bathroom.Since then we make sure that there are no dogs out there to bark past 8:00 and call them as soon as we hear barking if the jerk or his cat is close to our fence.Well the other day I guess I was too late(in the house on the phone) and my male was barking at him for several minutes while he was doing yard work outside,a couple days later I get a big yellow notice from Animal Control that my dogs are barking non stop and disturbing my neighbors.Mind you these are German Shepherds that only bark when someone is around the property that they do not know.The neighbors behind him have a Jack Russell tied on a 6ft chain that yaps night and day in frustration but apparently this does not bother him.Just my dogs.I don't know what to do at this point my dogs can't  be let out to enjoy their yard and the next complaint will be a fine and I will likely be going to court to fight this a$%$hole.Uggh..

Take some videos ....

If you can video tape the neighbor aggrevating{sp} your dog's that would help your case with animal control. I would also explain to them that this neighbor does not have a problem with the JRT yapping all the time but when your dog's bark he has issues. I am on several acres of land myself,  and my 2 neighbors didn't have a problem with my dog's until I told one to keep his dog's off my prpperty, and the other neighbor was hunting on my property without my permission, so I told him to get his junk off of my property and he was NOT allowed to hunt. After all this then I started to get animal control over here, so I explained my situation to them and the police, as well as wrote a 2 page letter to both of my neighbor's. They were(ACO) coming here on a weekly basis, now I haven't seen them in about 4 weeks, so I'm thinking the letter worked. Good Luck!!!

I used to but thank goodness they moved.  They called the police on me twice and both times, when the officers got there, my dogs were in the house sleeping.   The third time they called, the police glanced into my yard and then gave THEM a a warning for calling in false police reports.  There is also a bird dog behind us that barks 24/7.  The  poor thing is never out of his 5 x 10 kennel.

Oh boy, sounds like you got yourself a real winner next door. lol  Fortunately where I live now my neighbor's (most of them at least) appreciate when my dogs bark because it makes them more aware to look to see what's going on outside.  I do have a gentlemen next door to me that is ill and I try to respect the fact he needs to rest often during the day.  He's the only one that ever spoke to me about the dogs barking.  My 2 older one's are not big barkers unless there's something going on.  But my younger male is quite the big mouth. lol 

I guess the only thing you can TRY to do is put the dogs in the backyard.  Perhaps if they aren't directly there seeing the nieghbor they might not be as likely to bark all the time when they see him??  I know this may not be as comfortable for the dogs as you'd like but a non GSD lovin neighbor can make life miserable; hence the animal control warning.  IMO a Jack Russle yapping is much more irritating to listen to.  Especially because their noise serves no real purpose. lol  They just bark to bark. 

Depending on where you live and what the ordinance is will determine what they consider "nuisance barking" or "excessive barking"??  In my township a dog would have to continuously bark for a longer period of time before they could really impose a fine.  Granted the more often officers have to come to your home to tell you to bring your dogs in the more annoyed with YOU they'll be, but for the most part if you're dog is barking at the lady bringing in her groceries for instance, but stops after 15 minutes of her going in her home, that's not "nuisance barking".  Now if the dog barked the whole time she was unloading her groceries and after she went back inside then THAT's a problem. lol 

As much as it may kill you to do this, sometimes we have to eat crow to keep the peace in the neighborhood.  If the neighbor cops an attitude about the dogs try to keep your compossure and be cooperative assuring him you are sorry your dogs bark at him and will make every reasonable effort to control it.  If he goes on and on about it in a rant, let em vent, keep saying "I know, I know, I'll take care of it" and walk away.  Sometimes when you're pissed off you just need to vent to anyone that will listen. lol 

Only other thing you can do is when you see the nieghbor doing yardwork-bring the dog in until he's done.  You're kinda stuck between a rock and hard place now.  If you don't try to accomodate him he'll keep making reports.  Last resort....put a bark collar on the dog and call it a day!  Good Luck.  I feel for you.  I had a neighbor from HELL at my old house.

Sorry,  I failed to mention too that when the sheriff did come out, he actually sat at the end of my driveway and timed the dog's barking before he talked to me. He said that my dog's only barked for 4 minutes, WOW that is nuisance barking!!! What he told me is to stop being nice to my neighbors, so I called AC on their terrier's barking when they barked for over 30 minutes. This also showed my neighbor that this can go both way's. It's been quiet ever since(so far).

We have the same problem at my parents house. They finally put up a solid barrier made of Tarps on a high wire fence. They set  it inside the main fence line and planted some vines at the bottom. So when the jerk neighbor complianed about the fence they my parents told county official it's for windbreak and got away with it.

It kept the dogs from seeing the neighbor and the neighbor couldn't tease them. You could just put up a solid fence but still it's best to have the wire fence as a barrier as then the jerks can't hit or tease the dogs as easily.

The idiot has to  look at the silver side of tarps and it's really unsightly and on our side we put up some of those reed fencing and placed flower beds at the base.

So you can annoy the neighbor while keeping your dogs safe and quiet too.

Just a thought.

I live in a typical CA urban neighborhood, although my backyard is much larger than the most in my neighborhood, our side yard is the same 5 feet.  So only 10 feet separate my house from my neighbor to the left of me.  Thankfully I live in a court and do not have a neighbor on the right of me.  I also have a neighbor to the rear of me.

My neighbor to the left moved out of their house and let it sit on the market for over 1.5 years before it finally went into forclosure and then the bank put it on the market.  From that house you can look into my yard and see my kennels, and also see that I maintain a nice clean and attractive yard, however EVERY weekend that I knew there was an open house I left the dogs in their kennels so the potential buyers knew what they were getting into in.  I would also talk to any potential buyers and ask them if they like dogs, and let them know I have two BIG dogs.

My dogs only barked at the neighbors behind me a few times, and I would just go out and tell them hey guys it's ok they are supposed to be there.  One day we had a couple looking at the house next door, and the guy saw me and asked if I had vicious dogs, he said they bark really angry when he walked to the backyard, and I told him that for now as far as my dogs are concerned there is not supposed to be anyone in that yard, nobody has lived there for almost 2 years, and then I explained to him though if you don't like dogs this is not a good house to move into.  I also saw them there later that night and took both dogs out for a walk so they could see them.

This guy did buy the house, and I just explained as they were unpacking that soon the dogs would get used to them being there.  I did not bring the dogs in, I wanted them to understand that someone will be next door now and it is ok, so when they would bark I would open the door and calmly tell them it's ok, they are supposed to be there.  I also took both dogs out to introduce them to my neighbors in the front yard so they knew they were not as crazy as they can sound, but did emphasize the fact they should never go in my backyard!!

The dogs have settled in just fine with the neighbors next door now.

When I brought Jager home, he was 6 months old, and he was not used to being in a kennel, he would bark ALL DAY LONG, so the second day that he was here, I went to my neighbor behind me and apologized about the barking, and told them that we were working on.  They both said as long as he is not barking all night they were fine with him..  I still think they appreciated my concern and that I went to them.  It took Jager a few weeks to understand that this is life during working hours, and now he is a great dog in his kennel.

I think it is all a matter of communication and courtesy to your neighbor.  A little communication can go a long way!  A pissed off neighbor is one of my biggest fears, a little bit of poison is all it takes, and I would rather be apologetic and accomodating to my neighbor than have a dead dog.  Take your neighbor a cake or a pie now and then and you'll be amazed at how much barking they will deal with during the day!  ~Kari

Sounds like some of you have (or had) neighbors that actually communicated with you before it got to the point of the city officials becoming involved.The only time he has actually confronted me was with the dust issue.Most of the neighbors on my block have never spoken to me but have dogs that bark more than mine.The time that the police came to my door it was very late at night and all the dogs were in and didn't even bark at the officers.I think they realized it was a rediculous complaint;however the A.C. notice was quite threatening.On the third complaint there is a fine.I appeciate all the advice...

It was not that MY neighbors communicated with me before there were problems, I knew I needed to take the inititive first before there could be a problem.

Take the guy a pie, and maybe some of your favorite pictures and tell mayebe you all got off on the wrong foot no matter how many years it has been.  Maybe he doesn't mind the JR barking because he has a relationship with that neighbor.

When the folks moved next door, I mowed their lawn for them the first couple of times that it needed while I was mowing my own (it literally took 5 minutes).  I grow tomatoes and have more than I can ever eat, so I took a bunch next door, told them these are salmonella free   A week or so later the husband came over and brought me some sort of chinese bread dish that his father in law made for me as a thankyou for the tomatoes.  It's all about "banking relationship points"  they are in the ATM when you may need to use them!!  Works in most all situations.