Our neighbor two houses down plays with their dog in our yard. Our yard is half an acre and there's is decent but they chose to fill all but a small area with a garden. So they throw the dogs toys into our yard to play. We like dogs, but this is our property not theirs. We don't own a dog and don't really care to clean up someone else's dogs poop. Plus the dog tears up our lawn we are trying to make look nice. Is there a nice way to approach this or should we just let it go? DH is pretty ticked about it because it is quite rude, but I don't want to be the cranky neighbors.
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is your yard fenced?? how do they get into your yard? That is nuts! I have 2 dogs and would not even fathom playing on someone elses yard. I dont even let my dogs walk on someones front lawn when we are walking down the street!
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Ugh, that is so rude and annoying!! Next time you catch them out there, maybe just say "Hey, we love dogs and all, but we're reseeding and trying to fix our lawn up... do you think you could please keep your dog out of our yard?" If they give you any crap, I would stop being "nice" and tell them it's your property and they need to take the dog to a park to play!
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@MrsScottish: It is not fenced, and we can't afford to fence it in right now. It's not the neighbors directly next to us though. There is one neighbor in between us and this said neighbor with the dog, but our yard and the people who have the dogs yard butt up to each other. Hopefully that makes sense. We don't even know these people so that makes it even more weird.
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Yeah, that's rude. I have 2 dogs and would never think of regularly going into someone else's yard to play with them.
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@Pepper: I know it's so rude, I try to avoid confrontation but DH is pretty mad so I think he will try and say something like you mentioned
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@Dandelion: That's the thing too, it's very regular...like a couple of times a day!
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@Bao: Shake your fist at them and say, "Hey, get off my lawn!!"
Just kidding. I like @Pepper:'s idea, just ask nicely, saying you're trying to keep a nice lawn for your kid.
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Since I'm totally non-confrontational, what if you say it was seeded and they put week repellent on it so it's dangerous for the kids and dogs? Maybe they would take the hint after that?
And... seriously they let the dog poop on your yard and they don't pick it up? That's really rude. Like @MrsScottish: I don't even let my dog walk on neighbors' lawns. Like, running across it would be inconsiderate, but letting them do their business and mess up your lawn is really bad.
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Eek. I am not confrintational either. My DH would be out there yelling. I would plant a garden to mark the boundary!!!!
Do they run on others lawn? Or only because they can get easy access to yours? -
Wow, that's rude. I don't even let my dog up on other people's front yards when we take him for a walk because I don't want to disrespect other people's properties. I would definitely say something soon - the longer you let it happen, the harder the habit it will be for them to break.
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Good cop/bad cop, blame it on your husband?! Just kidding, sorta... maybe you could say that your hubby has been working on the lawn and while you both love dogs, you know he'd be peeved if he saw them there?? I hate situations like that, but I do think it's best to say something rather than be constantly annoyed.
We used to have an issue with our neighbors back when we lived in an townhouse over a parking space. Each house was assigned two spaces. At one point when my husband was a bachelor, he said it would be okay for them to use one of his spots (they had 3-4 cars). I moved in with him when we were dating for a 6 month period and they gave the spot back. However, I moved out for awhile and they took it back (which was fine, I guess, but we were still together and I stayed over several nights a week and had no spot). Then, we got married (which they knew) and they still kept the spot. I kept parking like 100 yards away and schleping groceries etc. back and forth. My husband wanted to keep the peace and wouldn't say anything... I was pissed but nonconfrontational, so I just stewed about it. Finally, after about 9 mo of being married (1 yr after I moved back), another neighbor (who was friends with the space-hogging neighbor) said something to me about it (what makes them think they deserve 3 spots) and then talked to them about it on my behalf. The neighbor lady knocked on the door and asked if I wanted to use the spot again and I was like, "UM, YES!!!" However, even after that she continued to park there half the time, so I had to go over and finally say that I really needed the spot, being pregnant and all. It was a lot better after that... I wished I'd addressed it earlier. Those neighbors were actually part of the reason we moved!
All that to say, some people are clueless/self-absorbed/rude! I think your neighbors fall into that category - esp. if they are not picking up after the dog. Don't worry about upsetting them... be nice, but don't let them continue to do something that's bugging you. Good luck!
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We had the Orkin guy come spray today and the stuff they spray is highly toxic--I would totally just say hey, we're having our yard and home sprayed and they put down pellets we have to water down in the yard, it's highly toxic so you'll want to keep your pets off the property! Maybe that will help remedy it, at least temporarily??
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Thanks guys! I think we will approach the situation as nicely as we can, and hopefully we can remain civil neighbors
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@Bao: did you ever chat with your neighbor? How did it end up?
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@mediagirl: yes DH did, he went over and used the we just got our yard sprayed excuse. We don't want to have to lie but wanted to come off as nice as possible. They didn't even look at DH and just said "oh ok", Psh so they are rude anyway but we haven't seen the dog playing over here yet.
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@Bao: good! I'm glad you got it sorted out and hope it stays that way. If you see him outside again, I would just go out there and and ask the neighbor to please take the dog back to their yard. Since you already confronted them once, this will make it easier. Also, plant trees.
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Haha, I am that person that yells out the window to please not walk the dog across my front lawn.
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@Bao: One our neighbors has a German Shepherd and would walk to our lawn, let him poop, and walk away. (This was actually the neighbor's father. For cultural reasons, I don't think he got that this was a very rude thing to do.)
But DH was *incensed*. All made worse by the fact that we caught it on our surveillance cameras too. Before I could stop him, DH put (an admittedly very passive aggressive) sign in our yard and stapled plastic baggies to it.
The neighbor apologized and now we have on our surveillance camera that they take the dog to our neighbor's yard across the street. Some people!
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We have a boy who walks his dog in another neighborhood and thinks it is okay to cut through our yard to go play in the field, that is technically ours. So he goes through my front yard, down the side and all the way through the back. I could pat him on the head from my kitchen window he's so close.
We put up "No Trespassing" and "Beware of Dog" signs so now, if he didn't already realize, its' obvious he is on our yard.
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Wow, this is so rude!! If I were that dog owner and really wanted to use your lawn, well first of all I never would because that's really weird especially if you don't even know each other, but second I would at least ask ahead of time! Like "Hey, since our yards are connected and my dogs run pretty far, does it bother you that they run into your yard at times?"
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@Bao: I had a similar situation only the neighbor would let her dogs (one of them a big german shepherd!) run around off the leash and they'd poop and pee in our yard, and the bigger of the two jumped on me. Needless to say, I basically had to confront the lady about it -- she was less cordial so I had to be kind of firm. But I'd say you should certainly let them know about the boundaries. Make it about keeping your yard nice (you mentioned you are trying to make it look nice). Be kind but tell the truth which is that while you like dogs, you don't like cleaning up their poop and trying to fix the yard when they are through playing in it. Just ask them nicely. If they do raise an issue - remind them that this yard is not theirs. They're free to do what they will with their own, but shouldn't assume everyone is OK with strange dogs romping in their yard.
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Oh! I just saw that you did speak with them! Good! People should respect your place. Sometimes a little white lie can avoid awkwardness when it comes to rude neighbors. I am glad it worked out!
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@greenebee: yeah DH likes to avoid awkward situations as much as possible lol, they moved in and we moved in just a few months ago so didn't want to get off to a bad start.
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@Bao: Us too! Totally didn't want to be THOSE neighbors.
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Wow how rude! I hope they stay off your yard now.
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Yeah, that's super rude. My back yard is small, and my front yard is contiguous with neighbors on both sides. We let our dogs run in their yards. We have friendly relations with both of them, we are ruthless about picking up poop and not letting them tear up the lawn. We also mow one of their lawns, just because it's easy and they're nice about our dogs.
And we'd still stop if either of them ever asked us to, no question.
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man! that's rude. and gross. lol you could have gone the passive aggressive route, bagged all their poop and dropped it on their doorstep.
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Glad your DH talked to them.
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28 comments