[MsMewiththat]

Isn't it always fun to have neighbors that clearly are not good pet owners. So here is my situation and within are a few questions. Just looking for ideas.
We have a big lab that wonders our development and leaves his gifts in the yards of those of us that have dogs. This dog does belong to another family that lives in our development on the other side. This is a rather small dvelopment of about 44 newly built executive town homes. Most that live here are interested in how they look and the up keep. Ok... so the lab leaving his land mines every where is really old. I have two small dogs that leave small packages but we clean up after them or clean up while we are walking them. I have gone to the home owners association several times and they have contacted the owners of this dog. No change. I started contacting the impound to pick up the dog, they have been unable to catch him. Today I saw the dog again wondering from my yard to the neighbors yard. After he left I went out and cleaned up. I picked up the stuff that was in my yard and closest to my house along my neighbors driveway, thinking that if they see it, they would assume it was my dogs and I didn't want them to be upset with me. I saw that there was more but didn't get the stuff that was on the other side of the driveway as my dogs leashes would never reach that far. When I let them out to hang in the front yard they barely reach to their driveway. I'm tired of cleaning up after a dog that isn't mine... so when I was cleaning up I cleaned up most of it, but part of me wanted them to see it, get mad and contact the development as I have done a million times now or catch them when they were coming home and discuss this roaming dog with them and ask them if they have noticed a problem. Well, apparently it is old to them too. However, they think it is my dogs.

When I went to walk my dogs and grab the mail, much to my surprise, there was a pile on my door step. I could tell it was placed there as there was snow on top of it and no other snow on the doorstep. The piles that were on the other side of their driveway are no longer there either.

Tell me this:
Would you ever put poo on your neighbors doorstep?
How would you handle the neighbor that placed the poo on your doorstep?
How would you handle the neighbor that owns the dog?

[Alty]

I've been in this situation before! It's eerie!

A while ago, few years, when we were still a one dog home, we had a neighbor that assumed that every piece of dog poop on his yard was from our dog, so he'd either put it on our part of the yard or hurl it at our house.

Here's the bad part, our dogs never poo or pee in the front yard, so I know it wasn't our dog.

All was fine until he hurled it at my house. Trust me, I wanted to go over and beat the snot out of him, I was so mad.

I calmed down and wrote a letter. It went something like this.

Dear Neighbor.

I've noticed that you throw dog feces on our yard and house, I've seen you doing it and other neighbors have witnessed it as well.

Yes, we have a dog, yes, he defecates, but here's something you obviously don't know, he doesn't defecate or urinate in the front yard. Ever! In other words, the feces you're putting on my yard and house, they don't belong to my dog.

Please stop doing this. Sadly there are irresponsible pet owners out there and we're both victims of this person because their dog poops on my yard too. I pick it up because I don't want poo on my yard, I suggest that you do the same, instead of sending it to me.

Thank you.

He came over that night and apologized.

As for handling the dog owner. I'd take video, make a copy and put it in his mailbox. But that's just me, and I'm a rebel. ;)

[shazamataz]

I've heard some great suggetions before.

One warning that was a very good point was not to put the poop in your neighbours letterbox as you can actually be charged with mail tampering... scary.
Letters or videos are fine though.

If it's a communal yard then make some little flags on sticks with a witty saying on them... every time you see a poop stick a flag in it.

If it's individual yards but no fences I would do as Alty suggested and write a letter to them.
You can even say something about Health and Safety and that is it threatening your Children's (or guests) health by allowing their dog to do that. You can then say that regretfully you are going to have to take action if the matter is not resolved by them (the owner)

[MsMewiththat]

I trust me I love the rebel in you. It's awesome. I thought about getting the dog in the garage and calling the impound so that they can catch him and the owners will have to pay a fee to get him out. However, with owners like them, would they get him out or allow him to be put out or something. So I have constructed a letter: It goes a little something like this:
Hello New Neighbors and Welcome to the Neighborhood,

My name is X and I live next door.
It appears that you have left something on my door step today. I'd like to explain something to you that you may or not know.
There is a dog in the development, it is a black lab. You may or may not have seen this dog before. We have been researching this problem for some time now and it appears the dog resides at XXXXXX

He has free roam of the neighborhood and the owners just let him out. He has been relieving himself in many of our yards.
This has been discussed in length at the association meetings and the development has contacted the owners several times, yet they continue to allow him to roam.

I put my dogs out but only on leashes and attempt to clean up after them as quickly as possible. I work from home and see this dog all day coming and going. I have called the police/impound on several occasions and to my knowledge they have never caught him

My dog's leashes don't reach the middle of your driveway. Just today I cleaned up the side of your driveway that was closest to my home because I figured you'd assume that it was my dogs. I saw the pile in the middle of your driveway and was later surprised to find it on my doorstep.

As much as I have wanted to, I have never taken the poo that their dog has left in my yard and returned it to them. I understand the frustration that you have and I myself am tired of cleaning up after a dog that isn't mine.

What I am asking you to do in the future, is to contact the Home owners association, they are familiar with the complaint. If you feel that it is our dogs, please don't hesitate to contact me XXXXXXXXX. We will be happy to clean it up. I am approachable and respond better to open communication.

Thanks in advance.

I appreciate your response Altenweg really, I am so pissed it's hard to contain myself.
WHO DOES THAT? What kind of neighbors do we have... what happened to communication? Apparently they do not care what our future relationship will be like. New by me, most neighbors are interested in at minimum getting along within their first two months of living there. They just moved in. They are young, most likely first home, it's an expensive one, I GET IT! But setting poo on your neighbors steps is just rude.

[MsMewiththat]

I've heard some great suggetions before.

One warning that was a very good point was not to put the poop in your neighbours letterbox as you can actually be charged with mail tampering... scary.
Letters or videos are fine though.

If it's a communal yard then make some little flags on sticks with a witty saying on them... everytime you see a poop stick a flag in it.

If it's individual yards but no fences I would do as Alty suggested and write a letter to them.
You can even say something about Health and Saftey and that is it threatening your Childrens (or guests) health by allowing their dog to do that. You can then say that regretfully you are going to have to take action if the matter is not resolved by them (the owner)

The only problem here is, I am the one with the dogs. My neighbors think it's my dogs pooing in their yard. It's not, it's the dog that roams the neighborhood. How do I know... size of the package.
So what's nasty is that they thought it belong to my dogs and set it on my steps... see attachment.
PS. My dogs don't poo snow

[Alty]

I totally understand your anger MissMe, I really do. Been there, done that, wrote the letter. ;)

I just suffered through it for a long time, because my husband didn't want to cause a rift. What he didn't understand was that the rift was already there. I'm sure they were at home fuming because they thought my dog was pooing on their lawn, and I was at home fuming because my dog didn't poo on their lawn and they threw it at my house.

Yes, what they did was childish, but still, I'm sure they were very angry, until the letter.

The fact is, I stayed calm and it got resolved. We found out later that the culprit was a little red dog that, like the lab in your post, was allowed to roam free. I watched him go from yard to yard leaving his little presents.

One day I caught him, read his tag, went to his owners house with a huge bag of poo, rang the doorbell and said "Here's your dog and here's all the $hit he's been leaving on my yard".

The looks on their faces were priceless. Sadly it didn't stop them from allowing it to continue.

They finally moved. :)

I'd send the letter, go from there. :)

[Aurora_Bell]

Ok I have been that neighbour who has flung the doggy doo.
Also when I was a one dog home, my dog MAx would use the potty in our FENCED back yard, the only time he was out of the fence was when he would be with us on walks. Our neighbour had a yellow lab that is allowed to run free. She was a very friendly dog, but would only use the potty in our yard. I talked the neighbours, and explained the situation, I said if Max ever goes in their yard feel free to fling away or come and get me. We all agreed that the best and safest situation would be for the lab to be tied. Well next morning, as I was out getting the paper, little miss thang came out to greet me, un tied, and then proceeded to take a cr@p right beside my foot. I calmly went and got my doggy poo shovel, and flung it over. The quickly got the message.
I now have a neighbour who has cats that come over and poo in my yard.
And this same neighbour told me that he is tired of cleaning up MY dogs poo. My dogs are still behind a fenced yard.
It's a vicious cycle that never ends. *sigh*
You could explain to your neighbour that you know how frustrating it is cleaning up after another persons dog, and then kindly explian about the size differences in the poo's.
Or you could take pictures of the neighbours dog pooing in their or your yard.

[Just Dahlia]

We had a back neighbor that threw a used baby diaper over the fence into our yard. We didn't understand why, so we bagged it up and walked around the block to knock on his front door. He denied it. We left and he came by our house later and apologized for throwing it in our yard. He said he thought we had thrown it in his yard to start. People are strange.:rolleyes:

I have one neighbor who lets their dog 'Orlando' roam free all the time. All the neighbors have asked them to stop doing this. My other neighbor takes her walks every morning and collects all the dog poop she can find and leaves it in bags at their house on her way home.:)