Have any of you somehow made enemies because they hate that you have dogs???

Hi all, good morning to you and your canines Well I've had a heck of a weekend. I've been having some problems with the people I live around and I was wondering if any of you have experienced this before. They've been kind of elevating in seriousness. It's getting me a tad bit worried, and I guess I just need to vent or something. This is pretty long, so I appologize, but I wanted to give you guys a feel of what I'm dealing with here.

One example of this is as follows: About 3 moths ago, my boyfriend and I were sitting in our driveway/yard with Honey and Sammy off leash. They both listen really well and they stay on our property without us having to nag them, so we let them off lead when we are hanging out in our yard. My neighbor across the street's annoying, beligerant little chihuahua mix that they can't bother to train strutted up onto our property and up our driveway and got in Honey's face. I waited to see what the little jerk dog would do. Honey is quite tolerant of strange dogs, and she has responded to being bitten by neighbors' dogs by trying to play with them. Sure enough, the chi raised his lip and charged at Honey. Honey went into a play bow and chased him off of our property. the dog screamed bloody frigging murder and ran like mad back to his house. Honey (I was so proud ) stopped at the end of our driveway. I walked out to the street, and to my irritation, I saw that the chi's owner had been standing on her porch, and had WATCHED her dog run onto my property!!! She screamed and picked up her dog as if he had been mauled by a mountain lion. She then started running towards me, yelling ''What the hell is wrong with you??? your dog almost killed my dog, you can't controll that BEAST??? I should sue you, I should have that dog put down!!!!!" I was laughing inside at the ridiculousness of this whole thing, so I said "why don't you calm down. Because you were up on your porch, you didn't see what happened. YOUR dog charged onto MY driveway, and tried to start something with my dog. And what did she do??? she tried to PLAY with your dog. Mine is not the problem, sweetie, so why don't you do yourself a favor and invest in a leash." "ME a leash??? What about THAT dog?? she didnt have a leash either and she CHASED my dog!!!" "Well that's true, but who's driveway was my dog in?" That finally shut her up. And ever since then, that snotty little dog has been on a leash every time I've seen him. But I've seen one of their vehicles parked outside my house for a few minutes, and when I open the door to see who it is, they peel away. That happened twice. They give me a creepy feeling that they want to do harm to my dogs if they got their hands on one of them.

Here's another example: This Saturday morning, I took my dogs out for their morning walk. I live in a mobile home park, and there is really no grass to let the dogs go potty on until I get to the main street, which is almost half a mile away. (unless you count peoples' lawns as a potty spot, but I certainly don't let my dogs go to the bathroom on anybody else's property). So I have to walk them down the streets that run through the mobile home park. Sometimes they can't hold their potty until we get to the grass in the front. (one of my dogs is 16 years old, and is starting to lose her ability to hold her bowels, and one of my dogs is a chihuahua and probably has a bladder the size of a thimble.) Plus, they smell the smells of a lot of other dogs' past pottys in the street. So sometimes, they go to the bathroom in the middle of the street. I always always always carry poo bags with me and I clean up as needed every time. My dogs aren't the only ones who go to the bathroom in the middle of the streets, hey it comes with the territory of living in a mobile home park that has no public grass in it. It wasn't my first choice either but it was what we could afford. Well Honey couldn't hold her poo in any longer, and dispite my urging her to wait, she pooped in the middle of the street. She's a pit X GSD, so her poops are not in any way small lol. But I picked all of it up in a bag, and started on my way. This guy throws open his door, comes out of his house, and starts screaming at me. "hey, did they tell you about your dogs yet?!?" I was stunned, so I said "what about my dogs?" "The management said that you can't walk your dogs through the park anymore, because of this G**D*** mess that they make, right in front of my mother******* house. If they don't do anything about your dogs, I'm calling animal control and having them taken away from you!!! This is ridiculous, G**D*****!!!" I was kind of speechless, but I said, "look, Lou (the park manager) cleared these dogs, and he knows them and is fine with them. I cleaned up the mess. And it wasn't even on your property!!! What is your problem, I'm walking my dogs on a leash!!! animal control won't do a thing." "yes they will!!! It's not allowed to walk those f****** things in here anymore--I'm so f****** sick and tired of walkiing in dog s***, and if I see those dogs here again, I'm reporting you." At this time, he had pretty much gotten in my face and started pointing down at me and my dogs in a threatening manner. Keep in mind that this is a full grown man, screaming like a jerk in my face, and I'm a 5'2'' female. Honey was starting to raise her upper lip and I knew what was probably going to happen next, so I decided to take charge of the situation so she didn't think she had to bite this guy. I said "ok, you wanna call animal control, you go ahead and call them and see where you get after you say that you're calling them to report a dog, on a leash, with an owner who cleans up after her!!! You don't say a word when I'm walking her with my boyfriend, but when it's me by myself, you get in my face??? You're a liar, and a miserable son of a b****, get out of my face, I haven't done a damn thing to you!!! and here's an idea for you if you're so afraid of stepping in dog poop---watch where the f*** you're going!!!" I spun around and walked back home. I normally don't lose my cool and start screaming curse words in an argument, but I was so shocked by this guy and his threats, that I guess I lost it a bit lol.

Oh, yeah and 2 weeks ago, I was leaving the house with 2 of my dogs for their nightly walk, and I saw a bunch of lumpy stuff strewn across my driveway and all in front of my house. It was like 10 at night, so it was dark and hard to see what it was exacty. Koko had to pee like mad, so we left. When I came back, I examined it further, and it turned out that somebody had taken a bagful (now when I say a bagful, I mean one of those plastic grocery bags with the handles, absolutely brimming full) of wet, sloppy dog poop, and they had thrown it all around on my property. I know that no one that lives there has that many dogs to produce that much poop in a hurry, so it was like somebody had been purposely saving their dog's crap in a bag or something, keeping it wet, and once they got a big bagfull, they decorated my driveway and the street in front of my house with it. It took Matt and I like 45 minutes to clean it all up and to hose everything down. I still haven't a clue who could have done it, and I'd go to the park manager, but he doesn't want anything to do with any kind of problems anybody is having. He would just wave me off like a gnat.

I don't know what exactly I did to piss people off so much, but I just have dogs. That's it. I'm just a dog owner. They are always on leashes when we walk, and are always picked up after. They are friendly with people, and many of my neighbors love when they see me walking my dogs, becuase they can pet them all and say hi. A lot of people know all of my dog's names by now.

I'm very sorry that this was so long, but I needed to vent lol. If I am going to be completely honest, I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable around here lately. I feel like I've made a lot of enemies, and how I did that, I'm not sure. It almost makes me nervous to walk around here now. I guess I was just wondering if anybody else has gone through something like this, and why they think people like to cause problems just becuase you have dogs. I'm so tired of people

oh hun. Sounds to me like you're getting the brunt of anger vented at inconsiderate dog owners...either that our you just life amongst a group of half-wits (or probably a combination of both).

I really don't know what to suggest. You're in the right, they're in the wrong, but whether you will ever get them to see that is a different matter. All I can say is when you know your conscience is clear, hold you head up high.

At least you do have some nice neighbours who recognise that you a responsible owner, so hold on to that thought.

I guess with the rest of them, they just want something to have a go about. ... if it wasn't your dogs, it would be something else.

As you have rightly said Animal control would do nothing if your dogs are on leashes, and under control. Further as long as you have evidence of poo bags there should not be an issue.

If the park manager has a problem I'm sure he would be the first to let you know. As for the poo throwing incident, I'm hoping this won't be the case, but next time take photos, take them to your park manager and tell him you are informing the police because this is harrassment and I'm pretty sure there's laws against it. If he takes no action, inform the police, log each and every incident, including the one where your neighbour was abusive to you when you were on your own. Make it known that this is happening, the regular appearance of a cop at your trailer will soon deter would be idiots.

*hugs* hope it gets easier.

Well what a horrible situation. The first part I would say is a bit little dog syndrome, just like little man syndrome. They seem to think that big dogs are always a threat, oh! And trained big dogs makes them feel defensive and angry. Take no notice, and just keep in mind the friendly people you know. As for the dog poo, I would also say this is jealousy, I have never failed to pick up after my dogs, and this makes some people feel tjreatened. Its like someone who does their job, correctly and quietly, makes the one who are just medioaka look even worse, so they try to make you look and feel unpopular. You have a lot of friends on here so rant away.

Um - I wouldn`t have my dogs loose in the street and I wouldn`t be pleased if they got into a fight.
You can`t affect how other people behave but you can be responsible yourself. If other people are being childish... that is exactly the time for you to be the adult.

Thank you guys for the support and perspective. It just gets a bit overwhelming when I have to deal with this stuff simply because of the act of walking my dogs. I really appreciate the kind words!!! I guess it could be jealousy that is driving these people. Taking pictures next time there is poo vandalism (hopefully there would be no next time) is a good idea.

ClaireandDaisy: I think you may have misunderstood I was saying that I was proud of my dog for NOT fighting with a beligerant dog, but for instead trying to be friendly with him even though he was being confrontational, and that I was proud of her for stopping at our property line instead of running into the street. My dogs never run loose in the streets, they are always on leashes and with me. The only time they are off lead is behind our house, in our yard, when I am right there with them. They use the bathroom there when it hasn't been raining (it gets flooded kind of quickly). What I was saying was that I was being as responsible as I could have been, and I was letting Honey figure out how to handle this dog on her own, which I knew would turn out way better than me freaking out and scaring him off and making Honey think that something was wrong. Please please don't think that I was letting my dog run in the streets or that I condone my dogs getting into fights....If it came out that way, I do appologize and hope you don't think I'm that way. I just train my dogs to the point that I can trust them not to freak out in situations involving hostile other dogs, and then I let them show me how they handle it without a ton of guidance from me, and when they do a good job (which is every time) it gives me an opportunity to reward them and to praise them about being good on their own.

Thank you everyone for your time and comments! I hope this craziness stops soon, it's driving me nuts lol I just want peace, dangit!!! lol

I also have issues with my neighbours. Well only one set of neighbours. We are the 'young couple' at the old people end of the road...so we're already off to a bad start so far as everyone else is concerned. Even though they could have ended up with far worse than us! Firstly they complained when I was trying to teach my pup to be left on his own. He howled and they said his noise was distressing their dog. Henceforth I couldn't train him to be left and he hasn't been left alone since he was 16 weeks old and developed major SA. I couldn't just ignore them and carry on with training because I run a home boarding business on my property and can't have them complaining to the council about noise (even if it is my own dog) and having my license revoked.

Second issue is in the garden, same neighbours. They have a boxer dog which barks every time I, my husband or any of the dogs are outside in the garden at the same time as her, so TWICE (ever) my dog has jumped at the fence to see what on earth is going on with the barking on the other side of it! To which nextdoor neighbour screeches, "Don't let it do that, it will break the fence!" so now I can't let the dogs out if her dog is in the garden, even though it's my garden and my fence...which I would quite happily pay to be replaced if he did break it with a nice 6ft high one with added trellis so I'd never have to see them again!

It's irritating but I guess you just learn to blank out the people you live next to. What I wouldn't give for a nice detached house in the middle of nowhere with a nice little field to run the dogs off in...

Know exactly what you mean Kalasin! You have to love your neighbours but not necessarily like what they do!

Our neighbourhood is a lot quieter now as my neighbours no longer let their children run up and down our driveway/front of our house shouting and screaming and wuffing at my dogs so they couldn't be out in our garden. I had to get the "safer neighbourhood team" involved though so I guess I won't be flavour of the month but I have asked nicely for them to move their children and not got anywhere over the last few years and enough is enough!

I think if people aren't shouting at you for your dogs they would find something else to have a go at you about as the issue is with them. "Hurt people hurt and blessed people bless" as my Sister says. I have people be rude to me in the self-service things at Tescos and got sworn at once there because someone thought I was taking too long.

I said to my husband I was going to start speaking in tongues if anyone else had a go at me unjustified and see what happened but he said please don't do that whilst I am with you!

Well, just thought I'd give you an update. The guy who confronted me on Saturday morning for my dog not finding a more "appropriate" place to poop confronted me again on Monday morning. He demanded to know if animal control had been by to talk to me yet, and when I again explained to him that I wasn't breaking any laws, and I was being as responsible as I could be in the situation that I am in and that animal control wouldn't and couldn't do anything, he flipped out and got in my face again, threatening me with my dogs being taken away from me, and from me getting kicked out of my house. I called my boyfriend Matt while we finished our walk, and Matt met me at this guy's house. He knocked on the door. The guy who didn't have any problem getting into the face of me, a 5'2'' woman who was by herself not 10 minutes ago, didn't have the beans to leave his house when Matt was standing there. He just sat there in front of the door, with his hand on his screen door holding in closed, as if to keep Matt from trying to enter his house. Matt asked if he had a problem with his dogs, and the guy snapped that he had no problem with the dogs but with the owner (meaning me). Matt asked him to stop confronting me, that there was nothing that I was doing wrong, and that he had no business screaming at a woman in the middle of the street like he owned the place just because he felt like making problems for people. The guy then threatened animal control again, saying "you'll see, you'll see, they'll get your a$$ too, you fat s.o.b.", blah blah blah. He then went on to say "do you know who I am? You don't know who you're f-ing with, man, you don't know who I am! I've got a pitbull in the back, do you want me to let him eat your dogs? Do you know what I could do to your house and your dogs and all of your stuff? you don't know who I am!!!" We ended it becuase he is a dilusional jerk who thinks he is God and what's the point of arguing with an idiot. Well animal control showed up on tuesday morning. The lady was SOOO so nice. She said that there was a report of us not picking up after our dogs, and when Matt explained that the guy is just causing trouble, he got mad becuase there was a tiny little smear of mess that a poo bag couldn't clean up and the guy was threatening all he could think of, the lady rolled her eyes and said that he was just another one who loves to bitch just to bitch. She agreed that we were in a tough spot, with no public grass in the park, and that we were being responsible and following the laws. She said that our dogs looked great and that she was so sorry that this guy was being such a jerk. She even invited us to a ''critter ride'' that is coming up this summer because she saw the motorcycles in the driveway. The guy just basically shot himself in the foot, in his attempt to be a tough guy who likes to threaten people's livelyhoods. Then last night, his 7ish and 9ish year old daughters were standing in front of his house, and they had this look on their face that broke my heart to see on two little girls: It was pure vengeful, resentful, hateful, leering anger and conspiracy!!! Then one of them started throwing her basebal at my dogs, trying to get them riled up. This guy is basically training his two little girls to be just like him. It broke my heart. I'm so darn tired of people, really. Just one question: Do I have a tattoo on my forehead that says "sucker" or "doormat"? Or am I just a humongous biatch and I just haven't realized it yet??? grrrrr. I wasn't aware that the act of walking one's dog was such an offensive task to other people. I was thinking of calling the police, just to let them know that this guy had actually threatened me and my house, but I'm not sure what to do now.

My next door neighbor is a very nice guy and he and his very sweet wife love our dogs. Matt told them about what this guy has been doing and saying to us, and they knew exactly who he was talking about. They said that he causes problems constantly, and that he's a real peice of work, he thinks he is somebody really important and that he is above everybody. At least I'm not his only target lol.

One good thing that I've taken way from this is how to deal with difficult and meanspirited people with a more level head, I suppose. I've just tried to keep in mind that this is a man who has a very dark heart, and a very empty life, and that he makes his mental living and happiness by trying to hurt and cause problems for other people. That might be the only thing he knows how do do, and that is sad. That has to be the most miserable kind of existance I can think of, and I feel bad for him and his kids. I hope he can one day soon wake up and realize what he's doing, otherwise he will never know true happiness or peace in his life.