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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

My Hedge, My Dogs and My Dratted Neighbour!

66 replies

ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm · 09/09/2012 01:22

Just let my 2 Great Danes out in my garden
Was a bit quiet considering the puppy antagonises the older dog like mad and usually bombs up and down the garden. Then i heard him crying and screaming..
So i leg it outside to find puppy in next doors' garden, (his cries must have been due to getting stuck during his escape)and my previously 5ft perfectly capable of keeping the dogs in hedge has been chopped down to three foot in some places and under in one particular spot!
Luckily the dogs don't venture far as they're both deaf.. if it wasn't stupid o'clock i would be rattling my neighbours door right about now.
AIBU to be completely pissed off? Its taken me years to get that hedge how it is, used to be a raggedy thing.. now people could get in, because neighbours' garden isn't secure, and my dogs can get out (potentially killed or picked up by dog warden) I know i can supervise them, even though thats' narked me as well, but he knows i have dogs, and despite that still got a bit chop happy with his new hedge cutters.

Can i demand that he makes it secure, even if only temporarily until it grows back..if it does before winter, i know it won't gain the extra 2ft that quickly this side of growing season. Its left my home, children, and dogs unsafe now unless i'm out there 24/7 when they are.

Or am i being an arse as it was 'only' 5ft (maybe a little more) anyway and i should be supervising the dogs as a matter of course? If the dogs get out, run over/picked up/ god forbid attack someone (highly unlikely) i would be held responsible so i think this is why i'm fuming.. plus that he did it while i was out

So should i just suck it up, supervise the dogs till the dratted thing grows back, and tell him to stick to cutting his own god damned hedge and cut his sodding grass while he's at it

TIA for your opinions x

OP posts:

Original poster

ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm · 09/09/2012 01:23

In case anyone wonders they are both tagged and chipped

OP posts:

MissFenella · 09/09/2012 01:28

I think you need to make your garden secure, rather than rely on your neighbours hedge. This means fencing.

If they have decimated your hedge, have a polite word.

Solo · 09/09/2012 01:31

Is it your hedge? if yes, then I'd be fuming over that alone! and I'd have to have words. If he wont make the area secure, just get the worst looking piece of boarding/pallet or the like to stop pooches from escaping/rampaging/causing havoc whilst annoying him with said ugly board.
If it's his hedge, then I doubt you can do much except put up ugly fencing to annoy him

Original poster

ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm · 09/09/2012 01:53

No its my fence/hedge.. he can't say it needed cutting, because it was neatly cut, i think i made myself this hole by saying he could cut his side regularly to allow the light to get through (helps to thicken it) he obviously had a new set of hedge cutters (he was borrowing mine before) and went a bit nutty with them it was perfectly alright before, the hedge has kept in two generations of dogs until today.. and the worst is, i haven't anything to put up until it grows back, and can't afford fencing, i don't think they can either.. i feel like a whiner but its really pissed me off .. grr lol

OP posts:

AgentZigzag · 09/09/2012 02:00

I agree it's your responsibility to keep your dogs in, even if the annoying neighbour's cut the hedge down.

If only for the fact that it's them who could come to possible harm when they're out and about.

How do you manage with them being deaf though? As in, how do you get them to look at you if you're using hand signals to communicate with them? Is that what you have to do? If you don't mind me asking

sixlostmonkeys · 09/09/2012 02:05

Oh boy you have my sympathy here! I have had a similar problem.... and it has lasted 18 months :(

My advice is to , somehow, secure the hedge asap. I have had 18 months of supervising my 2 dogs and believe me it drains your soul. The dogs will become obsessed with the escape holes and it will be a nightmare for you.
The hedge won't grow to full thickness until next summer I reckon.
Beg, steal or borrow anything to secure it. It may be unsightly for a while, but then so is the mess a dog can make indoors when it has been too distracted to pee in the garden.

Explain all this clearly to your neighbour and try and keep them onside (my neighbours are dreadful but that's another long story) They may help you find a way to secure it all (and this will put them off ever doing it again.)

Plastic coated chicken wire may be a cheap solution. Stake it firmly along the boundary and the hedge will eventually grow around it.

Good luck!!!!

Original poster

ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm · 09/09/2012 02:16

AZZ.. i have to wave food at them till they learn i am the most exciting thing on gods earth and if they're not looking at me then i will eat it.. lol..
Sign language .. they picked this up REALLY easily in fact no one knows they're deaf unless i choose to tell them.
If they're being naughty they deliberately won't look at me little buggers..

RE the hedge, i wouldn't be moaning if it was the beginning of the summer, plenty of time for it to grow back, well, maybe a little moan about inconsiderate morons
But its on the way to winter which means it won't grow back yet and i'll be supervising in the cold, the shed will prob get broken into, the other neighbour with holey fencing has chickens in a coop which fascinate my puppy, worried if he tries to get in with them..

Monkeys.. they already are obsessed! Worried he's going to get hurt, the older one looks but won't go, he's far too attached to me, being rescued from a DV situation where he was being badly abused ensures that .. poor lad ..
Think i'm going to have to speak to him tomorrow through gritted teeth after all theres nothing like paying for your mistakes to ensure they don't happen again i guess. Just wanted to make sure i had backup and sympathisers lol

OP posts:

Original poster

ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm · 09/09/2012 02:18

Pfft 18 whole months of supervising no way! I walk them twice a day but have plantar facilitis atm so don't walk them just before bed as it makes problem worse in the morning, so its garden only.. best invest in a torch then :(

OP posts:

Solo · 09/09/2012 02:22

There are often old pallets being given away, so you could use one of those...not pretty, but would do the job temporarily.

Ask in places like window shops (double glazing) or on Freecycle. Shops like that can't get shot of them, so are happy to give them away (cousins Dh works in a dg shop and they have loads - London though, so too far from you).

AgentZigzag · 09/09/2012 02:26

'If they're being naughty they deliberately won't look at me little buggers..'

Hehe, that's so lovely

Your neighbour might have thought they were doing you a favour and not thought about the dogs

Our dog used to get out repeatedly when she was a young whipper snapper, luckily our neighbours love her I know it doesn't sound like it, but we were really careful to make sure it was secure, but she'd just find another unpredictable tactic to make her escape.

Original poster

ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm · 09/09/2012 02:35

Nope no such excuse he watches me cut it and i have specifically said not to touch it, was even going to grow it higher after his wife said she was scared of the dogs. So i don't even know why he did it! LOL

Solo, thanks, will do that, though i still think he should put it right

Can honestly say on the dog front, although it has its down sides, i would definately become an advocate for owning deaf dogs..I still shout at them for being naughty before remembering and feeling like a dope

OP posts:

Original poster

ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm · 09/09/2012 02:36

I did put wire in it as it used to be spindly its not them getting through its them getting over.. i KNEW i should have gotten little dogs !

OP posts:

CaliforniaLeaving · 09/09/2012 03:12

Seeing the neighbor has chickens ask him if he has any chicken wire to cover the holes he made when he hacked up the hedge, maybe if he covers from his side with a couple of layers of chicken wire and you do the same it'll work and the hedge will grown into it.

Kaida · 09/09/2012 07:08

Urgh I can sympathise. What a moron! My neighbour on the one side cuts my hedge, or rather gets her gardener to do it, so when I tell her gardener to leave my hedge high as I like it that way, he says the old lady told him to. Cue argument as I point out she has no right to tell him to cut my darn hedge (especially not the odd uneven way he does!) and he insists he's just doing as he's told. But not as dramatic a hedge-reduction as your neighbour OP. I'd be asking him why he cut your hedge and what he is going to do to ensure the safety of your dogs now he's removed your hedge which was doing that. He needs to pay for a fence.

RedHelenB · 09/09/2012 08:59

Get it fenced, much easier in the long run.

HeadfirstOverTheHighJump · 09/09/2012 09:34

YANBU, silly neighbour.

PurpleRayne · 09/09/2012 09:44

I'd also be asking the neighbour to explain what on earth he has done to your hedge - otherwise he may take silence as tacit permission to have a repeat performance in 6 months. If he was cutting it beyond his own boundary without consent then he is on very dodgy legal ground. You may want to state your lack of consent to him in writing for future reference. Makes things very clear, so he can't claim he is doing you a favour...

BonzoDooDah · 09/09/2012 09:54

What an utterly moronic neighbour. I would be LIVID!

And why are people on here immediately saying it is your responsibility to fence in your dogs? You had. I'd be asking the neighbour to chip in for a new fence. The Prat!

Otherwise I'd be making a fence on the far side of the hedge with big sticks and wire etc to keep the dogs in.

Sorry your neighbour is such a nobber. And Exactly what PurpleRayne said about asking him why the helll he thought it okay to do that.

anythingforaquietnight · 09/09/2012 10:11

Are you in the UK, OP?

If so, looking at your post it seems you let your two Great Danes out at 1am to run up and down your garden unsupervised and were only concerned when you didn't hear them making loads of noise?

wisecamel · 09/09/2012 10:25

YAB (a bit) U, I think. The neighbour has every right to cut the hedge that is encroaching on his property (as long as he gives you back the cuttings, I think) so unless your hedge is planted a good foot into your garden, it won't be very thick if he is trimming his side of it.

They're your dogs and it's your responsibility to securely fence them, within your own property.

If he's got trimmer-happy and gone into your garden, then fair enough, but otherwise YABU. Also, do you really let them out to bark at each other late at night? (or have I got the wring end of the stick?) That is VVU.

wisecamel · 09/09/2012 10:26

the wring end! the wrong end

GhostShip · 09/09/2012 10:33

He has not got every right to cut a hedge that isn't his. If it had stray bits going into his side, fair enough, but the OP has specifically said he has cut the height of it! Would you lt still be saying the same if he'd chopped half of her fence down?

Her dogs are deaf, I know my deaf dogs didn't bark a lot because they had no need to. AND I let my dogs out before I go to bed, which sometimes is 1am. They do need to wee you know!

TinyDancingHoofer · 09/09/2012 10:49

He doesn't sound all that considerate maybe he was tired of hearing your dogs crying and screaming at 1am. But if he had a problem he should've come to you and not cut down your hedge. I think he should secure the hedge with a temporary fence or some such.

skateboarder · 09/09/2012 10:56

His hedge, his perogative.
A good neighbour would have mentioned his intentions. Or perhaps he didnt realise how his decision would affect you? Or maybe he didnt care?

GhostShip · 09/09/2012 10:59

It isn't his hedge.

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