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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Kayano · 09/09/2012 10:59

If you told him he could
Cut the hedge and he cut the hedge I don't really see the issue

Buy a fence?

Kayano · 09/09/2012 11:02

But op gave him permission to cut the hedge to let the light in so now he has cut the hedge to a height he finds ok he is getting shit

I would next time tell him not to take any height off OP then you wouldn't have had an issue in the first place

wisecamel · 09/09/2012 11:12

Fair enough GhostShip, he perhaps should have asked about the height of it. He obviously didn't realise that the dogs would get over it into his garden - he is perhaps as pissed off about it as you are. However, be nice to him OP, he sounds like a saint for putting up with your dogs running around the garden barking at night. That would drive me crazy.

Silvercatowner · 09/09/2012 11:19

Are you absolutely sure your neighbour isn't fed up to the back teeth with you letting your dogs out at stupid o'clock when it seems that they make lots of noise??? Perhaps there was an unacknowledged hope that your dogs might disappear into the blue yonder???

Lilylightfoot · 09/09/2012 11:41

His a twat, his wife is scared of the dogs and he cuts the hedge that low. Just get some long garden canes and striped plasic tape blue and white if you can get it.Make it look a crime scien ha ha.

Lilylightfoot · 09/09/2012 12:09

Make it look like a crime scene !

anythingforaquietnight · 09/09/2012 12:28

"Was a bit quiet considering the puppy antagonises the older dog like mad and usually bombs up and down the garden."

The dogs are deaf, not mute.

The OP says they use sign language to communicate. How does that work in the dark?

I know our dogs would bomb up and down the garden chasing all those lovely night time scent trails if given the chance. They are not. My dogs respond to sound and hand commands. Standing in the garden calling them in the middle of the night disturbing both my sleeping kids and the neighbours is not on, so they go out on a lead. Not a problem.

If your dogs go out quietly and in a controlled manner off a lead, Ghostship, thats fantastic, but it doesn't sound like that is the case here.

more · 09/09/2012 14:39

I think you are being very unreasonable. Big dogs like Great Danes need walking min. 3 times a day, not a quick romp in the back garden. And if your dogs are as noisy as my inconsiderate neighbour's dogs walking the neighbourhood up at 6.30am because they can't be bothered taking them out for the walk they need, then do your neighbours a favour by giving your dog to somebody else.

Ullena · 09/09/2012 14:40

Sell whatever you can do without to make money for fencing or a dog run...and take them out on the lead to toilet in the meantime! Failing that, tie them up if they have to be unsupervised. It is not ideal but it won't kill them. I think dogs are allowed to bark up until 10.30pm without the council being concerned.

Ullena · 09/09/2012 14:44

And yes, walk them more. Pay someone else to do it for you if need be. Tired dogs are contented dogs, IME.

catwoo · 09/09/2012 14:58

is the hedge a boundary hedge? or are its trunks your side of the boundary?

Beckamaw · 09/09/2012 15:07

Every time you let the dogs out, herd them into his garden. When he complains, do a Hmm face and point at the hedge.
YANBU HIAT (he is a twat)

Canidae · 09/09/2012 15:18

YANBU

OP had done the job of keeping her dogs in her garden using the hedge which has been in place for years. It was the neighbours choice to cut down the hedge so why should the OP now have to leash/tie up her dogs to go in their own garden?

However you are BU if the dogs are outside making noise at 'stupid o'clock' at night. Could it have been a bit of revenge from annoyed neighbour?

D0oinMeCleanin · 09/09/2012 15:28

Arf at all the assumptions being made. My dogs are not deaf, they do bark although generally not an evening because they like being in the yard mooching about and know they will be brought in if they bark.

I can still tell when they've gone quiet and thus are doing something wrong. Their mooching stops. The mooching is loud enough for me to hear through an open window, that looks directly out to the yard, I highly doubt it would be enough to wake sleeping neighbours. It doesn't even wake me when DH lets out them late and I live in the same house as them.

They go out into the yard every night. They're still walked/trained twice a day.

It is not the neighbour's hedge. It's OP's hedge.

OP YANBU. I have no suggestions though, other than cheap fencing.

Canidae · 09/09/2012 16:27

What does mooching sound like? I don't think my german shepherd is a mooching dog.

StepAwayFromTheORANGECakes · 09/09/2012 16:39

sue him for cutting your hedge and let the dogs run riot .... that'll teach him Smile

Original poster
ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm · 09/09/2012 16:40

Hi peeps sorry been busy today .. i know i made it sound like they were out at 1 am and are regularly out at that time making lots of noise, i assure you that isn't the case. They don't bark howl or whatso ever .. the only thing they do is run down the garden and back again twice, settle down for a wee wee ect

I keep my garden clean as a whistle
I have told him never to cut down my hedge and have impressed upon him the fact that it is my hedge and keeps my dogs and children safe.
I repeat the above they do not bark AT ALL i am very lucky
I walk them twice a day because i am the only one who does it, and they get walked off lead for 1 1/2 hours each time which i think is more than sufficient but because the one is a pup he needs to go out last thing before i go to bed (think he can't hold overnight because he just got snipped last week)
Had a word with neighbour today, i am right he can't afford to put right what he's done or make the garden secure.. sad to say he got a bit huffy so i told him to concentrate on cutting the grass he hasn't cut for years before touching the hedge!
I had made it very clear he wasn't to take off any height, his garden is surrounded by the same hedging and its all 6ft + so why he felt the need to chop mine to half the height i will never know.

Oh and the dog pooped in his garden. I handed him a poo bag and told him not to touch the hedge again, think he got the message.

Thanks for all the replies, nice to see the 'other perspective' too :)

OP posts:
Original poster
ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm · 09/09/2012 16:42

And no i won't be penning up or chaining up my dogs that WILL make them cry and bark .. didn't have dogs to stick them in a run in the back garden lol they're house pets

OP posts:
D0oinMeCleanin · 09/09/2012 16:45

Mooching sounds like sniffing, snorting, claws pattering about on a paved floor, low play growls at one another.

My whippy doesn't mooch when she is alone, the terrier mooches constantly. It can be annoying but it's not loud enough for the neighbours hear.

Original poster
ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm · 09/09/2012 16:49

Sounds like that only my garden is all grass thank god with my two heffalumps.. seems its a crime to let the dogs out last thing for a piddle.. err no i am not going to be walking them at that time of night when a lad got murdered round the corner three weeks ago

Think i'm nuts?

Oh forgot to say, no hand signals don't work at night, i have a clicker torch for them so they know when its time to come back

OP posts:
Narked · 09/09/2012 16:55

You need some of these grin.

Original poster
ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm · 09/09/2012 17:18

LMFAO Grin

OP posts:
Canidae · 09/09/2012 17:32

Ahh, in that case mine do mooch. (loving the word now!) And I thought all dog owners with gardens would let the dogs out last thing at night? I do.

What happens now OP? Dogs and kids free to go in neighbours garden? I totally agree that he was wrong but wouldn't want him to get angry and harm the pooches in any way.

D0oinMeCleanin · 09/09/2012 18:04

My terrier mooches day and night 24/7. He's mooching about my feet now, as I type.

I'm off out on a walk now. Walking is the only time he never mooches, sadly for my father, who only takes us because he wants him to go mooching about in the bushes for rabbits.

He's not a very good terrier. He fails at being a dog most of the time Grin

Ullena · 09/09/2012 19:34

It's nice that they are house pets OP. I merely suggested penning them up or chaining them if they had to be out unsupervised, since you no longer have an effective hedge. It's that or go out with them. Which is not always possible - dog needs to go out, but someone has arrived to service your washing machine, etc.

We had to do this with one of ours when our garden was being worked on as it kept her safe but allowed her to have time outside. She was perfectly content as she could still roam about most of the patio. She hates to be in all day, and just out for her walks isn't enough! Now our fence is up again, she spends all the nice weather relaxing under her favourite tree, and we just leave the back door open for her!

Why do so many people assume that if you have a dog pen or a chain, that the dog is never allowed inside or taken for walks?