To want to punch my next door neighbours in the face??

[DaphneMoon1]

Joking. Not really.

We live in a flat. I'm pregnant with #1 and our flat is up for sale as we want to move into a bigger place. The housing market is rubbish round here just now and not much is happening.

A couple around our age moved in next door a few months ago. Seem nice enough when you run into them on the stairs, say hello in passing etc. husband and I work full time so don't see much of them (no idea what they do but when I was off sick last week I heard one of them in their flat all day so maybe students?)

A month or so ago they bought a husky puppy. An odd choice for a flat which I know for a fact is even smaller than ours (really saying something!) but that's up to them I guess. I like dogs, and he's a lovely wee thing, very friendly. They're out with him a lot, we hear them coming and going all the time with him.

However, they keep letting him pee all over the stairwell, and there is dog shite all over the back path. They just don't seem to want to clean up after him at all and tbh it's driving me over the edge.

I chapped their door last week for a chat, and I was very nice. I said I knew how hard it was with a puppy, accidents happen etc but please could they be a bit more careful about cleaning up after him. The bloke was apologetic (if a little embarrassed - quite sure from his reaction that he knew what I was going to say before I said it) and said they'd try to be more "diligent".

There is still shit on the path but to be fair it looks like they've been making more of an effort to clean it up. The pee in the stairwell is still there though. It stinks and it's always in the exact same spot. It's driving me mad. The dog has also chewed up a big wad of paper which is now in bits all over the stairs. He is noisy and they're constantly banging the external doors taking him out at 12am, 1am etc. which makes our flat shake.

I'm not a confrontational person (neither is my husband). We're both quite shy and I really don't want to speak to them again about this tbh (I shouldn't bloody have to!!) I wondered if anyone had any bright ideas? Other neighbours in the block have moaned about the issue but no one seems willing to speak up.

I'd seek advice from environmental health and I would try having another friendly talk with your neighbour. That's terribly antisocial behaviour and you shouldn't have to put up with it, you're right that it shouldn't be up to you to have to raise this again with them but unfortunately no one else seems to be stepping up to do this. Hope you sell soon .

The puppy is noisy, wees and poohs.
One thing for certain, the puppy will get bigger and so will it's noise level and volume of 'output'

If the dog always pees in the same spot, he's marked that as 'his' . The only way to stop him returning is to wash the area with a 'non-biological' solution.

The paper - should have been picked up ( I would sweep it into a pile and leave it by his door I reckon) and the poo? If I could I'd hose it into a pile right outside their window but that would only work if it's on the ground floor.

Statistically , the poor little blighter won't be there for long, a huge % of puppies don't stay in their first home but what utter pillocks buying a husky puppy in the situation they are living in

One thing for sure - if you let it continue, they'll think it's okay and they'll carry on.

YANBU. When I was pregnant I had to listen to dance music for several hours a day right through into the night sometimes. No amount of complaints to council, police, DH upstairs all the time telling them to turn it down etc made it stop (different country, impossible to get anything done). I fantasised about having a bazouka or rocket launcher that went through our ceiling and blew all of upstairs away. PG hormones didn't help with my rage.

I like the suggestion of posting the shit back through the door, or leaving little piles of it right outside their door ready for them to step on as they leave.

Are they renting? I'd report them to their landlord. And get environmental health involved.

Gosh I feel so sorry for you OP. Personally I would try one more one more "nice" approach, leave it a couple of days and then bombard landlord, environmental health and anybody else I could think of if the situation was no better. In the meanwhile I would squirt copious amounts of bleach over the offending areas.

If the dog is peeing in the same spot (or there abouts), it's marking not just emptying its bladder. It's basically saying to any other dog, "Hello, I live here, have a good sniff and know all about me".

The owners need to get an enzymatic cleaner and remove the dog away from any tempting stairwell spots. Otherwise any other dog will come along and pee over the same spot. That spot then becomes the local dog message board.

You can't force them to take the dog training but get yourself over to 'The Dog House' section and ask for recommendations for cleaners. I would be tempted to buy some and explain/give it to the neighbours.

Also agree with pp re. selling and neighbour disputes. Would/could you do clean ups yourself for the short term?

70isaLimitNotaTarget is right - once a spot smells of pee, the puppy will see it as a toilet and keep weeing there.

It needs cleaning, NOT with bleach, as that leaves a urea compound (or something) and makes the weeing habit worse. Fairy liquid doesn't leave those problematic compounds, or maybe Jeyes fluid would be wise for a really deep clean. Hopefully the stairwell is not carpeted.

Also agree with the poster to avoid a formal dispute - it's the last thing you need while selling.

And also agree with pp's re: husky / flat combo - that's really quite naive considering the breed traits.

Putting the pee/dog shit issue aside, they have a husky puppy in a flat?!

This is utter madness.

Huskies are by nature, a working dog, and as such they need to be kept busy and need their own space. Once the puppy is bigger, there is no way it will have the space it needs, or indeed freedom to roam. And as I said, they like space to call their own, they're very territorial.

DH and I are experienced husky and malamute owners, we have acres of land, so without any close neighbors I can leave them out to enjoy the land. And they run. And run. And run. And run. All day. We even have an acre fenced off with a gate, so when we go out, we leave them outside in the fence off space so they can still keep active. (There is a large kennel, so they take shelter if it rains, but they're indoors at night).

It angers me to hear about idiots like this, who keep huskies in such an inappropriate environment, and this couple are asking for trouble.