Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU? New home with potentially problematic neighbour

31 replies

northernerinlondon · 29/09/2016 15:37

I've been in my new home for a month now, and it's really, really great.

There's just one thing that's niggling me, and I don't know if i'm being far too precious.

On one of our first days in there, we were on our way out when I saw a little schnauzer dog standing in the passageway to our front door.

He was being really angsty and territorial (ran over, snapped at my ankles, growled and did a wee on my doorstep whilst holding eye contact!). Being a dog lover, my instant reaction was to use soothing tones, whilst giving him space and looking for his owner. All the while the dog followed me up and down the street, growling and barking.

The street is a very small cul de sac with only 8 houses, and it emerged that the owner of the dog is a lady in the house opposite. She leaves her door open and lets the dog roam up and down the street unsupervised.

In the last month I've found the dog out in the street most days, being confrontational with everyone who crosses his path.

This I can cope with. It's the fact that he's doing his business outside our front door and up the pathway every.single.day.

The owner isn't watching him, so isn't picking it up, meaning we're wheeling our bikes through it, stepping in it, picking it up ourselves... which I (maybe wrongly?) consider as a big ask for a dog I have zero fondness for.

I did try to introduce myself to the owner once, (everyone else on the street is so friendly!) but she really didn't seem up for it, and didn't tell me her name even...

I don't really know what to do. A part of me thinks I'd be overstepping the mark as a newcomer to the street, if I were to say something.

What would guys/ladies do? Any advice would be hugely appreciated Flowers xxx

OP posts:
dybil · 29/09/2016 17:39

Yeah I've had similar before, an elderly couple letting their dogs run (and shit) everywhere all day. My garden became unusable.

I emigrated. Problem solved :)

Memoires · 29/09/2016 17:44

I think the fact that he craps on your doorstep would justify your dislike of the situation evean to the owner's best mate, let alone her other neighbours. I honestly don't think that anyone will think the worse of you for not liking that and wanting to put a stop to it.

Ask one of the friendly neighbours if they know how best to approach the owner over her dog's shit. Enlist their help, and they will then feel involved and want a good outcome. If it turns out that one of them is her best mate, then that one could even approach her for you.

Otherwise, I'd be bagging the shit and putting it on her step (having left a note informing her that I would be doing so first).

When we moved here, it rapidly became clear that the ndn on one side (a multiple place, so lots of people living there and an estate manager) had had a serious issue with our predecessor, to the extent that one woman actually brought her dog in to shit on our path every fucking day. At first we didn't know who was responsible as she walked the dog early, but then dh got so fed up that he spied out the window for a few days. There was this little old lady, wouldn't hurt a fly, had even nodded to us in the street in a friendly way, this old woman was deliberately bringing her dog in to shit. So then dh lay in eait with a plastic bag and one morning ran out, catching mid-crap, as it were, and thrust the bag into her hand telling to damn well pick up after her bag. She was struck silent in surprise, but cleared up the shit and never did it again. The estate manager always made sure her dog pissed up against our wall though, but we ignored that. Thankfully, she has been moved on for extra training in customer relations and we're OK with the new one.

YelloDraw · 29/09/2016 17:54

RSPCA. There is an amandine do dog in the street.

wotchadave · 29/09/2016 19:01

Years ago my mum got attacked by a dog that was allowed to roam like this.
As everyone else has said, report it.

Boiing · 29/09/2016 20:17

If it happened to me I would probably drop her an anonymous note (at night 😁) cos I hate confrontation. In it I'd be friendly but firm, saying that she probably isn't aware but her dog is regularly being aggresive to street users and is daily fouling the street and that this is illegal. Say that now that she is aware you assume that she will keep the dog in, but if the situation doesn't improve then the rspca and council will have to be informed, which would lead to fines and you cannot guarantee that the rspca would allow her to keep the dog. And if asked by her or other neighbours I would deny any knowledge of the note!

New posts on this thread. Refresh page