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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Not to want a stranger's dog to crap in our garden every day?

104 replies

sleeponeday · 15/08/2017 17:38

So, in our new house we have a lovely local who lets their dog into our front garden every workday to take a crap between 6.30 and 8.30 am. They open the gate in order to do so - very quietly. It's absolute It was obviously going on for a while before we moved in (house was empty at least a couple of months prior) to judge by the amount of shit. Chilli powder on the stones (a local dog breeder suggested that this might stop the dog being willing to get into the garden at all, without harming them) isn't working, and nor are sleigh bells on the gate. Any suggestions on what we can do to deter this animal? And I do not mean the poor dog.

OP posts:
gettingbacktoresearch · 15/08/2017 17:39

I'd put a sign on the gate saying something like you are in CCTV, please stop letting your dog into my garden as it is trespassing and will be reported to police.....

CornflakeHomunculus · 15/08/2017 17:40

CCTV and a sign saying you'll hand the video over to the local dog warden?

ChelleDawg2020 · 15/08/2017 17:41

Get a CCTV camera set up so you can at least prove who the offender is. If you can track them down, you will be able to return their waste to them personally. Or try locking the gate, or put some non-drying paint on it - it will not stop them but will make it more difficult for them.

TheSpottedZebra · 15/08/2017 17:43

Chain up your gate at night?
Put a motion detector light there?
Get up early and catch them?

Anecdoche · 15/08/2017 17:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Trb17 · 15/08/2017 17:47

Jeyes Fluid sprayed everywhere you can. Dogs hate the smell and wing want to crap there.

Second the cctv sign/installation.

CFNDN!!!

Ropsleybunny · 15/08/2017 17:47

Great ideas so far. Personally I would lie in wait in the house and then confront him.

Trb17 · 15/08/2017 17:48

it won't want to crap there, that should have said

Gartenzwerg · 15/08/2017 17:49

Stand by your gate between 6.30 and 8.30 with a steely gaze and uncompromising attitude ?

Theseaweed · 15/08/2017 17:50

Can't you put a lock on the gate?

Are you absolutely sure it's a dog, have you seen it?

Could it be fox, badger or cat?

Original poster
sleeponeday · 15/08/2017 17:51

Lights won't deter them and by now I'm pretty sure a sign won't - what we've done already has made it totally obvious we aren't on board with it, and they are doing it silently which is quite hard when a gate is festooned with sleigh bells, and a creaky iron one to start with! We live on a street with identical houses, pretty much - Victorian terrace - and they'd find it easier to use any other house.

DH leaves the house at half six and we are all up around then. There's no real way to catch them - I have two young kids; I can't sit on the front steps for two hours first thing in the morning!

Motion sensor to alert us they are there might work though. I could then catch in the act and politely request that they fuck off to fuck cease and desist. Or get a camera linked to the net so I can record and see who it is. Problem is, as newcomers I don't know anyone in the local streets yet so that doesn't necessarily get me any further foward.

Trespass isn't a crime and I'm not going to bother the police with this, even if it was. They're so underfunded right now - I can't see how it is their problem.

It's just so foul to have to clean up a dog's crap daily, when I don't even know what it looks like! Was happy to do it after my own dog - but someone else's, not so much. And I am just so shocked that anyone could be this selfish and entitled. I had a dog crap on our path once in the old house - once - and I remember being annoyed they didn't pick it up. Never even crossed my mind someone might treat our garden as their dog's personal crap station!

OP posts:
witchofzog · 15/08/2017 17:53

Make it a game for your kids. Play detectives and let them take shifts looking out of the window. What sort of arse does this? ?

BreakfastAtSquiffanys · 15/08/2017 17:54

Motion activated sprinklers?
(that;s motion as in movement, not motion as in poo!)

AnneBiscuit · 15/08/2017 17:54

Cheeky sods. Could you smear something on the gate so they get it on their hands when they open the gate.

Original poster
sleeponeday · 15/08/2017 17:54

I've never heard of a fox, badger or cat that poos exclusively on weekdays in a two hour window in a city residential street, though. And it's definitely not fox or badger poo. Cat - it would need to be a huge cat!

I can't lock the gate because we'd never get any post. It's a city street - nowhere to put a postbox, and nowhere to leave parcels etc. It's iron railings so you couldn't really even put a proper bell there. We'd have no way to let visitors in either.

OP posts:
JaneEyre70 · 15/08/2017 17:55

A starting pistol from an upstairs window should do the trick.......
How could someone be that rude? You need a locked gate.

elfinpre · 15/08/2017 17:58

Arrange for your DH to wrangle the kids, wait for them and ask them what the actual fuck they are doing.

Or you could install a camera linked to your phone. It's pretty easy to set up.

Twinkie1 · 15/08/2017 17:58

Buy a ring doorbell, it will record and make your phone ring if you set the sensor up to cover where you find the dog shit. Then post to Facebook or print off fliers and post to lamp posts explaining what's happening and offering £50 reward for culprits name and address.

Original poster
sleeponeday · 15/08/2017 17:58

There are some brilliant suggestions here - you guys should be in burglar deterrence! The problem is, we get visitors, parcels, post etc and there's nothing we can set up to stop this person without it affecting everyone else who visits us. It's a small front garden in a city street - maybe 4 or 5 foot wide by 17 long? The path to the steps to the front door are straight ahead, then on the right you have stone chips down all the way to the end, where the bins are, with the grille down to the basement window on one side. It's not like there's alternative access, or it's a nice space for a dog to crap in. It's just a standard city front garden.

OP posts:
Twinkie1 · 15/08/2017 17:59

Then dump the carrier bag full of shit you can collect from the bus day forth in their doorstep in a flaming paper bag.

Hortonlovesahoo · 15/08/2017 17:59

My parents had this for a while. Nothing deterred them until they got a big German Shepherd who used to bark at anyone who came near the garden. It worked as the dog refused to come into the garden itself

elfinpre · 15/08/2017 17:59

Paint your gate red and omit WET PAINT signs until later in the morning.

Catch them red-handed!

Booboobooboo84 · 15/08/2017 18:00

Is it the kind of gate you can fit a loud alarm to that goes off when you open it. My grandma had a pressure alarm that would set off a doorbell in the house. Then you can open the door take a picture on your phone and say wtaf do you think your doing

VaselineIsNotStylingGel · 15/08/2017 18:00

Chain and padlock on the gate.

Twinkie1 · 15/08/2017 18:00

You'll just record everyone who comes into your garden not fucking electrocute them.