Neighbour's teen letting dogs do their business on our property

[WorthyBrickQuoter]

We recently got a new set of neighbours and they have two chocolate labs. The family seem overall pretty nice and they've come over to borrow some stuff a couple of times without much fuss.

A few weeks ago I started noticing piles of dog poop in the front yard. Not on the periphery but actually on the lawn and up around the side. The image below pretty much shows what our house is like compared to the neighbours, for context. I had a look at the security footage and sure enough it's the new neighbours, specifically their teen boy (looks to be around 16-17). He walks the two dogs off leash and we're the first yard they pass. He lets them wander up all the way into the yard since they both pee on the flower bed we have (pretty much the same location as those plants up against the wooden part). They wander pretty far up and around the side as well, which is where I have found the poop. I've also found poop on the lawn. It's probably happened close to 10 times now.

The boy just lets the dogs wander up the lawn and watches them, and when they come back he walks off. Makes no attempt to call them. He even lets them wander onto the porch where they will have a sniff and pee up against the front door/wall.

Would it be unreasonable to camp by the door and approach him next time? Or call his parents to complain? I don't want to muddy the relationship with his family but it's getting to be quite annoying. We don't have dogs so I don't have dog poo bags, I've been using generic plastic bags but am fast running out.

I'm really starting to despair more and more about some of the questions asked on this forum.

In what world/planet/universe could it ever possibly be unreasonable, to politely tell your neighbour they need to stop allowing their dog to shit on your property?

Seriously??

As an extra step, a liberal dusting of chilli powder or cayenne pepper over your garden/locations where the dog does its business will deter the dog (it doesn't hurt the dog, they hate the smell). Dogs will scent mark so you need to scrub your front door clean (you can get special cleaner for dog smells). Allowing a dog to pee up against your front door is beyond vile!

Surely you'd just go round and tell them ?
Camping out ??
Giving them dog poo bags ?
Why does everything have to be so complicated on MN

As for people shovelling it back through the letterbox ? Yea right.

I had an image of that poster banging a tambourine on her head as she did all that angry typing! 🙈

So instead of telling the neighbours their cat was pooing in your garden and showing them, you took to throwing it all over first?

This place is insane sometimes. The neighbours by your own account seem nice, just go and talk to them! No need to immediately jump to the nuclear option!

This

if it still happens after you speak to them then I would be putting it on the doorstep

Speak to teen directly. That will hopefully work.

Obviously talk to the parents, preferably the teen himself. Letting them wee up the house is pretty disgusting.

In my head I would:

• Await a week’s worth of dog shit
• put it in a paper bag
• put the bag on their doorstep and light it on fire
• ring the doorbell and run

In reality I would probably have a polite word or post a letter through their letterbox as other posters have suggested

It's insane isn't it, why would anyone need to ask the question and why do posters suggest absolutely stupid things to do when it's totally obvious that you have a polite word

Some of these responses are bizarre. You don’t need to go nuclear at the first instance! Teenage boys are not exactly known for being the most considerate or mindful neighbours. If his parents are good people there’s a good chance they will be mortified if you let them know. It’s completely reasonable to either knock on the door and let them know what’s been happening and ask them to have a word with their son or to send them a letter politely doing the same.

Obviously if after you’ve raised it with them it continues to happen that’s a different issue and you might want to consider another option, but suggestions like putting it back in their garden at this point are ridiculous. You have to live alongside these people so best to keep it polite and friendly or at the very least civil if you can!

👍

Thankfully the cat was killed? How vile

Open the front door and say “what are you doing?”

Thankfully the cat was killed. Are you for fucking real? How nasty, bet you're a peach in real life...

Honestly some of the advice on here is bonkers 😜.

I have teenagers and a dog. I hope they pick up after him and always remind them but would fully support anyone (politely) confronting them if they didn’t. And if a neighbour knocked and told me this, I’d be mortified and send them round to apologise profusely. I’d be asking neighbour to not only ensure he picks up after dog but he’s kept on a lead so he doesn’t wonder all over your property and avoid this happening in the first place.

Open the door and say stop letting your dogs crap on our property. Let them crap on your lawn, driveway etc. Have a chat with the parents to let them know what’s happening and say if it happens again and you know it’s from their dogs (security camera) you’ll put the dog mess on their front step, entrance for them to clear up.

Tell the parents their dogs do not have permission to be in your garden, whether defecating or not.

I'd knock the door, explain whats happening (this is totally something my lazy ass teens would do) and ask them nicely to get the teen to stop.

If happens again dump it on their path, everytime

In today’s episode of things that never happened….

Postbit back through their letter box

Hopefully it didn't happen

But there are some people out there who definitely do things like this so unfortunately I didn't find it hard to believe

Exactly.

I had basically the same issue with new neighbours and had a couple of confrontations. They were surly but eventually put up a fence.