My neighbour has a new dog. I'm very upset

[stoopstofolly]

I'm posting here to try to get some advice/ perspective. I've lived next door to my neighbour for 12 years. When we first moved in she had a new puppy- a big lurcher cross. It barked incessantly for 6 months as she never took it out. I've lived next door to her for all this time and that poor (enormous) dog never left their very small house and garden. We spent 12 years basically watching it go mad. By the end just seeing it lying whimpering in the garden and making strange repetitive actions made me want to cry. He used to scratch himself bald. He was PTS last week and she has a new puppy- a spaniel lab cross. I said (grimly) to her "Oh, that'll need a lot of walking" but apparently she has dogs for house protection so there's no need to take them out.
Honestly I don't think I can stand another 10 years watching a dog go mad. She's out all day. It's alone. We live in tiny London terrace. DH and I love dogs - which is why we don't have one as its not fair as we both work FT. I've spoken to my cousin's husband (who is an RSPCA inspector) and he said that if the dog wasn't visibly malnourished/ mistreated there was nothing they could do.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Am I being precious? The dog is a rescue, so is this life better than it potentially being PTS? Is there anything I can do? TIA.

Oh Jesus, I feel for you I really do. There's a couple of dogs near me that don't get walked, one goes crazy every time you walk past. It's heartbreaking isn't it?

Unfortunately, your friend is right, the RSPCA won't do anything.

Would they be open to paying a dog walker?

The house is falling down around them so I think paying for anything is a struggle. Also- they just seem to want a dog burglar deterrent, hence the poor creatures never leaving. It's heartbreaking.

If you can find out which rescue the dog came from you could give them a call and tell them what you've told us. If it's a reputable and caring rescue they may choose to visit and negotiate taking the dog back.

Oh. That's an idea... She likes neighbours next door to us (who are also horrified by the dog treatment). I could ask if they be prepared to casually ask them - perhaps on behalf of a friend who's looking...
Knowing my luck it'll be some awful gumtree puppy farm...

I'd be tempted to lift it from the garden after arranging a home somewhere and then sympathise when it's been stolen and suggest a burglar alarm instead.

Some kind of dog underground railway. I'd just be concerned that is end up rehoming new animals monthly. They aren't the most thoughtful people.
It's so frustrating. We're the dogs children SS would definitely be involved, but there's no intervention for crap dog owners. I'm going to look into the rescue idea but without much hope. I assume they lied when they got the dog.

Rescue need to be told, I wonder if they home checked her before letting her have the dog I'm sure they wouldn't have let her have the dog if they knew how it was going to be treated. She shouldn't have animals end of.

I can't believe there are people who would have a dog and never walk it!

In 12 years it didn't leave the house & garden once? That is such a sad story.

I think insan1tyscartching's idea is the best one - is it plausible that someone could steal the dog from their back garden?

I'm not sure about theft but I am trying to find out where she got the dog from. As a last resorting going to email all local rescue centres to ask them if they recognise the dog/ neighbour.
The poor thing barked for hours yesterday. If it doesn't stop I could also get the council notice people involved.
I'm getting really cross about this.

Deffo try all of the local rescues. My friends NDN rescued a dog as a pup and never took it out, it also lost loads of weight.

We managed to track down the rescue as initially the pups had been found abandoned, so the story was in the news. The rescue actually watched the house for a bit to gather evidence, knocked on all of the neighbours doors & then went and removed the dog.

2 months later the same neighbours moved & left a cat behind. Then we saw them asking to rehome 2 Guinea pigs via social media!

Goodness - some people really shouldn't own animals should they? It baffles me how someone could watch an animal obviously in distress, knowing what you need to do to look after it properly and just not doing it. Genuinely quite chilling behaviour.
Neighbour had no luck finding out- said they were shifty about it. Plan B is now to email all local shelters. Shouldn't be too bad- can do a standard email and then cut and paste....

Thanks to everyone.

How distressing for you if you do need help to 'rehome' him, let me know, more than willing to get poor dog to a decent home!

Not being able to exibit natural behaviour goes against one of the five freedoms of animal welfare. Dogs are social creatures that need company and being denied that company I would say goes against that.