Neighbour HATES my dog!

[Canecorsomummy]

Hi everyone!

I’ve lived in my house for over 9 years now, have owned a poodle cross for 8 of those years. April last year I got a Cane Corso puppy, spoke to this certain neighbour informing her, gave her my number and told her if there was any problems with barking etc, especially if I’m not home, then go please let me know so I can resolve it but she has done nothing but cause me problems ever since.

Last year I was taking rubbish to the bins and the CC followed me out and was being fussed over by my neighbour on the other side of my house. 24 hours later the other neighbour put a computer typed letter through my letterbox stating the car park is not a place to walk a dog, it is illegal for her not to be on a lead and if she sees it happening again she is going to report me for having a out of control dog and her being a dangerous breed!! I sent her a text message explaining the law very basically for her and explaining under no circumstances will she be putting notes through my letterbox over something which could be dealt with by an adult conversation.

Well, since April this year she has made numerous reports to RSPCA claiming I’m neglecting her, abusing her and now a report to Social Services claiming I’m not only neglecting my CC, but she is a dangerous breed and I have a young child in my home!

I have absolutely had enough now!! My back door is normally open 24 hours as I have an enclosed garden but I’m petrified to allow the dog to be able to go in and out at her free will because of this neighbour, petrified I’m going to be approached by rspca/police when I’m out walking her ….

I just don’t know what to do now.

@Canecorsomummy seriously step away and give your dogs and DC some of your time and energy. Too many posters are not listening to you, and making up their own minds about how you care for your dogs and DC. If people won't listen you're wasting your time.

Both of my dogs are professionally groomed on a regular timetable, both registered with reputable vets and I don’t mean charity based ones, both get numerous walks a day and I don’t mean just locally either! My CC also goes to a canine dog pool on a regular basis

No-one with an atom of common sense would leave any child with any dog unsupervised. Fortunately the people with the dogs on here have the common sense not to. Clearly you do not have dogs or understand dogs or else you wouldn't ask such ridiculous questions.

For those concerned about dangerous dogs specifically XL that are not muzzled and not on a lead you can report anonymously to crimestoppers.
Obviously if there is an immediate threat then ring your local police.

That quote from Google is incorrect

We’re not talking about XL bully, people are using them as an example

I know but just a reminder for those that need it for the XL bully problem.

@IsEveryUserNameBloodyTaken the abuse I’ve been getting from a lot of them I’d confidently say they know exactly where to go to report not only an XL but any breed they don’t like the look of

So you got the puppy last April, and it was 4 months old in May, meaning born in February 2023? And the dog is now 18 months old so just beginning to hit adult size?

And you leave your back door open 24/7 so your much larger than average dog can go outside unattended whenever?

and your neighbour has a known history of being frightened of your poodle x?

Surely you aren’t surprised that last April’s unplanned puppy, which was out with you off lead while you were doing the bins last May (and is now near-fully grown and thus absolutely massive) is giving your neighbour the SHIVERS? And that she’s worried about the damage such a big dog could do to a child? Or her?

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/lo-q-nos-espera--17873729755153058/

I have 2 dogs, one that is big in most people’s eyes (a 35kg ex racing greyhound) and I wouldn’t send him out with a dog walker who takes routinely takes their own corso on walks with client’s dogs - you’d need to at least grow some additional arms first!

I don’t doubt you love your dog but you aren’t painting a picture of a responsible dog ownership (an unplanned, free, 4 month old mastiff puppy is pretty hair raising on it’s own. Loads of the dogs currently being sold as corsos are random bully crosses that came out looking corso-ish enough to pass them off as cut-price corsos. If you didn’t get your dog from a reputable, registered breeder (and from your story so far it certainly doesn’t seem likely) there is a good chance it’s not a cane corso (which are still rare enough in the UK to be very expensive).

Anyway, you are definitely being very, very unreasonable to complain about your neighbour putting a note through your door when you put a note through her door just a month previous - she probably assumed you saw it as an acceptable method of communication seeing as you did it first!

Stick another foot or two of height on your garden perimeter and keep your dog on a lead in the carpark and neighbour might start believing you are a responsible owner and stop freaking out about living next door to a still-growing, already-giant dog.

@ChaChaChooey i had no idea my neighbour was scared of dogs, she complained about my poodle barking.

my garden fences are as high as legally possible, with nothing against them that my dog could use them to climb on and fully secure.

Since the 1st incident neither of my dogs have crossed paths with her

I dont walk loads of dogs at the same time, all my clients have met, been in my CC company continuously since I have had her. Some even brought her Christmas presents last Christmas and will also leave bones for me to collect when I’m picking up/dropping off their dogs.

I put a note through her door informing her the police had been looking for her, gave her my number and asked her to let me know she was ok. There’s was nothing threatening/aggressive in my note

My neice (lives in Aussie) has had canes for many years with absolutely no probs at all.

It doesn't sound like OPs dog is a problem but that perception is an issue here.

Yes it might fall under the daft legislation on XL bullys, but the dog is under control.

I would increase the fence height so your neighbour sees less. Your dog in your secured garden is fine. If it barks a lot it needs training to stop. (My pyrenean mountain dog alerts by barking. She's a rescue so we're training her to alert in a different way. Our other dogs help with this because they are not barkers.)

Im so sorry others think its dog breeds that are the problem, it isn't, it's how owners treat them, ergo people are the problem!!!

Im sure if the police or rspca visit theyll see a well behaved, loved dog. Pls stop fretting.

@Dibbydoos I can’t even remember the last time she barked! My poodle on the other hand thinks she’s a rotti and growls if someone walks past too close to the front door. My CC don’t even look in interest when someone knocks at the door 🤣🤣

the first incident, my dog wasn’t running around the car park lose, didn’t look in her direction, let alone at her, didn’t cause her to change her walking route, she didn’t even need to pass her because I was stood in between my front door and the neighbour on the other side who was fussing over her

@Dibbydoos from what information I have about her previous owner who was also a breeder, she was left outside in a outdoor crating type enclosure, food being chucked over to her. She may not be a barker because barking then wasn’t acknowledged if that makes sense

You sound like an irresponsible owner to me, just skimmed your responses but you justify it by saying you grew up with police gsds - cane corsos are a different beast completely, a GSD is very handler responsive and you would have to actively try to raise a GSD that didn't want to listen to your every word.

Secondly that you mention how great her recall is - you say you had her for a year, and you got her as a puppy, so I'm guessing she's under 3 years old which is when the larger breeds will switch on. I think you're being naive and stupid to give her the opportunity to have good recall or not, a dog like a cane corso needs to be on a lead or in a secure field at all times as they're an independent thinker and you can't stop a dog like that when it decides it wants to start a fight.

"I never have her off lead where there is children around, roads etc" it's not children you need to worry about, it's other dogs and adults and it seems you're already being careless with this for giving your neighbour grounds to complain. I say this out of affection for large aggressive breeds in particular bullmastiffs - there are far too many people like you who think they're like any other dog. If you own a dog like this, it's your job to allow it 0 risk to hurt someone/something. Keep it secured, both for the dog's sake and other people's sake who will be hesitant to live life as normal because you have a 40kg+ dog unrestrained. There was a dog walker a few years ago who thought she could handle an XL bully because she had dog experience, and we all know how that went. Never trust these breeds 100%.

I sent her a text message explaining the law very basically for her and explaining under no circumstances will she be putting notes through my letterbox over something which could be dealt with by an adult conversation.

You appear to be very well informed about banned breeds and very experienced about dog training in general. You have a clear answer for everybody which is good but I feel you aren’t acknowledging the fear and distress that similar large breeds can trigger in people, your neighbour in particular, indicating that their fear is their problem not yours. Your attitude comes across to me as a tiny bit goady and over-confident in your very specialised knowledge, ignoring the possibility that even your perfectly trained dog could suddenly turn aggressive.

I also felt that the statement above in bold which is in your original post was slightly threatening….’under no circumstances will she be putting notes through my letter box’ Or else what OP ? Again, I found that unnecessary with little understanding of the way people with less specialised knowledge and experience, think and behave. Maybe your neighbour is scared of you too.

You stated that your dog followed you outside when you went to put the rubbish out. The way you wrote that suggested it was an accident - that you left the front door open by mistake and she got out by accident. That could be seen as both careless and alarming by fearful people who regard her breed as very dangerous. It didn’t suggest you took others’ fear of dogs seriously.

In the final paragraph in your original post you state you are ‘petrified’ of letting your dog out into your enclosed garden yet further on you suggest you have the door open all the time so she can come and go as she pleases. You also stated you were ‘petrified’ of being approached by the police and RSPCA as if you had something to be worried about. Again, I found the faux fear a bit goady.
What exactly are you petrified of OP and why, if you are so certain you are above the law and look after/train your dogs properly ?

I think you would be less petrified if you didn’t ever let your dog off the lead unless on your own enclosed land. And also, if you were more open to fully acknowledging the real fear that large breeds can cause to the public. You know that your dog isn’t dangerous but others don’t because they see and hear about dog incidents on the news where children and other smaller pets are traumatised, injured or killed.

You chose to accept this dog …it didn’t just ’come to you’ as if you had no agency in taking her in. She came along with all the responsibilities a large, scary breed entails.
i see it as the onus being on you to alleviate the fear your neighbour has, even though all your other neighbours love petting her. You already knew her fear with dogs as she was the same 9 years ago when you first had your other dog.
Could you perhaps have anticipated this problem and been better prepared for it…or avoided it altogether, especially as it seems you don’t have a large, private garden away from neighbours, for the dog to be off-lead.

Humans are predators, yet you happily live side by side and amongst humans and statistically you are many, many times more likely to be killed by another human than by a dog.

God MN is so ridiculous when it comes to dogs. OP, you’re doing the right thing. Carry on with your SAR and report the neighbour for harassment. I had issues in the past of my neighbour reporting me to the council and when they came round they immediately said this was clearly a malicious report and flagged it as such. I was young and lived by myself at the time and it was intimidating!

Other posters need to get a grip. Men are more dangerous in society but we’re not telling you to get rid of your husbands are we 🙄

@tresales did you miss the etc part?

CC have been used as guardian dogs because of their willingly to learn and eagerness to please the person they perceive to be their owner.

My garden fence is as high as legally allowed, my CC can’t even see over it when stood on her back legs. The only way this neighbour can see into my garden is from her upstairs windows.

Ensuring my CC is leashed when there is a possibility of crossing paths with her and hasnt even cross paths with her for over a year is far from irresponsible.

I think your naive tbh if that dog turns on your child you’d have zero chance of getting it off them so the fact your there is irrelevant

@LAMPS1 the issue is, it is the neighbours problem. Unfortunately when you live in society there’s always going to be certain things you don’t like or might be wary of but you have to crack on. The neighbour is harassing the OP at this point and it’s simply not acceptable.

@LAMPS1 i fully acknowledge her fear as well as others.

she has never come into contact with my CC since the 1st incident over a year ago, she can only see over the garden fence from her upstairs windows, my CC can’t even get her nose over the fence when on her back legs, she’s not a barker so what else am I suppose to be doing to acknowledge her fear?

@PuddlesPityParty i don’t like that when her adult children are over they’re all sit in the garden smoking drugs which then blows into my open windows but I don’t threaten her because of it!

That breed should not be off the lead full stop in public. You’re putting other dog walkers and members of the public at risk. You say she isn’t a banned breed but then say that you had all the checks done before the ban. Therefore you’re fully aware you own a dangerous dog. She is also a working dog in a residential area. Your neighbour is not being unreasonable and has every right to report you for having a dangerous breed whether or not you deem your dog to be ‘nice’, you absolutely cannot guarantee that for your neighbour. I cannot tolerate the amount of entitled dog owners on here.

Scraping the barrel now. Drugs aren't going to maul you to death

Exactly this!