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Say something to neighbor?

4K views 56 replies 24 participants last post by  mkinttrim 
#1 · (Edited)
I’m just curious what you all would do in this situation. My neighbors leave their golden retriever out in the cold for what seems to to 30 mins to an hour every night. It’s 9:46pm and 20 Fahrenheit with 3 inches of snow and he’s in their back yard barking non stop to be let in because I am sure he is freezing. This happened all last winter and I really don’t want that poor dog to go through that again this winter. Would you say something to them?

I live in PA which I believe has a law that no dog can be tied out more than 30 mins under 32 degrees Fahrenheit. My gf thinks I should just keep quiet because my gsd barks at night sometimes when a fire siren goes off etc and she doesn’t want it to turn into a war. I’m generally a person who tries to stay in my own lane and let ppl live however they want but that dog has to be freezing. I take my gsd in the snow a lot but we are out running and playing and golden retrievers are not known to be as rugged and cold resistant as a gsd. Their dog just sits there and barks and Has to be really cold
 
#4 ·
I might be worried if the dog was a greyhound or whippet. But I would think that a golden retriever is fine for 30 minutes in that kind of cold. My dog spends that much time outside in sub-zero weather, then still wants to stay and play!

So, I'm with LS, I might mention it casually if already talking. But their dog is probably not going to be harmed by it IMO.
 
#7 ·
Sometimes the power of suggestion is effective. If you are friendly with your neighbor and have casual conversations maybe commenting on how when it get really cold that "you" worry that "your" dog/s don't stay out too long in the cold because "you" worry about frostbite or whatever. A comment of the sort might plant the seed in your neighbors mind that it might not be a good idea to leave their dog out so long when it's frigid outside. If they suggest they disagree just be casual and let it go.
A safer way to bring it up without creating a conflict between you, your gf or your neighbor. Just plant the idea and see if it takes.

If a time comes when your are very concerned due to extreme cold and the dog is making a big fuss to go in you have another option. Many towns/cities have noise ordinances and nuisances barking laws. If it's after 10 pm (time usually set) and a dog is barking for more than 20 minutes continuously you can call your non emergency police line and file a complaint of a barking dog. If they send an officer and the dog is still barking they will knock and tell the owner a noise compliant was filed and have them bring the dog inside. Some areas also use reverse look up and just call the home to let them know a complaint was called in.
In our area you can request that you not be identified as the one who called in the complaint. Our PD also asks if you want an officer to come to your home to report on the complaint. We can decline so the neighbor doesn't know who called in the complaint as well.
Dog barking carries a good distance so unless you or the PD tells the owners they won't know it was you and the result will be the dog will be brought in and they hopefully will think twice before leaving the dog out for long periods at night in the cold barking.

I would suggest you check first that you can report anonymously beforehand just to be safe that you don't cause a rift with the neighbors.
 
#9 ·
Sometimes the power of suggestion is effective. If you are friendly with your neighbor and have casual conversations maybe commenting on how when it get really cold that "you" worry that "your" dog/s don't stay out too long in the cold because "you" worry about frostbite or whatever. A comment of the sort might plant the seed in your neighbors mind that it might not be a good idea to leave their dog out so long when it's frigid outside. If they suggest they disagree just be casual and let it go.
A safer way to bring it up without creating a conflict between you, your gf or your neighbor. Just plant the idea and see if it takes.
Look at you. Tricky. I like it.

I think this is a good first step. I agree that you really don't want to start a neighbor war. I wouldn't worry too much at 20 degrees with a golden but through all of winter that does seem long.

Just out of curiosity, does the same routine happen in warmer months?
 
#8 ·
Neighbor wars are the worst thing! I usually try to avoid them at all costs. I would mention the barking and say it doesn't bother you, but there is a law (look up the local law first) and tell them you are looking out for them in case a passerby or other neighbor calls.

A hunting breed should be fine in the elements for periods of time if they are acclimated. I know a Golden isnt a Lab, but when I go Pheasant hunting the GSPS, Springers etc are out ALL day with us in under freezing conditions. By the time we are done I am shell of myself even in my expensive polar gear, and they are still game for more game. But, that is activity too which I am sure keep them warm. They are outside a lot though even when not working. A dog barking continuously to come in would concern me if it was more than 20 minutes.

To be honest I dont let my dogs bark outside at all. I call them in the minute I can tell they feel like having a session lol BUT I live in a very urban area. I can hear my neighbor's dishes clinking in the sink when windows are open. So we do try to be more considerate.
 
#10 ·
Haha I have a retired nosy neighbor who does this with the other neighbors. The thing is, it’s still obvious what she’s doing. So I would be careful about how obvious you are with this approach. I think a lot times, the other person knows what they are trying to infer and usually have enough tact not to call it out or directly address it. But done enough times or with the wrong subject ,and it still can create tension. I’m not saying that this would happen in this case, just a caution.
 
#12 ·
I agree with the anonymous police call route. Having a contentious neighbor next to your home, where you expect to come home to peace and quiet, is stressful. And people are very defensive about their dogs...I see it here in the forums, on tv, and in person in my neighborhood. What one person sees as a "problem," another person may not. As an example, one of my neighbors on my street used to have a springer spaniel that would get loose regularly, maybe once or twice a week (I'm not exaggerating) and run around the neighborhood and poop all over the place including my backyard. It went on for a couple of years. Literally every week, he would be driving his white truck around the neighborhood looking for the dog. Other neighbors have almost run over the dog and complained about the dog. One day I finally mentioned it to him while he was looking for his dog that other neighbors were going to call Animal Control on him and his dog. He had the nerve to tell me, "It's doing what a dog does. It runs out of an open door. What am I supposed to do about it?" I couldn't do anything but shake my head and walk away. Needless to say I haven't been friendly with that guy since. Oh, and 1 day that dog disappeared. My guess, the dog got hit by a car or they took it to a pound. I've got plenty of other dog stories from my neighborhood that includes multiple lawsuits, not picking up dog poop, barking, etc.

My point is...don't start something that you can't finish. If it escalates, next thing you know, "your fence is on my property," or they're cutting your tree limbs off, or whatever. This only results in one of you moving away.
 
#14 ·
Seems fine to me. My dogs even my short haired APBT loves the snow and cold, although she does wear a coat. I imagine they leave him out to make sure he goes potty, I know when I let mine out and I don’t go with them they will want to come right back in to be with me instead of going potty. But if I leave them out there instead of letting them back in they will eventually start meandering and do their business. They don’t bark though, just wait hopefully at the door.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I think I’m going to just leave it be. I wouldn’t really want anyone telling me how to take care of my dog. Lots of you say the dog is probably fine out there so that puts my mind at ease. The neighbor and I haven’t liked eachother since I moved here so I can’t just talk to him about it. I’m planning on moving in a few years anyways so I’ll just let it go and try not to worry about their dog
 
#19 · (Edited)
Dogs are WARM Blooded animals, they are not naked babies--and have FUR, you know that stuff that the Inuit wear to keep warm in TRUE cold? They will not freeze at 20 fah.

A Golden should be absolutely fine until it's WAY under freezing--20 fahrenheit is freaking balmy weather in Canadian winter. My long haired GSD puppy is out much of the evening by choice, she finds our house hot, she loves the cold. The snow, the snowballs, all the fun of winter. She is currently on the doorstep feasting on ice.

I grew up with Goldens. Dad hunted them, and while they were our house dogs, they weren't greenhouse flowers, they got snowed on, muddy, wet, and all survived to be very old dogs.

An hour? Good grief stop helicopter parenting your neighbour's dog.
 
#21 ·
So, I also have terrible neighbors like that. They leave their poor dog out in freezing temperatures and it barks incessantly. It breaks my heart. When I go out to say hi to it, it’ll hold onto my sleeve to get me to stay longer. Disgusting people.

But I was able to handle it through my landlord. I mentioned we were very upset about the dog and considering making an animal cruelty report. And it was handled immediately. The dog is inside and much happier now. If I were you, I’d make an animal control complaint ASAP. It’s so cruel to treat any animal like that. If I didn’t have a landlord that I know would have handled it and got them to take in the dog, I would have reported it.
 
#22 · (Edited)
Seriously.
Warm blooded means just that, our blood circulates at 98-99+/- degrees depending on what species, dogs higher, chickens higher, humans a bit lower, but if you have fur you will not freeze at 20 degrees for 1/2 hour. Even a human naked isn't going to freeze at that temp in 1/2 hour.

Cold, yes... I fell through the ice and literally ripped off my soaked frozen clothes and boots on the way to the house in much colder temps, and when skinny! Did not die. Ran fast though. :)

(Saved a chicken from next door, froze to the ice. I kept her, too.)
 
#23 ·
I am the owner of a dog who will go through his dogdoor to take a long nap on the deck when it's 17 degrees out (half husky/half shep). Apparently he thinks a heated house is too warm...so, hopefully animal control will not get called on me! :)

It could be possible that the golden is just barking because he HATES being outside separated from his humans, but they are leaving him out because they really want him to go potty? It's an annoying neighborly habit, but it may not be cruelty in the temperature sense. ( If it's the potty thing...my friend trained hers to go right on cue, she would stand there watching and the moment he went, she praised him and acted very happy and let him back into the house. So now she has a dog who will run out, pee on cue, and then come right back in. )

@cvamoca
Heroic chicken rescue!
 
#24 ·
My neighbors had an igloo dog house with some straw and a husky mix bitch tethered in the yard. She had puppies in January out there. I live in NE Ohio, and January can be -10 degrees F. In the day time. But they never brought the puppies in. The puppies survived until they were about six months old and two were slaughtered in the road one morning before I went to work. I took one of them and kept it until it was neutered and had its shots. I am not sure what happened to the fourth. But all puppies survived the winter.

The way I know that they had no bottom on that dog house was that one day in February, the wind picked it up and sent it over the drink (I have a ravine and a river out behind my house). I saw the bitch and pups with no shelter and went to look at what happened. I climbed down the ravine and hit some mud and was going into the river when I grabbed a tree and hang on for hours. No one would have found me out there. I live alone and my folks wouldn't have known I was missing or where I may have gone for at least a day. Finally I got the attention of the Amish neighbor working in his timber. I got my dogs to bark and that got his dog to bark, and I tried to make him hear me. Finally he did look over the ravine and went and got a rope. I climbed out. He asked if I wanted the dog house, and I told him yeah, he climbed down and got it.

Another February, many, many years ago, I went down into the drink and my boy, Frodo crossed the icy river to the other side. He did not want to cross back when I called him. Arwen was just a puppy. Finally I ordered him to come and he did and fell through the ice, and I went into the river after him. It was bloody cold. I could have been killed. But I ordered that dog to come and I wasn't going to let him die for obeying me. At the very end, after I got Frodo out, Arwen went in, and I scooped her out. When we climbed out of the drink I kenneled Arwen and Frodo and went and changed my clothes first. Then I took care of Frodo because he was in the icy river longest. Then I took care of the six-eight month old puppy. Well that was stupid. We were in the house a few hours later and she got up to come over to me, and her back legs just didn't work. I rushed her to the vet and explained, and they said, being a puppy, she did not have the layer of fat, and she got a little hypothermia. She was fine. But it scared the daylights out of me.

With a properly sized dog house (not too big) and some straw, I don't think it gets cold enough in Ohio to be dangerous to GSDs. Mine were out at -27 degrees F, and they were fine. And that was the coldest I have ever seen it here. We might see -10 degrees. PA is right next door, and I live near the lake so close to the most northerly part of PA. The dog is barking because he is outside alone when his pack is inside. He's lonely, or bored. We can make laws about tethering and even about putting a dog in under certain weather conditions (which I believe is absolutely wrong and I will explain), but we don't make laws against dogs being bored or lonely. A noise ordinance if you are with a city limits is probably as good as you can do.

As for requiring dogs to be inside under certain temperatures: A GR is a hunting dog. If you do not acclimate a hunting dog to weather, than how can you hunt with it? So we condemn a dog whose breeding is hunting to being a couch potato and never be used for what it was bred for because as humans we would be uncomfortable outside.

Oh yeah, last story I told more than once. I took Babsy to work with me every day for over a year. One day I had put her up in the back of my explorer while I ran back inside the building to do something. It was 50 degrees out, so I did not want her to get hot in an enclosed vehicle, so I had the windows half-down and the back of the explorer up.

Cops stopped and they were going to arrest me because 50 degrees is too cold for a GSD in a crate in the back of an Explorer. What a bunch of weenies. There were two of them, young men, they had no clue at all. She was better than fine. The lady cop, who worked at our building supplementing her pay when we had events, who was about ready to retire, came out and calmed them down and assured them the dog was fine, and I take great care of her. Until some fool suggests taking your dog away for some tom-foolery, you don't know how affected that suggestion can make you. 50 degrees, too cold! How do wolves survive in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norther Europe, Siberia, Russia? How do humans survive without instincts? Especially when too many do not have the brains they were born with.
 
#25 ·
I highly doubt this dog has been bred for any of the conditions people are suggesting here. It’s a glorified lap dog at this point. I know many friends who bought expensive golden’s and labs and the dogs sit around and sleep. It’s a chihuahua in a retriever body.

If the dog is barking that incessantly, it’s either bored out or its mind or agitated. Either way, not great for the poor dog or the OP who has to listen.
 
#26 ·
My problem is more if your dog clearly hates being out in the cold why are you making him suffer out there?

If your dog loves the cold then keep him out all night but if he’s sitting there clearly unhappy why wouldn’t you just let him in. Idk. Maybe I’m just getting older and more bitter lol I want to move to the middle of nowhere and have no neighbors and just live that off grid lifestyle with my gsd like you see ppl do on YouTube. Then I won’t have to care about this stuff
 
#27 ·
I feel the same way. I really want to have a few acres between me and my neighbors. I hate how people treat dogs in my area. We complained to our landlord and they talked to the neighbors who finally took their dog in out of the cold. But before that, they would let it bark all day and night. Why do you have to have people SHAME you to treat your dog right?
 
#28 ·
My feeling is that unless an animal is physically distressed/damaged and no one is doing anything about it, people should mind their own business. People are quicker to act about a dog than they are about a child. The authorities will take dogs out of a foul situation quicker than they will take children. At some point we need to get our priorities straight.

You might not like a dog being outside in the elements. I might not like people using prong collars or e-collars on their dogs. I might not like people crating their dogs while they are at work. I guaranty that there is something that you do with your dogs that I dislike, so, if you don't want someone coming into your home and telling you what you can or can't do with your dogs, or just take them away, then don't be so quick to turn neighbors in.

If there is a noise ordinance and they are violating it, flagrantly, than turn them in for that. Personally, I don't like the idea of going to the authorities on people except for criminal behavior. I don't like the idea of turning in people for stupid rules.
 
#30 ·
Selzer, you are absolutely right on every point.
And it's guaranteed to create bad blood between neighbours-fine if you are someone who moves every few months but if you like your home and want to continue to live there, stupidity can create bad feelings FOREVER.

My neighbour's dog came onto our property, right up the driveway and killed 7 chickens in mere seconds. I had the right, in my province to immediately shoot that dog, for killing livestock.

I didn't.

I called the authorities and told them what happened. They made the owner build a kennel run for the dog--which, feeling so bad about it, my husband went up and helped him build! (Hubby was really angry at me for calling authorities). This was close to 20 years ago. While the owner of the dog completely understood, and we have no hard feelings ever, his late father was furious--and to this day the entire family--father's brothers, uncles, everyone EXCEPT the owner, hate me and by extension, my husband. We all live on the same road, and don't expect to ever move.

Do I wish that I'd "shot, shovelled and shut up"? No. But I wish I'd just gone to him instead of calling Animal control. Neighbours can have very long memories, and I'll never live that down, despite being completely in the right.
 
#34 ·
The dog, whether happy or not, would and will be fine in 20 degree weather for 30 minutes. So there's that...

If you feel strongly that you have a right to decide what others should do, call it in. Where I live animal control would likely decline to follow up, because it's really a non issue.

OP, if it really bothers you talk to your neighbors. Chances are you'll be surprised at how reasonable they will be, and how reasonable this nightly outing of their dog really is!

My brother's cat gets thrown out, rain, snow, or sunshine, for about 2 hours before he goes to sleep. If he doesn't do that, the cat wakes him up nightly for playtime, usually in the wee hours of the morning way before sunrise. Ask. You might be surprised...
 
#35 ·
One of our neighbors' dog, also a Golden, would start the day with a barking session for, again, half an hour. It was her routine and I knew it. Maybe that's what Goldens do? My thought at that time was, "Oh, her day has begun". Never thought anything of it. I had a rooster whose day started way earlier! Nobody ever complained.
Changing your thought process will help. The more you focus on it, the more it will irritate you. I think the dog will be fine.
 
#36 ·
Wow- CVA- can't believe the neighbors who were totally in the wrong are still holding that against you! When you even helped them build a kennel!

I heard a story from my sister about a dog in Michigan who was actually seized from the owners after twice escaping to kill chickens. I was completely shocked by this- that sounds extreme on the other end.

I am with Selzer on this and wouldn't call police except for criminal activity- unless of course that person had already reported me for petty stuff. Then I'll happily call them in, too. I am very much otherwise a live and let live person. I'd vastly prefer someone talked to me first and gave me a chance to make things right than called in the authorities. Dealt with that and really really don't need that stress- life is hard enough.

As for the GR barking, again I'd let it go. Save up your money and move to the woods when you get the chance, but for now you have to live with these people and calling police on a neighbor makes for some real hard feelings.

By the way, that law in PA sounds crazy. Is it designed to go after the Amish puppy millers? If so, I think it could have been more specifically worded to address puppy mills, without hurting normal dog owners who let their dogs hang out in their yard at 32 degrees - which isn't even cold by my dog's standards.
 
#37 ·
By the way, that law in PA sounds crazy. Is it designed to go after the Amish puppy millers? I.
No. Regardless of all the hype, the highest amount of Amish puppy millers is NOT in PA. And it's only in a small portion of this very large state.

it's designed for all the people that chain their dogs to coops and leave them outside in all kinds of weather. Including putting their house near a creek that then floods and carries the dog downstream with zero chance of survival. The key word in that law is "without shelter".
 
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