WTH?

i doubt it....but geez. i don't see this neighbour often, but when i was moving in, i saw her and the dog out in the yard, and we talked about the dogs and sharing a fence and i mentioned then that my female is not good with other dogs. maybe she forgot, but it's not like it hasn't been mentioned before.


(i spent about an hour outside today cleaning the poop from the dogs who lived in this house before from the backyard - my dogs haven't been allowed back there b/c of all the poop - now that the snow melted though i could clean it - i'll wait for a couple of good cleansing rains and then allow them back there. so teagan may start seeing this dog more often (i'm going to put up some privacy fencing as the current fence is chainlink), it will be a good chance to work with her, the thing that annoys me is based on past experience with her, she will hold a grudge that the dog came up onto our lawn. i guess it's just that much more of an opportunity to work with her....looking on the bright side.)

but i am completely freaked out by that neighbour now. you'd think if you were walking a muzzled dog (i hate BSL), you'd be really aware of it and that your dog is pretty close to defenceless....

That sounds a bit premature. She may not have heard you properly. She may have thought you said your dog was friendly.

My rule on neighbors is to keep them on the right side of you.

Personally, I would go over to your neighbor's house, apologize and explain that your dog has some dog aggression issues. Do you have to? No way. But it sounds like IF this was a misunderstanding, you could STILL have a friendly neighbor.

Neighbors who are not happy with us can legally make our lives very painful. They can be vindictive and call the law on us for anything. After enough calls, on area that had no Nuisance laws inacted a noise law so that they could go after someone because of their dog's barking.

Maybe THAT neighbor was rubbed the wrong way following a misunderstanding.

Just because you are a good dog owner who trains their dog, keeps it inside, does not allow it to soil the neighbor's lawns, does not mean that a miffed neighbor could not make trouble.

Right now that person is thinking, gee, my dog who is friendly has to walk around muzzled. Their dog that is not friendly does not.

I would definitely go over and apologize and try to keep this person on the right side of me.

Good luck.

Way cool. It may be too, that ordinary dogs react funny to a muzzled dog. I have never met one with my dogs. But she may have seen that reaction on other dogs as it is odd/different and she did not want to pull away too quickly in order for your dog to get used to hers.

But it is much more likely, as you said, that she is not good at recognizing aggression. People who have friendly dogs are often not hypervigilent. They think everyone's dog is like theirs. On the one hand, we get perterbed when people pick up their dogs or cross the street when they see the big bad German Shepherd Wolf dog. On the other hand, we are often disturbed by people who let their children and dogs barge right into our Big Bad GSD.

I can just imagine how people with pitt bulls and dogs most often confused with pitt bulls feel about the reaction of strangers to them and their dogs.

It sounds like you have a good thing going with your neighbor.

we actually talked a bit about how people are scared of her dog on breed alone, and how stupid that is.

i always feel offended when people react to luc like he's a big bad GSD and cross the street or something....but i have to admit, if people take their dogs away when i'm out w/teagan, even if she's still being good, i'm totally fine with that.

the thing that probably bugged me the most is i have teagan to the point where she might be slightly annoyed, but will sit next to me and not be aggressive if a dog goes past on the sidewalk. she got aggressive when the dog came up onto our lawn - i definitely have to work on her w/that, but it was also to me like a needless aggression trigger. but that's okay, she calmed down pretty well, which was nice.

i am pleased actually - thanks for the suggestion!

i just had to update this....

so this house, and the people who lived here, used to be the bane of the neighbourhood - aggressive dogs, barking dogs, dogs left outside unattended, poop NEVER picked up, lawn never mowed, etc, etc, etc.

i bought a push mower, but b/c the lawn is so lumpy from not being mowed and b/c the people here before used to drive over it and left ruts, the push mower didn't do the best job - apparently they work better on lawns in good shape.

the neighbour this thread was about has a gas lawnmower, and had a friend come over to mow her lawn. we just got back from picking up a TONNE of donated dog food to a husky rescue i'm working w/ (where neb is coming from), and getting neb's crate, and what do we find, but her friend mowing our lawn! which is the corner lot and huge!!!!!

he said they were so happy to have nice, friendly neighbours, and that we were working to get the lawn into shape and keep the house looking nice (i've been planting and stuff), that they decided to mow our lawn to help out.

i guess it's a small thing, but it's one of the nicest things!!!!!!

That is great.

Whenever I have a dog house get chewed up, I put it on the tree lawn before garbage day and usually within the hour it is gone.

I think to myself that maybe someone is picking them up for the humane society -- they have outdoor pens, so I think, "fine."

Then I think that maybe it is some puppy mill, but I reason, "well, if the people's dog is a bit more comfortable, fine."

Well, my new neighbor asked me about the house and crate. I told her what I was doing. And she asked for the dog house. I dragged it over for her, even though her dogs are rat terriers, she things it will provide shelter if the dog is left in the yard for a time for any reason -- they are inside dogs, the people are retired, but sometimes if they need to go somewhere they need to leave the one dog outside. Fine. She seems like a really nice lady, and I am happy to help out.

I am a big fan of keeping neighbors happy with me and my dogs. I used to hope that people would see how I manage mine, and it might make them do better with theirs (the old neighbors), while that didn't work, we can really help others by example much more than by preaching, teaching, complaining, attacking, calling the authorities. At least, that is the tactic that I try to use. It is slow, and doesn't always work, but my new neighbors seem to be impressed with my set up and dogs.