Not having the best day in the world today. I woke up with a splitting headache, so bad that I had to take something for it, and then I got sick from that. All before my morning coffee. Yay.
Then my wife took our dogs out into the backyard for their morning trot, and I heard them barking furiously at something. I went outside and was on the tail end of hearing our neighbor cussing out my wife for letting our dogs 'attack him'. I called the dogs in and we had breakfast. Then the Sheriff's Department showed up.
As background...
We rent this house. When we moved in, our landlord told us that the next-door neighbor's wife is afraid of dogs. She apparently had a bad experience with the dog on the other side of their house from us, and she is afraid to go into her backyard when the other neighbor's dog is out. He warned us to keep our dogs under control.
To that end, we do not let the dogs out unless one or both of us is with them. They are never let out by themselves. They are barky but they stay in the back yard and under our visual contact and verbal control at all times.
A few weeks later, I was mowing our yard and I saw that he had an electronics team putting up surveillance cameras on his house in his front yard. He was working with them and pointing at me, making sure they aimed the cameras at our driveway before the opaque covers were put on. The guy is literally monitoring us on closed circuit TV! What? We've never had a party, played loud music, had the police show up (until today), nothing at all except when my MiL passed away at our house and an amublance came a few months ago (and by the way, our landlord told us that the complained about the siren from the ambulance waking his baby. So sorry, we'll try to die more quietly in the future).
Our first (and only, until this morning) interaction with our neighbor was right after we had moved in. We were in the backyard with the dogs and he went out into his own backyard. Our dogs ran to the edge of our property and barked at him. He yelled at us, telling us that we had to keep those #&@* dogs on a leash at all times or he'd call the cops. I went over and introduced myself, told him we understood the issue, but that our dogs were never out without us, and we'd keep them on our property and under our control at all times. He continued to rant and shout about out-of-control dogs attacking him, his wife, and their newborn child. I finally walked away, he just kept ranting. I should also say that this was over a year and a half ago. We have 30-foot-high shrubs bordering the property (fences are not allowed by the HOA), but planted so thickly that our dogs could not get through them if they wanted to, plus he (the neighbor) has put chickenwire at the base of the shrubs to keep out rabbits and whatnot from his garden. No way the dogs can get through, they were just barking at him through the bushes; they could not even see him and he could not see them. The whole time he was ranting at us, I could not even see him, I was talking back to a bush, for God's sake.
We haven't heard word one from the guy since then. To be good neighbors, if we hear his back door open while we're out with the dogs, we bring them in immediately so that they won't even bark at him or his family. If theyr'e out when we want to let the dogs out, we keep them in until he goes in. On the rare occasion when they've had guests in the backyard all day and the dogs are ready to pop, we both go out together in the backyard with the dogs and guard the bushes on his side of the yard so the dogs won't bark at him.
So this morning, my wife was in the backyard with the dogs and she heard the neighbor come outside, but the dogs seemed to be ignoring the noise. She guarded that side of the yard just to keep the dogs away. But the neighbor has a compost pile outside of his backyard in a common open area that is not used by anyone (it's the back parking lot of a nearby shopping center, down a berm, and no one can use it, so it just open space). This common open area is accessible by our yard and his; our landlord has a compost pile in the same area, although we don't use it. Anyway, the dogs heard the noise and raced around the trees to the common area and started to bark at him. He started shouting and my wife came running and called the dogs off; they did not touch him in any way - and they never have to anyone. That's when I heard the noise and came outside and called the dogs in. They came immediately when I called them and went inside, no problems.
So, back to the knock at the door. The dogs started barking of course, and I asked my wife to put them in the bedroom and close the door. I answered the door and there's a Sheriff's Deputy. He got a complaint from the neighbor that our dogs 'attacked' him on his property. He told us not to let the dogs out on him. I assured him that the dogs were in the bedroom and asked him to come in. He declined. So I stepped outside.
I was then asked what kind of dogs they were. Just mutts. What kind of mutts? Well, the boy is 70 pounds and the girl is about 60. They're mixed breed, we think maybe yellow lab and perhaps some husky (the girl has one blue eye). I offered to introduce him to the dogs, he said he did not want to see them. He asked if they had any 'dangerous breeds' in them. He would not say what kind of breed he meant, but I presume he meant Rotty or Pitt Bull or something, which no, definitely not. Again I offered to show him, but he did not want to know.
He asked if our dogs had been in the neighbor's yard, we said no. I tried to explain about the common area behind both of our houses, and offered to show it to him, but he refused to look at it. He said "so you admit the dogs were out of your control and in his property?" Uh, no, they were not on his property. I tried to explain again, I even pointed to the part of it you can see through our front door looking out into the backyard, but he refused to even look through our door. This kind of thing went on for awhile; he kept asking us if we 'admitted' that our dogs were on the neighbor's property and pretended he did not understand what a common area was; if it was not OUR property, then it had to be the neighbor's property.
Finally, he told us that we had to keep the dogs on a leash anytime they were outside, even in our own backyard. He then got nasty. He told me "I'm glad I didn't have to shoot your dogs as I came up the sidewalk to your house just now." Yes, I'm glad too, but we never let our dogs outside in the front yard. Then he told us about all the dogs he's shot recently, including one dog that ate half a lady's face in her living room and he had to shoot it right between the eyes and he wanted me to come out to his cruiser and look at the pictures; no thanks. Then he told us that he had informed the neighbor to call Animal Control if he saw our dogs off a leash, and he told us that if Animal Control came out, they'd declare our dogs a 'dangerous breed' and put them down instantly, not to mention the huge fines we'd incur; we could even be arrested. He said this without even seeing our dogs.
In the end, he managed to get my wife freaked out and nearly crying, the neighbor got away with calling her all sorts of vile names, and my dogs are confused and upset that they can't run round in our own backyard anymore. I'm angry but there is nothing I can do about it. The Sheriff's Deputy seemed to get a charge out of telling us all the things he could legally do to us and how he shoots dogs on sight if he thinks they are a dangerous breed, and was not even slightly interested in seeing or meeting the dogs himself, nor in seeing the backyard where the 'common area' is that he insisted must belong to the neighbor if it does not belong to us personally, which is BS and a lie.
What a great day.
Our 'dangerous breed' dogs:
http://youtu.be/nUKpIn-2LxU
Then my wife took our dogs out into the backyard for their morning trot, and I heard them barking furiously at something. I went outside and was on the tail end of hearing our neighbor cussing out my wife for letting our dogs 'attack him'. I called the dogs in and we had breakfast. Then the Sheriff's Department showed up.
As background...
We rent this house. When we moved in, our landlord told us that the next-door neighbor's wife is afraid of dogs. She apparently had a bad experience with the dog on the other side of their house from us, and she is afraid to go into her backyard when the other neighbor's dog is out. He warned us to keep our dogs under control.
To that end, we do not let the dogs out unless one or both of us is with them. They are never let out by themselves. They are barky but they stay in the back yard and under our visual contact and verbal control at all times.
A few weeks later, I was mowing our yard and I saw that he had an electronics team putting up surveillance cameras on his house in his front yard. He was working with them and pointing at me, making sure they aimed the cameras at our driveway before the opaque covers were put on. The guy is literally monitoring us on closed circuit TV! What? We've never had a party, played loud music, had the police show up (until today), nothing at all except when my MiL passed away at our house and an amublance came a few months ago (and by the way, our landlord told us that the complained about the siren from the ambulance waking his baby. So sorry, we'll try to die more quietly in the future).
Our first (and only, until this morning) interaction with our neighbor was right after we had moved in. We were in the backyard with the dogs and he went out into his own backyard. Our dogs ran to the edge of our property and barked at him. He yelled at us, telling us that we had to keep those #&@* dogs on a leash at all times or he'd call the cops. I went over and introduced myself, told him we understood the issue, but that our dogs were never out without us, and we'd keep them on our property and under our control at all times. He continued to rant and shout about out-of-control dogs attacking him, his wife, and their newborn child. I finally walked away, he just kept ranting. I should also say that this was over a year and a half ago. We have 30-foot-high shrubs bordering the property (fences are not allowed by the HOA), but planted so thickly that our dogs could not get through them if they wanted to, plus he (the neighbor) has put chickenwire at the base of the shrubs to keep out rabbits and whatnot from his garden. No way the dogs can get through, they were just barking at him through the bushes; they could not even see him and he could not see them. The whole time he was ranting at us, I could not even see him, I was talking back to a bush, for God's sake.
We haven't heard word one from the guy since then. To be good neighbors, if we hear his back door open while we're out with the dogs, we bring them in immediately so that they won't even bark at him or his family. If theyr'e out when we want to let the dogs out, we keep them in until he goes in. On the rare occasion when they've had guests in the backyard all day and the dogs are ready to pop, we both go out together in the backyard with the dogs and guard the bushes on his side of the yard so the dogs won't bark at him.
So this morning, my wife was in the backyard with the dogs and she heard the neighbor come outside, but the dogs seemed to be ignoring the noise. She guarded that side of the yard just to keep the dogs away. But the neighbor has a compost pile outside of his backyard in a common open area that is not used by anyone (it's the back parking lot of a nearby shopping center, down a berm, and no one can use it, so it just open space). This common open area is accessible by our yard and his; our landlord has a compost pile in the same area, although we don't use it. Anyway, the dogs heard the noise and raced around the trees to the common area and started to bark at him. He started shouting and my wife came running and called the dogs off; they did not touch him in any way - and they never have to anyone. That's when I heard the noise and came outside and called the dogs in. They came immediately when I called them and went inside, no problems.
So, back to the knock at the door. The dogs started barking of course, and I asked my wife to put them in the bedroom and close the door. I answered the door and there's a Sheriff's Deputy. He got a complaint from the neighbor that our dogs 'attacked' him on his property. He told us not to let the dogs out on him. I assured him that the dogs were in the bedroom and asked him to come in. He declined. So I stepped outside.
I was then asked what kind of dogs they were. Just mutts. What kind of mutts? Well, the boy is 70 pounds and the girl is about 60. They're mixed breed, we think maybe yellow lab and perhaps some husky (the girl has one blue eye). I offered to introduce him to the dogs, he said he did not want to see them. He asked if they had any 'dangerous breeds' in them. He would not say what kind of breed he meant, but I presume he meant Rotty or Pitt Bull or something, which no, definitely not. Again I offered to show him, but he did not want to know.
He asked if our dogs had been in the neighbor's yard, we said no. I tried to explain about the common area behind both of our houses, and offered to show it to him, but he refused to look at it. He said "so you admit the dogs were out of your control and in his property?" Uh, no, they were not on his property. I tried to explain again, I even pointed to the part of it you can see through our front door looking out into the backyard, but he refused to even look through our door. This kind of thing went on for awhile; he kept asking us if we 'admitted' that our dogs were on the neighbor's property and pretended he did not understand what a common area was; if it was not OUR property, then it had to be the neighbor's property.
Finally, he told us that we had to keep the dogs on a leash anytime they were outside, even in our own backyard. He then got nasty. He told me "I'm glad I didn't have to shoot your dogs as I came up the sidewalk to your house just now." Yes, I'm glad too, but we never let our dogs outside in the front yard. Then he told us about all the dogs he's shot recently, including one dog that ate half a lady's face in her living room and he had to shoot it right between the eyes and he wanted me to come out to his cruiser and look at the pictures; no thanks. Then he told us that he had informed the neighbor to call Animal Control if he saw our dogs off a leash, and he told us that if Animal Control came out, they'd declare our dogs a 'dangerous breed' and put them down instantly, not to mention the huge fines we'd incur; we could even be arrested. He said this without even seeing our dogs.
In the end, he managed to get my wife freaked out and nearly crying, the neighbor got away with calling her all sorts of vile names, and my dogs are confused and upset that they can't run round in our own backyard anymore. I'm angry but there is nothing I can do about it. The Sheriff's Deputy seemed to get a charge out of telling us all the things he could legally do to us and how he shoots dogs on sight if he thinks they are a dangerous breed, and was not even slightly interested in seeing or meeting the dogs himself, nor in seeing the backyard where the 'common area' is that he insisted must belong to the neighbor if it does not belong to us personally, which is BS and a lie.
What a great day.
Our 'dangerous breed' dogs:
http://youtu.be/nUKpIn-2LxU
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