For those of you who have been on CD for ages I have posted several times before about the retired lady next door who has nothing better to do.

I started a new job this evening between 4-6 and left Caleb at home. Hubby is away with work at the moment.
I had to go and see a friend and pick up shopping for a hour tonight between 8.00 and 9.00 pm so that when she shoved the note through I guess.

I got back to a nasty little note shoved through the door saying "my damned dog was whining and barking all night and she was not gonna sit in her house and listen to IT make a noise and upset her while I was out enjoying myself"

she also added about people were always complaining about the noise he makes and she was goona report me to the council who can take action after a noise after a certain time of night

I am ALWAYS at home with Cal apart from when I do dog walking an hour a day and next door is out.

She bangs on the wall at my poor hubby snoring at 2 in the morning, cant tolerate music on, always curtain twitches when you go out and she talks to the dog over the fence provoking him to bark....


looks like I am back to taking him everywhere with me.

I know he does not bark! there is a dog on the houses on the back of us that barks all the time.

I am so cross.

Keep a diary of any complaints she makes to you
of any banging on the wall to hubbys snores etc

Keep a note of the times you are in and again when you are out

Then if a complaint is made you can prove that you are with him and hes not been left on his own to bark "while youre out enjoying yourself" as she kindly puts it

Sounds like a jealous old bat to me! Keep your chin up and keep that diary as suggested,also if possible leave your dog with a friend occasionally when you are out and see if she complains of it supposedly barking when you and the dog aren't even there! play her at her own game,but don't let it eat away at you.There are some nasty people in this world,but what goes around comes around,she will get her just desserts one day :D
Jacqueline.

She shouldnt be putting snotty notes through your door, or naging on the wall tbh. Thats harrasment, and if she wants to sart, remind her of that.

Tell her to go and get a hobby to keep her busy, she sounds like she has too much time on her hands imho! :)

could you video him when you are out so that you have proof?
be carefull,i know someone who had a noisey dog & a horrid neighbour & the neigbour stared putting rat posion down on his own garden but near to the dogs garden to try to hurt/kill the dog by accident!

your not on your own mine is the same from hell.
he complains about our drive where our boy does his buisness,and some barking now and again.
he thinks its ok for him to do as he pleases in his own house but not for others,he rev's motorbikes up at all hours,bonfires at the wrong times etc but it is ok because its him.
he has done this a few times so i dealt with it,i contacted our council and asked them to look at the drive and if i could do any more than i do.they came out which i didn't know and took a look they said that there is no smell etc and i did every thing they reccommend where dog mess is concerned and that there is no case for them to act upon.
as for barking he only does his job,the cheecky git said i don't mind us having a dog as it protects his house as well as ours.
toby is a leo and you can tell when its him because his bark is very deep and i can honestly say 3/4 of the time it isn't.our pain works all day so he isn't here best part of it any way so how does he know what happens on the street.
i have caught them looking over the gate which sets him of at night because he finds it strange and barks.

others on our street know what hes like regarding the bikes and can tell the difference between tob and the others,so i wrote him a letter.
i put that i do not have to ask your consent before i do things in my own home.pointed out to him toby is 1 of 8 dogs on our street with out others behind us.
that he complains of noise (barking) when he sets him off any way,that his quote protects his house.
that i have contacted the council about the drive and there in no case and its all on file,we have been here 6 years and i was the 1st person to contact them.
i also pointed out he is not as considerate to others as he likes to think and he is disturbing the peace between the two homes.
i have never said any thing to him before just stood and listens but not any more if he carrys on i will tell him that its harassment and i will act on it.
i think he has now got the message as he won't look me in the eyes i also told him to live his own life and let us do the same. i was quite tack full but i watched what i wrote and it was all stuff that he had rasied so i was just putting thing straight.
he doesn't consider my kids in bed at 10/11 at night when he revs those bikes or my hubby shift pattern when he has parties and music,bad language is coming from there house with all doors and windows open late at night.
he is a typical do as i say not as i do so i told him where to get off and he didn't like it but i don't care.
this is classed as private harassment and his actions affect our enjoyment of our own home.if any thing did every come about others on the street will stand up for me and tell the thruth about stuff,he knows he has no leg to stand on and all he can do is knock on the door moaning but i have stopped that now if he had a case he would have done some thing about it by now.

She's probably very lonely and can't sleep and the slightest noise upsets her.

I'd offer the olive branch if I were you BB.

Hi,

I agree with ChloeH, she is probably lonely and has nothing better to do. Sometimes offering an olive branch can do the trick, but some people don't want to be friendly, its what they get their pleasure from, hurting others. :(  I have had my fair share of nasty neighbours, which is why my nearest neighbour is now 2 miles away ;) But I know that I am lucky. Perhaps you should inform the council that you are having problems with your neighbour so that they have it on file and then if anything happens in the future you will have a stronger case to defend yourself and dog, should you have to,
Good Luck

I'd go with the fact she's lonely. Does she get out much or more to the point can she get out? a little kindness goes a long way. Offer to get her any heavy shopping in or something? and get her on side. You never know she may turn into a brilliant "dog sitter" ;)

Karen

And I thought I had an awkward neighbour!

Although mine only tended to look accusing and said she hadn't heard the dog barking for a while and what had I done with her? 

She did complain about my rabbits, but when I told her if they were a problem we'd just eat them she stopped mentioning it.....

We offered the olive branch to our neighbour (she's a 71 year old widow), as she's complained about us before for walking around too loudly!  Actually ended up going to Environmental Health!  I was very apprehensive when we got our puppy as i knew when we first left him he would almost certainly bark, and the soundproofing between our houses is crap.  I got her involved by introducing the pup as soon as we got him, and she's now very fond of him.  In fact, when we first left him - she offered to listen out to see how long it took him to settle, an absolute about-turn for her. 

She's now an "auntie", which could prove very useful when he's older, and I genuinely think that most of her complaining stemmed from loneliness.  Please don't laugh at this next bit.  Discarding any shred of professional integrity, after we left him for the first time I gave her some flowers and a card "from Cashie", to his Auntie, essentially apologising for barking and promising that he'd try not to get into her garden and dig holes!  I felt a bit silly, but she was really touched and I now feel our general relationship with her is much better.  Believe me I'd never have said this a couple of years ago.  Luckily Cashie really likes her and I think he brightens up her day.

However, some people are never going to be reasonable, which is sad, but I do think that I judged our neighbour too harshly at first.  i hope everything works out for you.

Thanks for the replies, lots of good ideas but she is not the sort to make peace.  She is non too bright and would love a big argument.

I have shown her the puppy and she visably recoiled away from him,  Not a dog person.

Unfortunately she has her three year old grand daughter staying a lot and one day I had just walked the dog and she was playing dolls on the front lawn, my puppy wanted to say hello and I asked her if she would like to stroak him.  The little girl got up backed away saying "Oh no dont like dogs, dont like dogs, no" and ran inside.

When Cal barks once or twice when I am getting him out the car.  The little girl if she hears him runs inside next door shouting "Nanny that dog is barking again!"

Very sad that the old bag has put some prejudices on to her innocent little grand daughter..

The child's mother has a lot to answer for as well.

There was a silly little twit of a girl (aged about 4) I could cheerfully have slapped at the Town & Country last weekend. It was crowded with people, and this family walked between hubby and me with Harry. Harry looked round to see where hubby was (keep the family together) and the little horror screamed "No, horrid dog, don't" in a very cross voice - not scared. The mother asked "Did that dog attack you?" "Yes" said the brat. Lying little toad. I'm still cross. Not all children are innocent who always tell the truth.

then people wonder why kids are so scared of dogs.
i have tried to be fair with ours and listen to his complaints to see if i can honestly do any thing to make it better but there is only so much you can do.i don't like to hear dogs barking all the time but my lad doesn't.it is a case of live and let live but some just won't no matter what you do.i have know got to the stage that i don't listen any more because if we didn't have toby he would find some thing else to moan about.i have told him that if you think i will get rid of my dog to make you happy think again.i would move 1st the best bit is that when we moved in he had a dog so he should know what dogs are like.but his wife left him and he didn't want the responability of the dog so she had him.
i will not be ruled by him in my own home and i think he has now understood i won't take it anymore.it is hard i used to be ok with him taking in parcels etc with me not working but it changed when he started using our address for his stuff,since then he started moaning.
i don't think we will ever get on but i am past caring or trying now.