A new dog in my building

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A new neighbour moved in downstairs from me on Tuesday.

Yesterday, I guess she moved her dog in. I could tell because the blasted thing wouldn’t stop barking.

Yarp! Yarp! Yarp!

I got a pit bull two weeks ago and I was all worried he would bark all the time and disturb the neighbours. Of course he is a complete angel in this regard, I have only heard him bark once. (He wanted to come in from outside and hang out with me.) There’s no way he keeps the neighbours up, he doesn’t even whine.

But that dog downstairs … yarp! yarp! yarp! yarp! yarp!

Bloody thing wouldn’t shut up. I was so proud of my big manly dog, the “fighter” (haw, haw) who didn’t seem to mind the barking at all - it was only me.

Yarp! Yarp! Yarp!

I was feeling so bad for this poor dog, who must have been so unhappy. I mean, my guy doesn’t bark during the day, but in the interests of full disclosure he DOES trash my house out of boredom (we’re working on that) so I have an immediately relevant understanding of dogs left alone during the day. I thought about breaking in and bringing the poor thing up to hang out with us, or throwing treats under the door, or taking my dog up to the window to say hi, or filling the place with ether through the vents so the thing would go to sleep. It’s easy to obsess about someone else’s dog when the damn thing won’t stop BARKING!

Yarp! Yarp! Yarp!

Soon I was as excited as the dog was for the return of its people, partly for selfish reasons (so that the damn thing would shut up) and partly because I knew how happy it would make it. I like my dogs big and calm, but I still love all dogs, even teeny little yappy ones with inconsiderate owners.

Finally the people came home. I heard the door opening and I could hear the barking get much more excited - YarpYarpYarpYarp! YarpYarp! - and then I heard some yelling - “Coco! Coco! Come back” - and the barking receeded into the distance, and then the yelling - “Coco! Coco! Come!” - also receeded into the distance as the owner ran down the street after the dog …

how I laughed. Laughed and cheered. Finally, blessed silence. Poor Coco.

This cannot continue. Hopefully it’s just because it’s a new place for the dog and soon he’ll chill out.

No doubt this will be a continuing story. stay tuned as I introduce myself to my new neighbours, giant muzzled pit bull in hand, with a “Hi! I’m your new neighbour! Your dog acts like an a$$hole during the day!”

2

Why do you make your dog wear a muzzle? Is it just to reassure people who have an automatic prejudice agains pit bulls?

3

Seems to pretty much sum up the 2 reasons I wouldn’t have a dog if I lived in an apartment and it were going to be home alone for major portions of the day: 1. I would fear it would either bore the dog or drive it crazy; and/or 2. there is a significant possibility that it would annoy my neighbors.

4

It’s the law in Ontario now. If he goes out without one he can be taken away and euthanized. :frowning: There is an appeal of the law in the works; we are awaiting a ruling.

5

For all dogs, or just pits?

6

From here:

You may ask, how can they tell if a dog is part of that class, and what isn’t? The answer is: they can’t. To save your dog you need to prove s/he is NOT a pit bull.

Breed-specific legislation like this around the world has caused many innocent (and not remotely pit-bull-related) dogs to be put down, because they have big heads or short hair or somehow resembled a pit bull to somebody. But don’t get me started on anti-put bull legislation, I could go on all day …

7

I’m a pretty huge dog lover, but I find I tend to kinda go back and forth on pits.

On one hand, I have known many wonderful pits/staffs/rotts, etc. In fact, I don’t believe I personally even met a mean, out-of-control “Pit.” I have encountered many crappy dogs of other breeds. Yes, IME it is the owner, not the breed. (I acknowledge that folks in some communities apparently intentionally breed and train “Pits” with an eye towards fierceness. I just have been fortunate enough to never encounter such dogs/owners.)

On the other hand, given the bad press that “Pits” get, I don’t imagine I would ever go out of my way to own one. I mean, it is enough of a PITA when people panic at the sight of my goofy golden minding her own business. I just don’t imagine owning a Pit having any unique benefits that would outweigh the negative feedback I would anticipate. (And I certainly would not keep a dog that destroyed my home/possessions.)

I’ll add that IMO, whatever the breed, a muzzle generally makes it look more aggressive to me.

But this is hijacking your thread into territory we have well-covered before.

8

This is hilarious. Thank you.

9

[Ruthless People]
Muffy, meet Adolf.

Adolf, EAT Muffy[/Ruthless People]

No, I don’t suppose you can have your dog eat the neighbor’s dog but it’s a nice fantasy nonetheless :slight_smile:

I lived in an apartment in NYC in the early 90s. An older, couple moved in across the hall from me. They got a dog. A little, yappy, terrier-rat-dog.

They were out. A lot.

The dog yapped, nonstop, whenever they were out. I really wanted to drop-kick the dog. I moved to another floor in the building before I hit the breaking point and I don’t know what happened ultimately but I know I wasn’t the only person annoyed by it - other neighbors were complaining.

Sigh… I love dogs. I really do. But some combinations of dog+human+lifestyle Just. Don’t. Work.

10

I felt really bad when I got my lab puppy, and about 2 weeks later he decided that barking was really fun. I’m sure the other people in the building heard him, though no one said anything. The worst part was that, as part of his training (guide dog pup) we had to ignore him when he barked, since negative attention is still attention. He usually did this when we put him to bed, which is when we went to bed, often after midnight.

Finally the guide dog leaders decided that he was too persistent and now we use taste deterrents when he barks, and that quiets him real fast.

It might have been a whole new level of crappy for them if he was at home alone and decided to bark, but he goes with us everywhere anyway.

11

I had this exact situation a couple months ago. I called my landlord and explained that the dog not only yapped incessantly, but acted aggressively to my much larger dog, and that I was afraid the small dog would start a fight that it would lose, then I would get sued.

Turned out he was unaware they even had a dog! He told me he would take care of it, and there hasn’t been an incident since.

12

Cowgirl, I feel your pain - though not in our building, the next building over has a small dog of some variant that gets quite upset sometimes for goodness knows what reason. It is probably a good idea to introduce yourself to your neighbours, explain that you also have a dog and then mention that theirs is barking constantly and it is nerve wracking for you because you know it’s because their dog misses human company.

Leave it up to them to fix it but if they don’t within a reasonably time-frame, mention it to your landlord. It’s not really fair to go straight over their heads when they’ve just moved in.

Take cookies with you and make them feel welcome.

13

I agree with Freudian. Say something to the owners, but be as nice as you can. Remember, they may be blissfully unaware of what the dog is doing while they’re away - they’re not there to hear it!

14

If you can, record the dog barking before you go talk to them in case they say that their dog never barks, then you can just pull the tape recorder out, hit play, let it go for a couple minutes and say that what it does all day long.