So I recently moved into a new home. It’s in a nice neighborhood, has a nice front yard and…what’s this? I notice some dog poo in my yard the first day. My sister in law, who lives next door mentions that my other neighbor frequently lets their dogs run around and poop in everyone’s yard.
Well, I instantly start going through ideas. I won’t stand by and let this happen! I could bag up the poo and put it in their mailbox. Or I could throw it all on their front steps! The possibilities are endless!
So the next day I keep an eye out for the dogs, intending to at least squirt them with water when they lay foot on my yard. Not long into the afternoon, I see two little dogs running up to my yard. A scruffy terrier mix and an obese dachshund. Squirt bottle in hand, I run outside. As I raise the bottle to squirt them, here comes my neighbor. If she’s a day younger than 90, then I’m the pope. She’s hobbling along slowly with her walker, making her way to the communal mailbox that’s right in front of my yard. She looks up and sees me and smiles happily and says “Oh you must be my new neighbor! I’m so glad I can tell people I have a nice young lady as a neighbor now!”
Ugh…My plans of revenge are instantly shattered. I lower the squirt bottle and smile back weakly as her dogs are running around in my yard. We make some polite conversation and I finally go back inside, resigned to the fact that I’ll be having dog poop to clean up for a long time to come… Well…at least it’s small poop…
I don’t think it’ll be that long, unfortunately for your neighbor. Good on you for getting it into perspective.
I don’t care for foreign dog poop on my lawn, either, but there are other neighbor activities that I find way more obnoxious. So, like you, I deal with the poopy of a little dog sometimes.
Is there any way you can keep the dogs out of your yard, though? Like, you could talk to her about possible ways of keeping them under control. Boxing up poop and putting it in her mailbox seems cruel, but even 90 year old women can keep their dogs inside, no?
There’s no way she can control them. Both hands are occupied keeping her balance on the walker. Two doggies pulling on leashes would end badly. It doesn’t help that I’m painfully non-confrontational in most situations, let alone one that might end with a little old lady feeling guilty or hurt.
Wait, she doesn’t walk them? They just run into people’s yards? (And is that normal? I thought pretty much everyone walked their dogs b/c you had to to get them to…well, do their business, but based on the Dog Whisperer, I guess not.) I don’t mean to sound like an asshole, but isn’t this situation bad for both the dogs and the woman? They’re out running loose and she can’t even walk them…should she really own dogs?
So, she’s 90 if she’s a day. At most, you’ll have her around for a few more years. If she’s a good neighbor otherwise, get a little exercise and bag some poo. Think of it as good karma.
Well, if you had the time you could offer to walk her dogs for her (on leashes) and then you could control where they poop (someone else’s yard). Then for your kindness she may leave you something in her will (like her dogs).
What you need is a big (Costco sized) box of red pepper. Just sprinkle it lightly (Not too dense, you don’t want to harm them - just make them sneeze.) around the front yard, especially near the borders.
Dogs respond very well to territorial statements, especially those made by scent.
You’ll need to repeat the procedure after every rain. Also, be sure the lady is away from home when you do it. OR you could put the pepper into some sort of fertilizer container, so she thinks it’s just lawn care. Anyway, you don’t want to hurt her feelings, and it’s likely she is hyper aware of anything that happens on the street.
On behalf of all humanity, thank you for putting her feelings before your annoyance. Respect for the elderly is sadly lacking in our society.
I bet she’s like my neighbor across the alley. She’s 98 and going strong. Recently, she fell and broke her hip, but during recovery, her doctor said she was doing better than some 30-year-olds he knew. Mrs. R’s gonna outlive us all.
Lucky you - your neighbor might be in similar good health.
Thanks for the suggestions, even the tiger one!
The red pepper one is a good suggestion and if I didn’t let my daughter crawl and play around on the front yard I’d probably do it. But then again, probably not since I live in Oregon and it’s still basically raining every day and will be for a few months.
Like I said in my first post, it’s annoying but I’m just going to put up with it. Yesterday I was out there with my daughter and the lady came by and was just fawning over her. She even invited us over to her house to play sometime. I probably won’t because I’m antisocial as hell but it was still a nice gesture.
