Advice please about a neighbours dog...

[trt]

Their back garden fence joins mine and about 6 months ago a fully grown Rottweiler appeared on the scene.

They have built a small paddock (no roof) at the end of their garden and during the summer due to it spending most of its time outside it was a nuisance with its barking at all hours.

I called the Environmental Heath who came to my place and heard the dog and told me to fill in a diary of times, dates etc, and they would send them a letter of warning.

They now keep it in their garden shed at night even though the past few weeks has been Minus 5 degrees, and still barks at night.

My Q is, Do you think its worth calling the RSPCA as I think its cruel to the dog when its so cold?

[eyethenkyew]

Am I missing something here, or don't neighbours communicate with one another any more? I'm certain that were it my next door neighbour, I'd be knocking on their door to point out the problem, politely, and to at least give them a chance to rectify it, rather than reaching automatically for the phone to have a whinge and moan about it to the RSPCA( IF you could ever hope to get an answer from them?), or to the Council's EHO.

Even if you're not on best terms with a neighbour, I guarantee that there is no better way of making it worse than by suddenly having the RSPCA or Council banging on their door to convey what you quite easily could do yourself.

No wonder you hear so much about communities not knowing one another nowadays. Long gone are the days of communication, now it's all a case of moaning and whingeing to the authorities, trying to get them to do our own dirty work, in this case under the pretext of concern for an animal, when in actual fact it's all about a reluctance to get off one's fat arriss to try to resolve it amicably. Give me strength!!!

[slinkycat]

Its not always as easy as that eyethenkyew. I sympathise with trt totally as we have an almost identical problem with a neighbour and their dog.
We had friendly words with them several times about a previous dog barking, only to be told "oh he saw a pigeon" or "he could see your cat through the fence" with promises to stop the barking.
Now they have another dog which is kept outside and cries almost constantly.
At some point it becomes necessary to call in the authorities, when you know that a quiet word will have absolutely no effect

[slinky.kate]

I don't think any dog is necassarily dangerous, a dog is like a child, when it comes into the world it knows nothing more than it's taught, if it's taught to fight and bite then that's what it will do. A dog will think of their owner as their parent and if you teach the dog the rules when young, it will respect you and know that there are things it can and can't get away with.

Unfortunately, people give Rottweilers a bad name, I would happily get a Rottweiler and I know if it was in a loving family it would be the same as any other dog. It's all in the way it's brought up!

Unfortunately I don't think you can talk to your neighbour about it, if they're leaving their dog outside in this weather I obviously don't see them caring about what other people have to say!

I would phone the RSPCA and if they had a word with them and told them that this is unacceptable they might realise that if they don't bring the dog inside it's cruel on the dog!

Hopefully you can get it sorted out, I hate hearing things like this because dogs are great pets and should be part of the family, not a garden ornament!!

[whiskeryron]

I had a friend who was in the same position ( dog barking at all hours of night) he had the neighbour's phone number & kept calling them at night & in early hours to tell them about the dog,believe me after they had a few disturbed nights it soon stopped.