Next Door Neighbours dogs

rogue-entity

My nextdoor neighbours have 3 dogs, all labradors and all neutered, one is elderly about 11years, the other two are much younger. Occasionally they all keep coming down to our house, and the oldest one is able to open our door. She just lets herself in and helps herself to my cats food :mad: . I know I can just lock the door to keep her out, but its an inconvenience to relatives and visitors that pop in during the day.

All three dogs come down when my next door neighbours are away (which is quite often as the kids are in school and the parents work full time). But the oldest one is down every single day, and she doesnt leave easily, you have to sort of push her along the floor (she just rolls onto her back and wags her tail) towards the door, by the time you reach the door she will get up and go out. I wouldnt mind so much but she reeks.

What I am looking for is some handy device/spray etc that I can put by the entrance and the common boundry between ourselves and our neighbours (or just something I can fit near the back door so they wont go near it.. hopefully getting the hint and not coming down ¬_¬.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Heh, I'm reading the hidden life of dogs and it mentions a man who peed around his flower bed to keep neighbouring dogs from digging it up all the time... it actually worked too.
Though his neighbours spotted him widdling around his garden in the middle of the night and were none too pleased, so he settled on using a cleaning solution that contained ammonia.
So apparently the device is your winky and the spray is your widdle.

Maybe sounds daft and/or you don't want some horrible smell hanging about the place... but let us know if you try it.

FranknFurter

Have you tried telling your neighbours that its becoming a problem?
Hell, there is no way their dogs should be allowed wander on your property at all.

Tell them they are bothering your cat and you need it sorted immediately.

If for some reason you can't, then tell them your cat is ill and has somthing their dogs may catch and "the vet bills are huge to get it treated".

Put somthing outside your door that they wont want to walk on, some kind of rough matting, they will soon get the message.
Sounds like they are coming to you because they know they will get the food and attention from you that their owners are not giving them, that is not fair on you and shouldnt be tolerated. The longer you allow it the worse it will get.
If their owners think you are ok with it they will continue to let it happen.

you could try getting one of those 10 euro motion sensor doorchime things, everytime they come near you will be warned and can close the door.

b

rogue-entity

FranknFurter wrote:

Have you tried telling your neighbours that its becoming a problem? Hell, there is no way their dogs should be allowed wander on your property at all.

Tell them they are bothering your cat and you need it sorted immediately.
If for some reason you can't, then tell them your cat is ill and has somthing their dogs may catch and "the vet bills are huge to get it treated".

Put somthing outside your door that they wont want to walk on, some kind of rough matting, they will soon get the message.

Sounds like they are coming to you because they know they will get the food and attention from you that their owners are not giving them, that is not fair on you and shouldnt be tolerated. The longer you allow it the worse it will get.
If their owners think you are ok with it they will continue to let it happen.

you could try getting one of those 10 euro motion sensor doorchime things, everytime they come near you will be warned and can close the door.

b

The neighbours dont care on iota. We dont generally object to the dogs wondering around on our property, its just when they all decide to camp down on our doorstep, and that old dog just lets herself in and helps herself to the food in the cat dish (our cat returns the favour).

They dont care if the dogs are bothering our cat, I have caught them chasing the stray cat we look after on several occasions. They really couldnt care less.

What would you suggest I put down that would discourage them, if it is effective, I have no problems, I was tempted to put up an electric fence around our property so they couldnt come down without getting a nasty shock, but I would be afraid that I would injure the older dog who is about 11. I was also thinking of those sonic things like the ones you get for mice, but they would disturb the cats as well, lastly I was thinking of getting the neighbours to fit those electric tags on the dogs, so when they try to leave their property they get a shock.

The older dog is coming down for attention alright, when you try to throw her out, she wont get up, you have to litterlly push her along the floor, all the while she looks up at you, with her belly facing you (submissive position) wagging the tail until you push her near the door, when you open the door, she gets up and leaves, but stays beside the door. If you go out and chase her home, she runs and hids beside the plants so if you try to get her away, she goes straight back to the door :mad: annoying as feck.
The other too come down, but dont come in. The problem is compounded by my hypocritical mother and granmother, gran always insists on throwing her out, but if there are scraps left over from the dinner and the dog is outside, she insists on giving the dog the scraps. The mother lets the dog in when it starts to rain or gets cold, only fair I guess, although I would rather she stay outside so she gets the hint and goes home to her warm dry bed.

FranknFurter

Trying to think of somthing you could surround the outside of the door with that dogs wont like walking on.......leave it will me and ill do some checking.

Do try and control your cat and not let it on their property, otherwise you give them the oppertunity to say "well your cat"...etc

B

(PS, your mam and gran really aint helping the situation, its confusing the dogs as to whether or not they are welcome. As for their owners, well, a little homecheck from the local spca might be in order, thats somthing only you can decide).

rogue-entity

FranknFurter wrote:

Trying to think of somthing you could surround the outside of the door with that dogs wont like walking on.......leave it will me and ill do some checking.

Do try and control your cat and not let it on their property, otherwise you give them the oppertunity to say "well your cat"...etc

(PS, your mam and gran really aint helping the situation, its confusing the dogs as to whether or not they are welcome. As for their owners, well, a little homecheck from the local spca might be in order, thats somthing only you can decide).

Thanks, its mainly the older one who is a problem because she can open our door and let herself in.

Well, they also have 3 cats too, one is rarely down here, when she does come down, I often give her a little food as the other two cats she lives with always rob hers. They have another one they rescued and she is on her 3rd litter of kittens (they still havent neutered her) these are both queens (one neutered), they also have a neutered tom, and he often comes down here to rob our stray cats food, and he is down-right vicious, when you approach him he hisses and spits, if you go to grab him or shoo him away, he lashes out with the claws. Caught him in my sisters room once and went to put him out, he gave me a nasty scratch on the back of by hand.. Suffice to say, the cats are a seperate problem, and our cat robbing their food and fighting with their cats is offset by their cats returning the favour. Anyway, our cat is a full outdoor cat, in fact he will let himself out even if its lashing out of the heavens, we cant really keep him from going up to the neighbours anymore then they can keep their cats from coming down here.

I know my mum and gran dont help the situation, and they are the ones doing the complaining :rolleyes: I put the dog out and lock the door, I dont even let her in when there are fireworks going off (drives the dogs nuts).

Here is the funny part, if I got an Alsation, left him to roam around our yard, and decided not to neuter him, he would most likly wander up to the next door neighbours, and even if he was friendly with them, he would probably get into fights with their dogs, and even if he didnt and was just wandering around their garden or perhaps robbing their dogs food after they are feed, you can bet your bottom they would be on the phone to us complaining for us to tie him up and the like.

FranknFurter

TBH, in my humble opinion, you are creating your own problem.
Both of your families have your own pets and should only be taking care of your own pets. If they dont, then its not a good idea for you to do anything other than reporting them to the authorities.

The more you enable the situation the worse it will get and no amount of persuasion will make the animals do anything other than what you are allowing them to do.

Your animals should not just be able to "let themselves out" of your house.

I'm of the opinion that ALL cats should be indoor-only cats (but I know a lot of people disagree), but you should at LEAST feed YOUR cats & dogs in a room / area where other animals cannot get to. If for no other reason then the risk of hygene, I mean, you dont know what their animals might give your animals specially if they are as irresponsible as you say.

Do you know that killer cat diseases like FLV and FiV and others can be transmitted to other cats by a simple fight or scratch?
Then *you* will be left with huge vet bills and a very sad situation.
And, a neutered cat will often engage in mock-sexual activity with an intact cat.
I even once had a male and female that were BOTH neutered and spayed and they *still* tried to "get it on" from time to time, its by no means unusual.

Take responsibility for your own animals then you will have every right to complain about theirs, taking responsibility for your own means making sure *they* cannot (even if you think they dont) interact with your neighbours or their animals.

B

rogue-entity

You missunderstood me I think.
We have just one cat. There is a wild cat that we put food out for as well, and where we feed her, the dogs cannot get to. Our cat is feed in the kitchen, but sometimes we put the food dish up on a high point to keep the dog from eating the cats food when she lets herself in.
Our cat doesnt go near them much at all because he doesnt get along with their neutered tom cat. And he (their cat) sometimes comes down and "picks fights" with our cat. This asside, the cats dont cause problems for any of us.

Now, they also have the three dogs. Its only their oldest dog that causes problems, the other two dont come down here unless one of the neighbours pop down for a bit and the dogs just follow them down. I had to feed them one morning because the neighbours had gone away. I left them out, and got the food ready, the oldest dog just dissappeared and came straight down to our house. She comes down for the attention, I am the only one besides my dad and my brother who can throw her out because you have to push/drag her along the floor and open the door, she wont get up and go out until you are by the door.

Just because my cat lives an outdoor life just like theirs, doesnt give them the right to let their dogs run wild and make themselves at home here. I dont want to call the WSPCA because to me that seems excessive and its not my place to do something like that. My granmother may insist on feeding the dogs our scaps, but we put the scraps in a compost bin. The problem is more that my mother and gran cannot get the dog out if she comes in, so unless I am there, the dog will stay in unless my day puts her out. All I am looking for is something simple that will keep the dogs away from the door so she cant get near the door to get in.

The situation is not agrivated or enabled by myself because I dont let the dog stay in the house, and I dont feed the dog. The cat (and their cats) have nothing to do with this.

FranknFurter

Im still a bit confuzzled by what you say but anyways, I understood that you want to detere an animal from entering your house by the back door.

Buy (in B&Q or the like) one of those PIR alarms / door chimes, that activate as soon as somone walks by. Turn it up to full volume and sit it at the door. Soon as dog approaches door, alarm goes off for 30 secs. Keeps going until she steps away rather shocked , and they only cost about 20 euro or so.
Hopefully after a few days she will not want to risk it scaring her again and will go home.

Hope it helps.

B