I got a call today from a women who was having issues with her neighbors. Or more pointedly, her neighbors were having issues with her new puppy. Apparently because of a circumstance we don’t need to go into here. The puppy has been  barking while she is away from the house.

Rarely do people deal with this situation gracefully. Usually the neighbors wait until they can’t stand the barking any longer, they feel they are being driven slowly insane and they have no idea how to talk to the dog’s owner about it. So they go straight to the local council and make an “anonymous” complaint. Make no mistake, the owner of the dog is pretty sure who made the complaint and will now be very put out that you anonymously complained instead of coming directly to her.

So why didn’t they go to the owner first? Well, they may have. However, many people just are not sure how to deal with a situation that involves a neighbor. They are worried that if they confront the neighbor directly that they could start a neighbor feud. But if they “beat around the bush” too much the neighbor may not realise the seriousness of the situation. So they go directly to the council.

So if you are a dog owner and your neighbor has complained about your dog what should you do? However your neighbor has approached the situation; angry letter in the post, a note at the door, rumours around the neighbourhood, or simply going to the council. Don’t over react and don’t confront the neighbor directly. DO NOT write a letter  telling them how much of a coward they are and that it probably wasn’t YOUR dog barking anyway, so they must have made a mistake.

Call around, seek advice from a trainer, maybe more than one trainer, get a couple of opinions on how to solve the particular problem (usually barking). Most importantly, if the advice is safe and makes sense then DO what the trainer recommends.

Then, and also very important, is to acknowledge your neighbor’s worries. Write a nice letter, letting them know that you received a complaint, that you are taking it seriously, and that you have contacted an animal behaviorist and/or trainer and you are taking steps to remedy the situation. If you do this you can diffuse the situation and keep it from escalating. Because really the last thing anyone wants is neighbors they don’t get along with.