How can I kindly tell my neighbor she is not caring for her dog properly?

Question

My neighbor works very long hours so I can understand why it might be hard for her to put more effort into raising her dog. However the dog is extremely unsocialized gets walked outside once maybe twice on a lucky day. He spends the rest of the day barking and pacing in the garage. I don't know much about the breed (shepard) but its very thin with defined ribs showing. The animal shelter says they can't do anything because she is feeding her dog, providing it shelter and water. How do I nicely go about telling her that she needs to provide better care for her dog?

Answer 1

Her dog gets walked once or twice a day. that's more than most dogs get walked. I am assuming that the dog has some place to go potty as well. Many dogs today are overweight, you can see all of my dogs ribs, but that is because they are fit. Very fit. Everytime I go to the vet my vet comments on the fitness of my animals. I asked if they were too thin and his response was "most people probably would look at your dogs and consider them to be too thin, but that's because most people's dogs are slightly overweight or grossly overweight so they would see your dogs and be concerned. I am not concerned because their coats are great, their eyes look great, their teeth look great".

While I commend you for being concerned, I just want to caution you about claiming that the dog is too thin with defined ribs. Shepherds can be long thin dogs. My dog is a lab shepherd mix (lab head, shepherd body, it's weird) and he looks thin with defined ribs.

She is also providing her dog with shelter and water, which is indeed more than some people do on this site.

I think that the only thing that you can do is offer to walk her dog. Only then can you get more "inside information" about how she really is treating the dog. You can find out what his living conditions really are like, you can find out how much food he is being fed, and you will also be brightening his day by giving him some exercise.

keep in mind, lots of dogs bark all day - they are bored, they are guarding and you are walking near. If the dog is indeed barking alllllll day long you are right - the shelter isn't going to do anything. My shelter does not actively go out and take people's dogs away. The dog catcher/animal control only picks up stray or loose dogs (not dogs from people's garages), so the barking can be addressed by calling the police. But before you do that, you should calmly go over and let her know that her dog is barking all day.

She doesn't know that this is happening - she is gone. Maybe by letting her know she may open up to you and say "ohhhh, I am so sorry, I feel so badly that I have to leave him all day, I know it must be rough on him" and that will give you the opportunity to jump in and say "well I would be more than happy to come over and let him out a few times while you are gone, or walk him, or play with him". SHe may really appreciate that. If she is rude or just doesn't care, then when the dog is barking all day, you call the police. And the police will then get to see the conditions of the dog, the weight, the food and water situation.

So either way, through you offering to help/play with the dog, or by going through the police, attention will come to the dog.

Answer 2

First, what kind of relationship do you and your neighbor have? Do you feel like you could tell her Kindly? Maybe you could start by letting her know that her dog barks through out the day and its disturbing the neighbors. Does she keep the dog out there even when she comes home? Maybe you could explain to her that her dogs behavior if left unattended will eventually lead to aggressiveness?! That her dog needs more exercise and socializing and very possibly food.
Maybe you could offer to help her out, if you have the time, and walk the dog for her a couple times a week or something.
Its a tough call and it could cause a lot of problems between you and your neighbor, so take the approach slowly. Drop hints ........
Good luck

Edited after reading above post ..... if you plan on going that route with the animal shelter or you don't have good relationship with neighbor and know nothing at all will be done, then do NOT approach neighbor because then neighbor will know it was you and it could cause many of problems if dog is taken. But I do hope you can make your neighbor see the light!!!!!

Answer 3

My neighbor does the same thing.

This neighbor decided she wanted to know what it was like to have puppies. She let her dogs mate, and lo, and behold, there were 10 pups. Only the mom couldn't feed them all and 2 were shoved off in a corner. I suggested to her to separate 5 dogs so the others could eat and the switch so the other 5 could eat, she wouldn't. So I took the 2 puppies at 3 days. I ended up with one.

I don't know what happened to the mother, she just disappeared. The other 7 puppies? The same fate. The father and son she kept developed epilepsy. Since she was gone 16 hours a day, I took care of them because they had really bad seizures. A few years ago, her brother the vet wouldn't send her anymore meds, so they topped getting them.

I went to my vet and since Polly also had them, though never as bad, she gave me extra so I could give them to the other 2. No, animal control woud not help. They said as long as the dogs had food and water there wasn't any need to do anything. That's a bunch of BS. Alex, the dad, disappeared one day.

Willie was very sick earlier this year. She went on vacation and I took care of him. Problem? He couldn't walk, eat or drink. And in pain, he would just cry. She said she would put him down when she got home.

I had had enough by this time and took him to the vet and had him put to sleep. Her response? Thank God I don't have to deal with that thing anymore. She now has another dog. I feed him every morning and give him water because she doesn't see why he needs water all day long, he just pees in the house and the dog food she has is the same that she gave Alex, at least 4 years old.

There's a good chance that your neighbor won't do a thing, but you can try to volunteer to take care of him during the day. I hate to lay any responsibility on you, but you may be the only hope he's got. Good luck!

Answer 4

Does your community have a noise ordinance in place? If they do, start by calling the police. They won't be able to do anything the first time, or the 2nd or 3rd, but they will the 4th, 5th or 6th, especially if you can get the neighbors to start calling in.

If you are home during the day, you could offer to take the dog for a walk, or offer to dog sit- say something like "I want to start walking, but it would be good to have a partner - can I take your dog with me?" or "I'm home all day, and would love to get a dog, but the responsibility is too much - would you mind if he stayed with me while you are at work?

The anonymous note in the mailbox is a good idea too.

But if you already called in about animal abuse, and they couldn't do anything - theres really not much you could do.

I suppose, you could always break into the garage, take the dog, and find him a new home... but that would be illegal.... and your neighbor would probably just get a new dog.

Answer 5

There are several things you can do. As someone else said you can offer to walk the dog. Just make sure you tell them you understand they work long hours and you wanted to lend a hand because you feel bad for the dog. You could also contact a shepard rescue and explain the situation to them and they might be able to help you out some. You can call the police and report the dog as barking continuously in which they will document the case and brief the owner and if it continues they could be forced to contact animal control and confinscate the dog for failure to control their pet. Finally, if you can check to see if the dog has a rabies vaccination tag and report to animal control directly and inform them. If the dog does not have a rabies tag they will take action. People like this don't need to have dogs. My boyfriend and I both work long hours but we still take great care of our dog. He is well fed, exercised, socialized, and loved and this dogs owner should be able to do better.

Answer 6

I have the exact same problem! They keep there dog tied up in their backyard all day and it will not STOP barking! So I told my dad about it and went over to the other neighbors houses and asked them if they've noticed constant barking they all have said they did. So my dad went over there and told them that it's becoming a problem and after that every night they just take in the garage. My mom said that the owner of the house grew up on a farm where dogs were always out side. They act like they don't have time for the dog when there is 11 people living in that household! (2 parents 9 kids)

Answer 7

Don't say anything to her. Get pictures of everything you can most importantly the dog and take them to the animal control office. file a report with the police if necessary. But don't get personal with your neighbor. This is about helping the dog not the neighbor. Also tape the constant barking of the dog. You will need this because they will respond to barking calls faster then a dog too thin behind a door they cant see through. Good luck to you and the poor guy.

Answer 8

I made the mistake of not informing my neighbor that they were not caring for there dog properly. Then they got 2 more dogs and they abused them every one of them. After months of calling the police/animal control, still no help. Then one of the dogs had puppies and the family decided to go camping the 4th of July week. Keep in mind I live in AZ, and it was 116 that week. After the 1st day of them being gone (and leaving the puppies outside), all I could hear was puppies crying and dogs barking. I called the police and they went out, but no one was home. By day 3 I couldn't take it anymore, and finally got animal control to come out because I looked over the fence and saw dead puppies. 4 out of 6 died. Animal control broke the lock off there gate and collected the puppies and took all there dogs. Those puppies shouldn't have died. I m not saying that this will happen but don't let it go to far, you can complain to your local authorities anonymously or confront your neighbor. There is absolutely no sense in letting an animal suffer to save face. Sorry for venting, I am just still extremely upset over that incident.

Answer 9

i dont recommend saying anything to her because it may cause tension between you, and you still have to live next door to eachother. is it possible the dog goes out more often then you think? or do you watch the house all day? if you are going to do anything i would go online and print out some lit. about how to care properly for an animal..maybe highlight the things you think she isnt doing correctly..and leave it in her mail box with a little letter or something saying its from a concered neighbor or friend. if you dont want to do that, maybe you should talk to her (if your on a friendship level) and ask her if you could maybe take the dog for a walk once in a while because you just love dogs and would like company when you excersize, just an option! good luck

Answer 10

why not become an adoptive babysitter to the dog? act as though you are an avid dog lover and the chance to walk, socialize (and feed the dog) would be just a pleasure for you! Maybe in the evenings when your neighbor gets home you can talk to her about how your time with the dog was. You know, drops hints like

"today we walked for an hour, three times and he loved it!"
"we worked on sit tricks" (and show her your progress)

help her out by at first taking control and as you make progress with the dog, don't forget to include the owner. this way, you can educate her on how its done by including her in on it once you have made progress.

seems like you are a great neighbor and thanks for being so concerned. hopefully something positive will come out of this!