Advice on a Dog/neighbor Situation

[Rose]

I need some advice on how to handle this situation.

Our neighbors keep leaving their boxer puppy, about 1 year old, on their patio (which is against the leasing contract) in the cold/rain/night/etc with no blankets/pillows/bed/crate/food when they leave for hours at a time (the dog will also bark and howl while it's out there). Currently it's raining pretty heavy and there's a really strong breeze outside (I'm guessing it's in the 40's or 30's outside temperature wise). The dogs ribs are showing a bit too (this dog is about Sammy's size and may possibly be underweight) and it's shaking and acted like it was starving when BJ gave it some bread and a warmed hot dog.
Should we call our leasing office? Call animal control? :crybaby:

The puppy is currently out on their patio right now with (now) heavy rain and wind too. There's no blankets or anything. It's been at least 3 hours since they put it outside and left the house.

Edit: It's now pouring rain and the wind has picked up substantially and the neighbors still aren't home and the dogs now making quite a ruckus. The leasing office is closed too. Help. This poor dog is freezing and soaking wet, bad.

 

[BlueViolet]

I would call your leasing complex and let them know, they should do something about it. If they don't do anything about it, I would call animal control.

 

[robss96]

Call the popo, If it's a noise complaint, they have to do something about it. Tell them the dog is barking and whining nonstop.

 

[AnaVictoriaXO]

:icon-cry:

I think you should call animal control. Then call the leasing office.

This poor dog is suffering out there and being mistreated, it needs to be taken care of now.

 

[Rose]

We tried calling animal control for our area but it looks like their phone number isn't working anymore.

The neighbors just got home less than 5 minutes ago. To their credit, they seemed surprised by the rain (they were soaking wet and had lots of groceries) and immediately took the dog inside where they started drying her off and warming her up. It looked like the roommate was grabbing her some snacks so I took the opportunity to speak with the main lease holder. I let them know we gave her a towel and some snacks since they had been gone awhile and he was really appreciative. :/

This is the second time this has happened in the last week so BJ says he's going to call the leasing office tomorrow and ask them what we should do if it happens again. Thanks for the advice though. I'm just glad the poor thing isn't out in the rain anymore. That was hard to watch. :crybaby:

 

[mynameisbob84]

Up until your last post I was all "call the animal control people, the police, the army, just get the dog away from these pricks raa raa raa" but now I'm thinking maybe they're not necessarily awful, animal-neglecting monsters... just people who have a dog and don't necessarily want it in the house when they're away for fear of what damage it might cause.
The problem of course is that when they go out and leave it there and the weather gets shitty, and the dog gets hungry and thirsty... the end result is pretty much as it would be if they were awful, animal-neglecting monsters.
It's a tough one. On the one hand, I guess you could say something to them but that's kind of a big ask as you could potentially piss 'em off and then you've got neighbours who hate you, which is never good. You could offer to take the dog in for a few hours when the weather's shitty but again, that's a big ask when you've already got a dog to look after, a baby baking in the Easy Bake Baby Oven, and you're no doubt gonna be busy yourself.
I'd say contacting the leasing office is probably the best bet :twocents-02cents:

 

[southsamurai]

even a well intentioned pet caregiver can be a bad pet caregiver. once or twice is a mistake, and easily corrected with education. 3 or 4 times is neglect/abuse in my book. if a dog is going to be kept outside it should have shelter and water available at all times. from what ive seen this is also the minimum standard legally as well. if the neighbors are nice people and you want to get along with them, maybe you can offer to "keep an eye" on the pet when they're away if they will let you know they'll be gone for a while. it lets you open up the discussion to educate them on what is considered the basic needs for caring for an animal in your area. but since im a serious asshole when it comes to animal treatment, for me the third time would draw calls to the aspca, local law enforcement and the bloody marines if i thought they would come.




oh jupe! you big stud! come do me toooooo! i long for your thick throbbing man meat or whatever

 

[Rose]

In all seriousness, I'm on fairly good terms with these neighbors (not BJ, they won't talk to him because he's a boy but they're nice to me. Wonder why.) so they're usually willing to speak with me. If I could, I'd totally offer to watch their baby while they go out, but I have Sadie and Sammy. Sammy's the issue. :? He has zero manners and only gets along with one other dog besides Sadie. I'd hate to take her in and then have her get scared/hurt/etc because Sammy managed to get out of his crate or barked at her. Plus, she is a boxer puppy and boxers are pretty damn strong. Her in the house could potentially cause me problems if she jumped or something along those lines. Seeing as how I'm already moderate to high risk, that could be a really bad thing.

Our leasing office has loads of residents with pets though, so we're guessing that they have some sort of plan of action for situations like these; especially considering they have a courtesy officer for emergency situations involving noise/pets/lock outs/etc. Since the manager really likes me, I'm going to call up there tomorrow and ask if they have procedures in place or what they would suggest I do. Most likely they'll be able to take an anonymous 'tip' from me and leave a friendly reminder for the neighbors (they do this for noisy neighbors too, I'm hoping noisy, outside dogs count) and then I don't have to worry about having angry neighbors.

Hopefully it should be as simple as calling them tomorrow and letting them handle it. ray:

 

[Jupiter551]

What troll? Easybake are you feeling okay? *takes temperature* are you hallucinating? Must be your hormones going wild :whistle:

 

[Rose]

What troll? Easybake are you feeling okay? *takes temperature* are you hallucinating? Must be your hormones going wild :whistle:

What? I see none of this troll you speak of. My hormones most certainly aren't going wild! :snooty: Though if my temperature is elevated it's only because Amber made me laugh so hard I thought I was going to pee. So you can blame her.

And I realized I forgot to say this earlier, thank you for all of the advice. This was a hard situation to watch play out and I'm glad to have received timely responses. I'll update once I talk to the leasing office tomorrow. Thanks!

 

[Rose]

Well poop. The leasing office said to call back if it happens again or if the dog is making noise. Basically they won't do anything (and animal control) won't do anything unless it's currently happening. Next time we'll take pictures.

 

[LadyLuna]

Maybe you could suggest to the owners that they get the dog a crate, blankets and a tarp to make it weather-resistant? At least that way he'll have shelter when he's outside. They can always take the crate in when they're home. If they aren't comfortable with locking the dog up, it's easy to take the door off so that it becomes like a dog-house, and if it's a metal one it collapses nicely.

Does it get cold in the winter where you are? Like snow/ice cold? If so, they can put a heating blanket in the bottom of the crate when it gets cold out. Add a couple bones and a large bowl of water, and at least the dog will have shelter, water, and something to occupy itself.

 

[Rose]

The thing is, we're not supposed to leave our dogs on the patio unattended at all. It's against the leasing contract. We're also not supposed to keep dog crates out there at all unless it's one of those self cleaning potty pads. :/

To give you an idea, the high today is 46 degrees with a very strong icey wind. My nipples almost fell off trying to walk Sadie this morning and she got startled when she tried to pee and it steamed on the grass. (Yes I laughed at her being startled. ) Sammy was so cold he just refused to poop at all, lol.
Also it's not supposed to get higher than 30 degrees at the most the rest of this week. I won't be surprised if we get frosts overnight this week or early snow this year. Nashville usually gets lots of freeze warnings in the winter.

 

[southsamurai]

i had to go through that with a neighbor of ours some years ago, and it took forever to get anything done. documentation, like you said with video and pictures, is key to getting action taken by officialdom. i still say reaching out to the aspca for advice might be a good idea, theyll be up on your local laws and be able to guide you more specifically as to what to document

 

[LadyLuna]

The thing is, we're not supposed to leave our dogs on the patio unattended at all. It's against the leasing contract. We're also not supposed to keep dog crates out there at all unless it's one of those self cleaning potty pads. :/

Well yeah, I got that, which is why I mentioned that a metal crate can fold down and go back into the apartment. If you think they're receptive, maybe you can push them to crate-train their dog for while they're away so they can leave it inside without it causing damage? There are crates for the larger breeds.

 

[SweepTheLeg]

I just want to say about the boxer and their ribs showing. My friend owned a boxer and would get questions about if his dog is underweight, or under the assumption that she wasn't be fed enough and he was a bad owner- She was neither, she never missed a meal, she received treats for being a good girl. But she is a boxer they are ripped and pure muscle and her ribs showed all the time.

As for the rest of the scenario- Try talking to them first, maybe they are unaware of what their dog is doing while they are away. Maybe they are unaware of that part of the leasing agreement and just signed it as quickly as I check yes when apple asks me if I agree to their terms of service. A lot can be done by simply talking to people and let them know if the problem does persist you'll then be calling the animal control and leasing office.

I feel just as bad when dogs get taken along when people go shopping and left in the automobile to freeze while they are doing their shopping, though.

 

[Jolene]

Definitely let them know the dog whines ALL the time and its disruptive. That's where I'd start anyway. Maybe they'll figure out how to own a dog and not neglect it. One can only hope, especially if animal control doesn't have an active number!

 

[Rose]

Eh, I've been around boxer dogs and puppies before when I used to nanny, several of the families had them. I can't remember ever seeing ribs that pronounced though. But, she is still a puppy and is growing incredibly fast so we've given them the benefit of the doubt there.

It's just a bit of an odd situation because they never walk her outside (not a crime, it's understandable if you have a smaller dog who just uses a potty pad or a dog who doesn't do well around strangers) even though they're friendly and she's well trained.

Since they're nice to me and are on speaking terms with me, I may just keep an eye out for the next time I see them having a smoke break and pop my head outside to say hey and ask what's up. Lol, who won't be receptive to a soft spoken pregnant woman in the freezing cold? :lol: Right? Bound to work. They don't seem like idiots, they seem like fairly nice guys; just maybe a bit....slow on the uptake?