Dog Haters In Your Neighborhood

Dog Haters In Your Neighborhood

http://poochmaster.blogspot.com.au/2005/11/dog-haters-in-your-neighborhood.html

I figure there is at least one Dog Hater in every neighborhood or apartment complex.

Dog Haters are often busybodies, getting into other people’s business. I have found them typically to be obsessively angry people. Things just irritate them and make them angry.

I generally find these folks get most irritated by:

a.) Barking Dogs: Dog Haters are obsessive about barking dogs. I’m not excusing owners who let their dogs bark and bark all day long. The Dog Haters go wacko if they even hear a single bark out of your dog. I know of one case where the Dog Hater got angry because he could hear the owner’s dog barking INSIDE the owner’s home, which dogs will do from time to time, even though the barking was barely audible, and you had to be outside and very near the owner’s home to hear the sound. This Dog Hating Guy would be found lurking around the side of the owner’s home. This guy wanted to cause trouble.
b.) Dog Poop in the neighborhood. I do believe you should pick up your dog’s poop on and off your property. Dog poop is really irritating to other people, even if they like dogs. But there is a limit. Dog urine on a publicly owned telephone pole isn’t a neighborhood nuisance. Dog poop on your yard isn’t a nuisance to normal neighbors, so long as it isn’t completely unsightly or piled up. Dog poop in public places should be picked up… but sometimes it isn’t feasible to do it, or you have run out of bags to pick the poop up, or your dog had so much diarrhea that you can’t get it all up. Some Dog Haters will make it a crusade to get rid of the dog poop in their neighborhoods. You can get caught up in their obsession, and get unfairly targeted. I know of one case where a nutty woman paid a private detective (figure she was spending at least $250 /hr) to spy on her neighbors to see who was pooping their dogs along the surrounding streets. She even installed video cameras! If you happened to walk by her house with a dog, she would run out at you and start berating you for having a dog. She was nuts. Her husband was also a millionaire, so she had lots of money to burn on this kind of harassment. You could see her part the curtains and peer out at you if you walked by her house, whether you had a dog or not. But, it’s interesting. She also had kids (what man in his right mind would marry a person like this, and even worse, have kids?). And they weren’t allowed to have any friends over to visit, and the kids were over-managed by this crazy woman. These kinds of folks are sick in the head.
c.) Certain dog breeds. Some folks just don’t like certain breeds of dog. And it doesn’t have to be breeds that you might figure they’d hate. No, it can be any type of dog: Boxers, Dalmatians, Collies, Standard Poodles… I’ve seen it all. If these weirdoes find out you have one in the neighborhood, they will find a way to get at you and your dog.
d.) Something else they don’t like about you, so they get back at you by going after your dog. It could be the way you keep your lawn, the fact you have noisy kids, a dispute over a right of way, etc. Could be anything.

The typical Dog Hater has emotional problems. These folks are troubled, and they will obsessively and aggressively provoke fights and retaliate against other people. 

They definitely don’t have a “live and let live” attitude.

I’m the type of person to leave other people alone, especially neighbors. Let them be. I have my things that I don’t like, and others have the things they don’t like, so I let them do those things that irritate me since I wouldn’t want them to bug me for the things I do… kind of a version of the Golden Rule.

I’ve heard of Dog Haters playing loud music, blaring piercing whistles, shooting off guns, running motorized toy cars along fences, making false claims to the police for noise and dog biting incidents, just to start a fight. You name the type of harassment, I’ve probably heard about it. They do this stuff to set your dogs off or to get you in trouble. They are also obsessive about recordkeeping. They will record every perceived rule infraction, and false charge, on a ledger… which they will then turn into Animal Control or your Homeowner’s Association, in order to get you in trouble.

The worst ones are highly aggressive. They will file lawsuits, get in fights, try to correct your dog when you aren’t around (I won’t mention methods, so as to not give a crazy idiot any ideas), and ultimately kill your dog.

Here is a recent dog poisoning case. You can bet the person who did this is highly disturbed… and a Dog Hater.

“Two recent incidents of dog poisonings at neighboring homes along Mulberry Street in Belle Vernon are being investigated by Southwest Regional police”

Think about it. This Dog Hater is now a criminal. The dogs were a 4 MONTH OLD Boxer puppy and a 2 year old Rottweiler. This kind of person is a danger to the community, not just to the dogs involved.

Dog owners are sometimes the problem. They need to get their acts together and not irritate their neighbors.

But some folks are just plain nuts. You can bet a good number of animal complaints are by Dog Haters. These folks are dangerous to the community, and they need to be locked away. Maybe in a hospital for the criminally insane.

If you own dogs for enough years, you’ll run across a handful of Dog Haters. You can count on it. You need to be prepared for it. My recommendations:

a.) Stay away from the Dog Haters
b.) Be polite and respectful
c.) Protect your pets
d.) Train and supervise your dog
e.) If the Dog Hater starts going after you start keeping detailed records, install videocams and microphones around your property (because you’ll find them lurking around your home, and even trespassing), install a fence, put up No Trespassing signs so you can get them arrested if they get in too close, file a complaint with animal control if this person starts to harass your dog, consider moving to a new place, and be prepared to get an attorney. The fights with these nutcases can evolve into a full blown war with your neighbor, including an expensive civil or criminal lawsuit. 

You can’t win with someone who isn’t right in the head. Get away from them. But also, fight back hard and get them tossed into psychological counseling, or even jail, if you have to. These folks are more common than you might think. Experience tells me that you have a Dog Hater living near you, whether you know it or not.