I'm moving from the suburbs to a very rural area. My neighbor is friendly, but he doesn't see a problem with letting his dogs run loose. The cast of dog characters over there changes frequently, as they get hit on the road or 'disappear'. When he loses one, he just gets another one. For him, they seem to be disposable, but he's never without at least one. Lucky for us, so far the dogs have been people-friendly, but they have killed the neighbors own stock in the past. Mostly they aren't spayed/neutered, and I do not know if they have the required shots. As part time residents, we just tolerated the issue. Our own dog was always leashed or in the house, and we always scoop his droppings immediately. The part time stepping in the other dogs' poop and having all the deer and wildlife run off wasn't worth the argument. (While my neighbor is nice, he is a bit hot tempered, likes to drink, and likes to shoot things when he gets upset). Having him there is actually a benefit for home security, as I don't think any thieves would consider targeting my house. Also, he's here to stay; he's the 4th or 5th generation on an old family farm, so he's not going anywhere, and his way of life is firmly entrenched. Trying to set a good example with our dog didn't work. Now we'll be living there full time, and we'll just have to fence our place. We have indoor cats, and intend to have chickens, sheep and goats. We like dogs and don't want to hurt them. We have cameras and motion sensors, but we just want to keep problems from starting in the first place. We also don't want the expense of illness and vermin transmitted from his dogs to ours (we recently thought the dogs had fleas, but he told us he thinks his dogs have mange). So, until we have our fence, what are some good ways to deter these dogs? I have considered trying an air horn when I see them coming (but it would also be audible to all my neighbors, which could be good or could be bad). I have pepper spray, but I don't want to have the blinded dogs getting hit in the road out front. I like the paintball gun idea, but like I said, we're not interested in picking a fight with the neighbor, we just want his dogs to stay off our place. And for fence, the whole thing will be a real pain (and expense) for us. The area the dogs enter on is where vehicles come in, so gates are going to be an annoying necessity. I imagine the gates will also be vulnerable to entry by the dogs, if they aren't the right kind of gates. Also, the terrain is rough, uneven, and has a small creek running through it. It will be a job to keep them out. Any thoughts or ideas for me folks? Thanks very much!

How is she overreacting? It doesn't sound like she's reacting at all, at this point. Calipso, have you just asked them - in a nice way - if there's a problem, or if you can help them with something? At least they'll have to answer you. You could say something like, "Oh, it's just that I often see you standing here when I'm parking and I thought maybe something was wrong or you wanted to talk to me about something, so I just thought I'd check." Then smile pleasantly and wait for them to respond.

To start, you need to document the noise. Just grab a notebook and start making entries. "May 10, 11 pm. Stomping and music loud enough to wake us up and prevent us going back to sleep." "May 11, 2 am. Stomping, slamming and yelling woke us up. Continued for 1 hour." Next, what did the rental management say when you brought this issue to their attention? Did they say they could do nothing, or did they commit to doing something? Which they may have done, but which had no effect? After that, what does your lease say? Is there any clause about noise, or odors or hanging things off the balcony? (Every lease I've had has clearly stated that nothing could be hung from either the windows or the balcony. If they are in violation of any specific part of the lease, bring that to the attention of the management. Now, with at least one week's documentation in hand, go back to the management. Remember, management only knows if there's a problem if you tell them there's a problem. If, after your first complaint, they called or wrote to these tenants, they will consider their job done. Unless you come back and tell them that the noise is still on-going, management has no way to know that there's still a problem. Most places have a system for dealing with problem tenants. There may be an oral warning, one or two written warnings, a final warning, and then eviction, which can take a couple of months, depending on the state where you live. And the management may not be able to tell you exactly what they are doing and when, just that they are following the rules for dealing with problem tenants. So, for as long as the noise continues, go see management every week, bringing a copy of your documentation with you. Your goal is to make it easier for management to deal with your problem upstairs neighbors than it is to deal with you. By that I do not mean that you should be rude or threatening to management, just that you should be very, very persistent that the problem is not *your* problem, but a building problem and one that management needs to fix. You know, you have an ace up your sleeve. If, after a month or two of this, the noise hasn't stopped, you could always ask if they would let you move to a different unit and waive the transfer fee. They might say no, but then again, they might say yes, just to stop your weekly visits to their office. But I wouldn't start out with that, but keep it in reserve.

It is really a shame that your dog has to suffer the consequence of a nosy neighbor. Really, do they have nothing else to do in life? Our upstairs neighbors have two cats that are Manx and they are HUGE. They rip around the apt, 1400sq feet that is a straight shot! They love it. We can hear them about twice a day, tearing after each other, thudding across the whole unit but we laugh about it, you can hear their paws hitting the floor. They are helpless animals and we have better things to do. I have never heard the people above me and in fact they asked us if their cats bothered us and we said no way, we have a large dog and she barks when someone comes to the door so we all have to give and take. I would let your dog live his life. If you have an agreement with your LL that you can have a dog and as long as he isn't barking 24/7, then ignore this person and just live your life. If you start pacifying this person with each little whim they get, you most likely will never hear the end of things. If they know up front that you will not play such a petty game perhaps they will back off. Good luck