by Patti Morgan

Created on: November 09, 2008   Last Updated: December 02, 2008

As you lay your head against your pillow and drift off to sleep, you are lulled by the rhythmic sound of the crickets chirping, the frogs croaking and the dog next door barking his head off. Does this sound familiar to you?

Coping with a neighbor who doesn't mind his dog barking or his cat using your flower bed as a toilet is very stressful. Sometimes you get frustrated as you try to make them understand how it upsets you. They don't see it your way and you don't see how they can ignore it.

Cats who eat your flowers or poop in your gardens are a menace. Netting can help remedy this problem, although it doesn't make for a pleasant looking flower bed. But if you don't mind it, you can buy thin black netting at most hardware stores that will help keep the cats out of your flowers. This also helps for fish ponds as well. This netting can be stretched over your pond to keep the neighborhood cats, and wild birds, out.

If your neighbors dog digs in your yard or gets into your garbage a fence might be a good idea. Putting up a fence will help to keep the dog out of your yard and away from your things. If you share the yard with the offending neighbor, ask them to share in the cost of building the fence.

If you just can't cope with the bad pet neighbors, there are a few things you can do. The first thing you can do is talk with your neighbor about the problem. Talking about it calmly will get your point across and hopefully help to get a solution in the works. Offer some advice if it is appropriate and you think it will help the situation out. Never stoop to yelling and name calling. If this happens and the situation starts to escalate, back off and go home. Never get into a heated argument with a neighbor if you can help it. You have to live beside this person and arguments can divide a good neighborhood.Let your neighbor know, in a calm way, that if the situation is not resolved, you will be lodging a complaint.

If talking it out didn't get the situation remedied, the next step is to lodge a formal complaint. Most pet complaints are covered by different town by-laws. Talk to someone at the city hall and lodge a formal complaint if you have to. Sometimes the by-law enforcer will visit the offending neighbor before an official complaint is lodged. This may be enough to get the situation under control. If it doesn't and you still want to go ahead with your complaint, then do so at this time.

Just remember that getting officials involved in neighborhood disputes often pits families against families. Keeping up good neighbor relations is very important for quality living. Hopefully you never have a bad pet neighbor, but if you do, try to remember to be calm about the situation and talk things out before heading off full of steam.

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