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May 24, 2014 5:06 PM

How can I gracefully address this dog walker's inconsiderate behavior?

I live in an established residential neighborhood of single family homes. For several weeks, a new dog walker has been walking one large dog and two smalls down my street every morning. My house faces a cul-de-sac and as she walks past the privacy fence of the backyard of the corner house the same little dog always has a complete meltdown. The audio is that of a one sided dog fight. He is barking at and showing really aggressive behavior to a small dog that lives in that backyard. I'm sure from this dog's perspective this is a fight for his life every morning, and the walker appears completely oblivious to it - the other two dogs walk mostly loose leash the offender is bounding around at the end of his. This regularly wakens me, it is mostly around 6:30 AM when she walks past. If the woman saw this to be problem behavior it seems the logical solution is simply walking these dogs on the opposite side of the street where there are also sidewalks but no backyards to walk past. Bonus, I happened to be awake today, Saturday, at 6:30 when the crew came walking by and along with the usual harried dog fight noise, she let the big dog take a huge dump in that same neighbor's yard and then she walked away and left the turd. How can I gracefully address this woman's inconsiderate behavior?

posted by txtwinkletoes to Human Relations (9 answers total)

Do you know whose dogs she is walking? If so, speak with them. If not, politely confront her directly and request that she a) clean up after the dogs she's walking, and b) be considerate of the other dogs in the neighborhood.
posted by erst at 5:09 PM on May 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

I would leave a note on the fence mentioning the barking and poop, adding that you normally would want to talk to her in person but you do not have her contact info and she is walking the dogs before your normal wake-up time.

Why do you assume she is a dog walker? Six-thirty am seems more the time that a dog-owner would walk their dog.
posted by saucysault at 5:20 PM on May 24, 2014 [9 favorites]

I too was thinking a note!

But I would take a pic of the dog walker + dogs (included on the top of the flyer) AND specifically mention the poop in the flyer. I would put the flyer up the night before her walk on several spots on her route. I would not mention specific addresses.

Make sure the note is very polite.

I pretty much guarantee she will change her route and you will never be woken up by her again.

As it should be.
posted by jbenben at 6:50 PM on May 24, 2014 [4 favorites]

If that did not work, I would report them to the city for not scooping the poop. Most jurisdictions give tickets, if this is her habit it will be easy to catch her in the act.
posted by jbenben at 6:54 PM on May 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

Just seconding that she's probably not a dog walker. Most people don't pay walkers to walk their dogs at 6:30 am. My advice is to confront her in person and explain your issues.
posted by trip and a half at 9:37 PM on May 24, 2014 [3 favorites]

Notes are too passive-aggressive, either talk to this person or turn on the sprinklers as per jamaro's comment.
posted by zaphod at 9:40 PM on May 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

Talk to her in person.

Remember that any passive-aggressive action on your part could have unintended consequences. There may be other perfectly quiet people you don't know about at that time (because they're quiet), who would get sprinkled, for instance. And for all we know, she's behaving towards the other neighbor that way for passive-aggressive reasons she feels are as justified as anyone else's.

So just talk to her first.
posted by fraula at 11:55 PM on May 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm a dog walker and I agree that it is rare to be walking dogs at 6:30 in the morning, but it could happen. I agree with speaking to her directly or leaving a politely worded note just saying the dog wakes you up and asking her to avoid walking the dogs there until later. I would not take pictures of the person walking the dog and post them anywhere, because that would really freak me out. If you can take a picture, you can politely approach the person. Good luck.
posted by katinka-katinka at 1:25 AM on May 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

It might also be worth speaking to the owner of the little dog behind the fence--presumably they hear this, too, and they can't be thrilled at having their pup scared every morning. A request to walk on the other side of the street might carry more weight from them, too.
posted by rpfields at 6:45 AM on May 25, 2014 [1 favorite]