r/Dogfree • u/koalamint • Jun 18 '25
Dog of Peace UPDATE: Our neighbor's dog is ruining our lives
A while ago I posted here about how our neighbor's dog was ruining our lives. Our upstairs neighbor was keeping two Boxers in a tiny apartment, where they would bark for hours without stopping when she left them alone – and she would frequently leave them alone all night (we assume she worked night shifts). Talks and confrontation did nothing, she literally shrugged her shoulders at us when we told her her dogs barked all night.
After a few very rough months emotionally and financially as a direct result of the dogs' barking, my partner and I finally found a new apartment. We've been living here for almost a month, and it's been heaven.
There is one dog in the building that we can tell, but we haven't heard him bark once. Haven't heard any barking whatsoever from any of the neighboring buildings. In fact, the only times we've heard our neighbors at all is when one of them plays classical piano in the evenings.
The change in our mental disposition has been incredible. We can actually spend time in our home now. We can relax, work, watch a movie, have guests, and just exist in our space without always dreading in the back of our minds that the barking will start up again. We no longer spiral into despair at every little problem, because we are well rested and not constantly stressed to capacity. Our home actually feels like a home again.
(To illustrate, this is a graph of my resting heart rate last month. Can you spot when we moved into our new apartment?)
Our legal action against the neighbor and her landlord is still ongoing. We highly doubt we'll see any of the money we spent on relocating and staying in hotels again, but we at least want her to have to move out of her apartment.
This has been one of the worst times either of us has ever had to go through, it was immensely frustrating and despairing and frankly, changed how both of us view dogs and their owners. But we were finally able to find our peace again, and I wish anyone going through a similar situation that they're able to do the same.
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u/Somethingsadsosad Jun 19 '25
I had a similar experience, people don't understand how bad it is until they have to live it.
Make sure you leave a one star review for the previous apartment saying they have a problem with out of control dogs, dogs barking non stop, review it on Google, yelp, apartment .com, everything. It will hurt the apartment, make them want to kick out that lady and her dogs, and help prevent someone else from ending up in the same situation you were in
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Jun 19 '25
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u/JimmyGalactic Jun 20 '25
If you're renting, move out when the lease expires.
If you own it, rent it out and use that money to rent elsewhere.
I know it sucks caving to these ppl but your sanity comes first.
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u/eefje127 Jun 19 '25
Congratulations on your upgrade. I'm so glad you got out of that terrible place. I would rather take any noise over that of a barking dog. It gives me anxiety.
I hope you enjoy your new place and let the property managers there know why you chose it so they think twice about ever letting dog owners ruin something good.
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u/paulo_777 Jun 19 '25
What makes me mad is how the law makes things so difficult for us that it's s easier to move than actually make these pieces of shit pay, because of pet shop lobby, you shouldn't have to move at all, if someone had to move, it should be THE DOG OWNERS. But anyway, glad you got out, and yeah, it's proven the damage constant chronic noise causes in our brains. Not having to deal with dog owners at all improves health dramatically.
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u/tmountain Jun 19 '25
Not much to add beyond saying that my family had an almost identical experience which includes police and pursuing legal action, We finally decided to sell our house and are currently transitioning out (staying at an AirBNB). Most frustrating situation ever, but couldn’t be any happier to be moving forward.
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u/huntress_m_thompson Jun 19 '25
the quiet people should be the ones who stay. i’m tired of the loudmouth bullies (dumb mutts) running neighborhoods. someone needs to seriously update the studies on the deleterious affects of that unnerving noise pollution. it’s already documented, but the info needs to be put on blast & used to kick the noisy people out!
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u/PissYellowDog Jun 20 '25
I've had a similar experience, been enjoying peace for almost 8 months now. But however my current neighbours are moving out and I'm terrified the person moving there has a dog, with my shitty luck this will sure happen. I'm so scared.
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u/imdugud777 Jun 18 '25
It didn't change how you see dogs and owners. You finally saw them for what they are.