Most dogs I know have neighbors. I’m one of them. And I really like my neighbors. They’re totally cool. And their dogs like to hang out in the yard and we bark to each other and sometimes race up and down the fence line just for fun.
But there was a time when I did have neighbors that weren’t so friendly. And things were totally different. So I just figured I’d offer some advice just in case you happen to have some annoying neighbors.
One of the biggest problems I had was that they don’t stay on their side of the fence. And yes, they had a cat and a squirrel that like to hop the fence and hide in my tree. You see, this yard is supposed to be my kingdom, well at least that’s how I feel about it. So when anyone just hops the fence and decides to do things their way, I get upset and my tail gets so bushy and frizzy.
And then what if they’re rude? Well for a while, I was rude right back. I’d bark at them for no reason at all. After they finally decided to stay on their side of the fence, I was still telling them they’d better stay on their side of the fence. And I wasn’t nice.
So a good question is, do you avoid them or should you bark at them until they go away? The answer is not something every dog likes to hear. Of course every pup wants to look tough and in charge of all the things in their yard, but if no one is in your yard that shouldn’t be there…it’s time to relax. You’ve already done your job and everything is secure. Except for the birds, but I can’t figure out how to get them to hanging around.
The truth is, being rude back doesn’t seem to achieve much, though it can sometimes make you feel good. But what good does it do? I found that the neighbors that didn’t like me to begin with liked me even less when I was rude. So I stopped being rude and barking all crazy at them when they were hanging out in their own yard.
So I stopped. And I’ll admit I was slightly motivated by my pals when they started getting frustrated with me. But it all worked out in the end. You see, those same neighbors that started out on my bad side, are actually my friends now. We get along just great. That’s when I realized that friendly neighbors are better to have than rude ones.
