Hi all,
My housemate and I (both female 27) have just moved into a house in a suburban area about three days ago. We live in Australia (NSW). We received a somewhat passive aggressive anonymous note on our door today with the following:
"Hi there,
Your dog(s) have been incessantly barking for hours on end for days now. It appears it's when you aren't home.
They are incredibly stressed + worked up, and not good for their health.
There are newborns in the neighbourhood along with the elderly + some respect needs to be shown.
Please do something about it ASAP. Anti-anxiety meds from the vet may be needed. Zylkene from petbarn is also a good start.
Thanks in advance."
We have 2 x rescues, mine a 1.8 year old staffy x bull arab, and my housemate's older bull arab ~9 years old. My pup is already on anti-anxiety medication. She is a young rescue, and so we're at the beginning of the medication journey. Before receiving this note, she was already booked in to have her meds reviewed.
For context, the dogs have not been left home alone for more than three hours at a time, when both my housemate and I are at work. Otherwise, when we're doing a bond clean of our previous house, they come with us to help reduce the anxiety associated with the move. I have done as much as I can to help this transition for my pup, including not washing bedding, exercising them, lick mats, extra toys, lots of attention, etc. etc.
My housemate and I feel note was quite passive-aggressive. Our neighbour recently had their second baby. My housemate introduced herself to our neighbour (the mother) and tried to make friendly conversation. The neighbour seems to be ~early 30s, hippie-type, but apparently came off cold and disinterested. When my housemate mentioned we just moved in, the first thing the neighbour said was "yeah, well we're moving out anyway".
We understand the annoyances that this could cause our neighbours, and certainly don't mean any disrespect. The assumption that we don't care for our dogs is very hurtful to us as well.
We'd like some advice on how to manage this situation. I can't prove this letter came from this particular neighbour, however I drafted the following:
"Hi there,
We're new to the block and we wanted to apologise for any interruptions to the peace our dogs may have caused.
We appreciate your concern for their welfare and health and wanted to assure you that our dogs are well-exercised and looked after and we work closely with a vet regarding medication needs already.
We now have cameras installed to monitor them when we are at work.
I'd like to emphasise that we don't mean disrespect - our dogs are rescues, and some teething issues are expected for a short period of time.
Thank you for your patience and understanding."
Any advice is much appreciated! Ultimately, we just want to keep the peace and do the right thing by our dogs and minimise tensions.