Expert: Lee Meyer - 5/4/2010

Question
We have an elderly woman that lives next door that continues to harass our family because of our dog.

My husband and I have 7 year old twins and for as long as our daughter could talk she has asked for a dog.  When the twins turned 6 we adopted a 4 year old sheltie rescue dog.  We purchased a house with 3/4 of an acre and a fenced in back yard when my husband and I were first married so that we could have children and pets and now we have been advised by an attorney to either get rid of the dog or move because of our neighbors continual harassment, because we have no legal means to prevent her from taking us to court again and a second offense would be more harsh.

For the last year she has continually called animal control and the police because of our dogs barking, and have recently taken us to court.

It is important to note that neither animal control or the law enforcement that visited our home and investigated her concerns had any grounds to take any action.

My husband investigated the law and found that a dog would be considered a nuance if it barked continuously for 15 minutes therefore we only let the dog out for 15 minutes at a time and monitored his barking.  For the record we never let the dog out at times when we were not home, and on several occasion even in the presence of a police officer we tried to talk to this woman and asked that she work with us.  We let the dog out in the morning at lunch, when we returned home and in the evening, for a total of maybe an hour a day.

Recently she took us to Cobb County Court and accused of causing her undo stress and demanded the maximum fine of 6 months in jail.  She and her witnesses made false allegations and spoke lies against our family.  But it was the words of an old woman dieing of cancer against a your professional man (my husband) and despite the fact my husband had documentation from animal control as well as proof of obeisance training and photos of our children and dog, as well as video of our dog and back yard.

We received a $500 fine, that combined with fees came to a total of $620.00

We are now looking for any assistance in protecting our self from this woman's malicious actions against our family.  And ask that if you can assist that you provide us with such.

Thank You, Lisa
Frustrated mother and pet owner

Answer
Hi,

I am not a lawyer and don't know the laws in your area, so I can't really tell you anything with respect to that.

What it does sound like is she's dying and probably uncomfortable and is partly taking it out on an "enemy" (you).

What reasons did they side with the woman, given the history of working with the police and your documentation?  The judge would need to explain the reasoning as to why all the stuff you had documented and such didn't work for a judgment in your favor.

The only thing I can suggest is to get a corrective bark collar.  It would give a mild corrective shock so that your dog would bark less.  YOu'd only have to have it on when he's outside.  It might be enough so that the woman can't know when the dog is out, document the times and dates when he's out with the collar working, so that if she complains about it again, it will be a lie because you will have it on tape and you can file (if you choose) a suit against her for filing a false complaint against you in order to force you to get rid of your dog.

That's what I'd do, but I'm not a lawyer, so I'd talk to your attorney about this.  But you definitely have to video document everything, dates and times, and showing the bark collar on and working to minimize the barking when your dog is outside.  She will probably over-exaggerate how long it went on, you will be able to show exactly how long it went on.  

Personally if you were really wanting to up the pressure on her, I'd probably file a suit against her for false complaints just to make her life more stressful.  That's her goal for you, to make yours stressful and forcing you to get rid of your dog.  Maybe catch her violating some local ordinances like throwing lawn garbage in the street, her making loud noise, etc.