Start asking questions. Example:

Ooh, I considered breeding too, but I had no idea what I would do with all of the dead pups, you know? I mean, in 70% of litters the mom and/or at least one pup die. My vet told me this was in one of his texts (it is), and I don't want to get too much bad karma going with a puppy graveyard, ya know?

Then I heard 'bout that disease that the males get, and that convinced me breeding dogs was of the devil. They get all excited, and go mad. Ripping down the walls, jumping through glass windows, they can destroy a house! Normally docile ones too, and neighbors dogs will come and start trashing your stuff too when your female comes in heat. And unless you wait until the fourth heat the pups aren't right in the head, so that's a lot of destruction!

I would just bite the bullet - im sure you wouldnt like it if they started to interfere with your life and ideas. Unfortunatly people breed like this and you wont stop them, you'll just start bad blood between you and them - and if its a new house youve moved into this is the last thing you want. So what if they breed a there dogs unfortuanatly not every breeder conforms to ideals of the greater good - you gonna go on a crusade to stop the other thousands and thousands of backyard breeders?

Lisa: There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with owning a Harley. I LOVE to ride; I was just trying to paint a picture of the "type" of people they are. They aren't just the average run-of-the-mill neighbors. I wasn't trying to make them out to be horrible people by any means.

I DO care about harmonious neighborly relationships; that's why I am so upset about the whole thing. If I didn't care, then I WOULD just leave stuff in their mailbox or on their porch (although I think they'd know it was me), but like I said, doing that tends to turn people off rather than getting them to listen.


Cynthia: I don't *think* pregnancy will occur with the first heat, because the female will be at my neighbor's daughter's house. Of course, you never know. And what you suggested about the 'dog-beaters' dog is exactly what I do if they DO happen to let it out while we're outside. I position myself between it and Gypsy and I always have my pepper spray handy, but it hasn't tried to come into the yard again yet.


Stacie: We WILL be putting up a privacy fence along the back in the spring. It's just a matter of money. It's going to cost $2200 give or take $50 or so depending on the price of lumber when we do it.


Robert: I know you were joking so I won't even bother to reply to your comment. Not to mention that since I never SEE their dog, there's no way I could steal it anyway. lol


Lauren: That was pretty much the approach I was going to take, along with the BBQ's and such.


Tim: You have no idea of my crusades. Hey, you have to start somewhere, right?

Thanks Kitty, I knew it was sumbody smarter than me <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

many cities have ordenances about un-nuetered animals, and as such having a litter you would have to have the corresponding breeders license. Do you have these rules there??

Ahhh yes! They actually did just pass a law stating that in order to keep an unneutered animal as a pet, they had to pay a $100 fee for a permit to own the animal. However, the only way they can make someone pay the fee (if they don't do it voluntarily) is to pick up their animal if it's roaming free -- I think. I'll have to look into that a little more though. Thanks for mentioning that! I had completely forgotten about it!

Here is what I think: Nothing you say is going to change their mind because they are seeing green. They will probably breed the female ASAP, sell the pups to whoever has the cash the fastest and feel pretty good about it. I wouldn't bother with them. You are probably too different to ever become friends and since you're neighbors you don't want to be enemies. That's my .02 Jennie

I used to work in retail and would run across these kinds of people all the time. You are not responsible for these dogs and should not take it as a personal failure if you do not convince your neighbors to not breed them. These kind of people usually either don’t care or are convinced that they do care and can do no wrong. No amount of pushing facts/opinions is likely to dissuade them. That being said, I can share my two cents:

Your neighbors will probably not respect your opinion so you can pawn them off on other people whom they may have more respect for and are more used to dealing with this type of “breeder” than you are. Find out if there is a reputable breed club in your area. The next time you talk dogs with you neighbor, you can be “helpful” and suggest that if they contact the local breed club, they might get some good advice on breeding and/or selling the puppies. If you know they will get chewed out, you can say before hand that you are new so of course you don’t know much about this particular club. This way, if some old dog breeder matriarch rips into them, you are the helpful neighbor and the breed club becomes the bad people.

DO NOT help them. You may be tempted to offer helpful advice; this will only encourage them. The best way to encourage them to stop is to let them fail on their own. They are your neighbors so I would suggest the “I’m ignorant and defer to experts” approach. If they ask your advice or compliment your dog, refer them to the “expert” of your choice. Even if the answer seems obvious, you don’t have to tell them. While in retail, I would have people tell me they wanted to breed X animal and to get them one of each sex. I would simply tell them I don’t know how to sex animal X and they would go elsewhere. Even though the genders were clearly printed on the cages, there is something about this type of person and not reading. :rolleyes: Failing to help and watching the potential or real decline of any baby animal is difficult, but don’t give in. Vet bills and distraught children are very good motivators.

There is always the PETAesque approach of telling all the bad things, real or imagined, that can happen as a result of any given action. However, I would suggest you just pick one or two really good stories. Telling too many will lower your credibility. You want to encourage these people to think about their actions, not tune out the consequences.

The most therapeutic way I found to deal with this situation was to support a rescue organization. You get to help animals and talk to like-minded people who have worse stories than you.
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The problem is that most likely the neighbors are products of backyard breeding themselves. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />