On Jul 19, 3:24 pm, Dan_Musicant wrote:
Lived here ~25 years, bought the house March 2000. Soon afterward met a
neighbor who shares a fence with me. We live on cross streets, and my
back fence is his left-side fence, partly. My entire back fence is the
back portion of his left fence.

He's had dogs ever since I've owned the house (i.e. at least 7 years).
If one of his dogs dies, he gets another. We introduced ourselves and in
an effort to seem quite neighborly he offered to lend me tools any time
I need them, should I need them. I've never taken him up on that... I
have a lot of tools and when I don't have some I need but not enough to
buy, I can generally get them at the very local tool lending library
(Berkeley, CA). Under the current circumstances, I would never dream of
asking to borrow a tool:

His dogs' barking has sometimes bothered me a lot but that's not the
subject of this post. The dogs crap a ton just over my back fence, which
is on the left side of the garage my neighbor built a few years ago. It
seems like he never cleans it up. AFAIK, he's NEVER cleaned any of it
up. If I'm near that back fence, I can smell the crap. In the summer
(i.e. now), the smell is so bad I can smell it most times any time I go
in the back yard. Glancing over the fence (wood fence) a couple of days
ago I saw (didn't count) must have been over 100 craps.

I've never mentioned this to anyone except a home-owning friend of mine,
who himself owns two dogs. His reaction is that it's terrible and
"unsanitary." Now, this friend of mine has a history of occasional
serious conflicts with his neighbors, serious enough that he sold his
house and moved into his other house (he buys fixer-uppers and now makes
a living renovating them). I always try to avoid confrontations with my
neighbors. I have enough to concern me without second guessing how I'm
getting along with them, worrying about what they think about me, etc.
I'm wondering if I should or can do a damn thing about the dog crap.
Yeah, I could politely talk to my neighbor, but I don't know what
footing I'm on here. Is this guy required to clean up after the dogs?

TIA for wisdom, etc.

Dan

I would ask him once to clean it up. If he did not do so then I would
put on my rubber boots and gas mask and go out there and do it
myself. Then I would make a point of letting dip**** know that I had
to do it. Give him a call or visit as you are going out to do it.
Put the dog**** on his curb on trash day and put a big sign on it that
says DOG ****. This dude may get it or not. Though the solution is
unpleasant, it beats the alternative.

The alternative is calling the authorities. As far as I am concerned,
you never call the authorities on your neighbor, very dangerous. That
guy knows where you live. What do you really know about him and what
he is capable of?? If the authorities approach him about his yard he
will know it was you that went behind his back when you could have
asked nicely or done it your self or both.