October 22, 2025 at 1:15 am

Homeowner Wants To Fence Their Yard To Protect Their Kids, But The Neighbor Says Her Dog Has “Grandfathered In” Privileges To The Yard

by Ben Auxier

A dog in a yard

Pixabay/Reddit

They say that good fences make good neighbors.

Which is maybe why bad neighbors are constantly yelling at you about fences?

Let’s see if we can sort out the correlation over the course of this story.

AITA for fencing off my property

We bought the house we’re currently in about 6 months ago and we recently has a surveyor come to our property to figure out exactly where our property line is so we can put up a fence.

The old fence was kind of a hodgepodge of different types of fences that were falling apart.

We wanted to have something more uniform and you know, not falling apart.

While the surveyor was here, the old lady living next door (noseybody) came out to see what we were doing and we let her know we were planning on putting up a fence.

But the issue didn’t end with noseyness.

Here’s where it goes left but I don’t understand what the issue is.

She said that we weren’t allowed to put up a fence and when we asked why, she said her dog was used to having all of not only her backyard but our backyard too because the old owners were okay with it.

I don’t have anything against the dog but I also want a fence around our house because we have small children and it makes me feel better to know that we have a fence because there is a small forrested area and a small creek behind our property.

She’s rallying for doggie squatter rights.

She started ranting and raving about how young people today are selfish and that I’m an animal hater because I don’t want her dog to have space to roam.

I told her that it had nothing to do with her and everything to do with us.

She’s now trying to rally other people in the neighborhood to try and pressure us into not putting up a fence because her dog is “grandfathered in”

Not sure into what but reddit AITA? [Non-HOA neighborhood thank goodness]

Let’s see what the wild animals of the comments say:

2025 08 25 20 09 17 Homeowner Wants To Fence Their Yard To Protect Their Kids, But The Neighbor Says Her Dog Has Grandfathered In Privileges To The Yard

That dog literally doesn’t know what laws are.

2025 08 25 20 08 29 Homeowner Wants To Fence Their Yard To Protect Their Kids, But The Neighbor Says Her Dog Has Grandfathered In Privileges To The Yard

This is clearly the right thing.

2025 08 25 20 09 23 Homeowner Wants To Fence Their Yard To Protect Their Kids, But The Neighbor Says Her Dog Has Grandfathered In Privileges To The Yard

The priorities are correct, not to mention the property rights.

2025 08 25 20 09 29 Homeowner Wants To Fence Their Yard To Protect Their Kids, But The Neighbor Says Her Dog Has Grandfathered In Privileges To The Yard

Look, it’s not fun that a dog is losing some of the yard he’s used to, but it was never his to begin with.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.