When you have a dog, you need to make sure that it is kept safe and that it isn’t causing problems in your neighborhood.

What would you do if you let your dog stay outside in the fenced-in backyard, but when neighbors walked by on a nearby trail, the dog barked at them, and they complained about it?

That is the situation that the dog owner in this story is in, but she doesn’t feel like she needs to keep the dog locked inside all day.

While I understand how annoying a barking dog can be, I agree that as long as it isn’t excessive, there is nothing wrong with keeping the dog outside in a fenced-in backyard. Read through the full story to see if you agree.

AITA to all of my neighbors?

I would hate to be THAT neighbor, so I’m here to see if our neighbors secretly hate us. Our boxer is a barker.

Barking dogs can get annoying.

We have a fenced in yard (metal, not allowed to have a privacy fence due to HOA). We are in a neighborhood and at the end of a cul-de-sac.

However, next to and behind our house is a not legal path. The neighborhood association has fully admitted it is not permitted and cannot be paved due to that.

Their dog needs to get out and exercise.

So, our dog is 8 years old, friendly, but barks at the literal wind. We try to not let him bark incessantly and let him out every so often usually after 8am and don’t let him stay out long after dark, just a quick potty break.

We try to respect night time hours and that he is annoying. However, he does need to roam and get his energy out. Boxers seem to stay puppies forever even though he is going gray.

As long as he doesn’t jump over the fence, he is just fine.

We had someone approach my in-laws and ask us to bring him inside so they could walk down the path.

They said they are scared of him. I can understand since he is a bully breed and he is barking. He does follow people along the fence. His tail is always wagging, he just doesn’t get that isn’t how to make friends.

The neighbors don’t have the right to say their dog can’t be in their own yard.

I know people must hate it but it is our yard, I’m not sure what else to do. He doesn’t growl or lunge.

I’m afraid it’ll become a habit of this person to ask but that seems almost unreasonable as it’s our yard and people steadily use this path.

This person isn’t doing anything wrong other than maybe she needs to train her dog not to bark as much.

It would be impossible to know that people are coming and going .

Is it unreasonable for people to ask us to bring him inside or am I a bad neighbor?

AITA?

There is nothing wrong with keeping the dog outside, even if it barks at people passing by. Maybe she should do more training, however, to minimize the barking.

Take a look at what the commenters have to say about this situation here:

Dogs bark sometimes.

Here is a commenter asking an important question.

This type of sign might be a good option. Just make sure it doesn’t invite people to pet the dog. If the dog bits, there could be a lawsuit.

The dog is exactly where it belongs.

It is their yard and having a dog in it is just fine. Just make sure the dog can’t jump the fence.

As long as the dog isn’t barking all day, there is nothing wrong with keeping it outside. The neighbors shouldn’t really even be walking in that area since it isn’t a path.

That being said, making sure that the dog is getting plenty of exercise and teaching it not to bark as much would be the nice thing to do.