Rant and looking for advice

Hi guys, I’m not really sure what I want from this but I just want to vent my frustration 😅 I have 2 dogs (1 is 12 and one is 11 months) and we recently moved into a flat 3 months ago. We’ve always lived in a house so this was quite change of routine for the dogs as they had to learn to hold their pee until we got downstairs when going out. This was all going fine but at first, my pup would pee directly outside the main door. Still outside but I understand it’s annoying so I would take disinfectant water down with me to rinse it each time. He’s since learnt to go out into the road to pee (the door opens directly onto the road with a small pavement). We’ve had a few comments from 1 neighbour, who also has a dog, who complained about it smelling of urine outside. I was so apologetic and explained how embarrassed I was and everything we were doing to help this and further training we were doing. This was around a month ago and since he’s been weeing in the road. However the other day, someone had put a notice on the door stating the same issue. We’re unsure if it’s the business next door as it was taped to the outside of the main door so assuming it’s someone who doesn’t live in the building. I’m so so embarrassed but unsure what else I can be doing. I’m doing my best to take him out almost every hour and encouraging him to wee in the road (which is not always possible as cars park directly infront of the door so the road is blocked often). There’s no where else for him to go and I can’t walk too far down the street as I have to leave my toddler in the flat alone asleep when my partner is at work. I’ve noticed someone keeps chucking buckets of bleach water out but I don’t know who it is to tell them that bleach contains ammonia and the smell actually encourages dogs to wee there! So not only does my dog now want to wee by the door, but we live in the centre of town so every dog walking past is going to wee there too 🤦‍♀️ there is also a lamp post right by the door so it’s extremely hard to disassociate the smell of pee for my dog. Our training is going as well as possible but there’s only so far I can take him and only so much I can do. I’m understanding to a point but these people must know how hard it is to train a puppy and where does their dog pee? I only ever see them go out for walks so I assume they take him on a walk every pee break. It’s just frustrating because I’m so embarrassed and don’t want the neighbours to hate us because of my dog peeing outside like he should? 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

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Does he shit outside the door also then? It's a hard one if you live in a flat. You could also train your dog to pee on puppy pads or like some news paper. Or take some down with you so they pee on that so you can clean it up after. If he's 11 months he should be able to hold it but I completely understand if you have your toddler sleeping and can't go far x

Firstly, this is your house. At the end of the day you have explained your situation,it sounds like you have a difficult neighbour who is the source of signage and complaints / bleach etc. I live in a flat and whilst this is not an issue I have encountered there are numerous other problems which seem to arise.. do they get annoyed that I don’t take their bins out when I take mines out? Am I watching my tv too loud? Do they get annoyed when my dogs bark occasionally ? A sign appears ( YES, we also have a sign writer) ‘please shut back door after going out’. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that it used to really stress me out and felt like I everyone was talking about me. My partner always reminded me that it was our house and we weren’t being blatantly disrespectful so don’t let what anyone else thinks bother you. You sound like you are being as courteous as possible given the circumstances. Dogs will adjust in time and neighbor will have to find something else to bother them 😊

@Annabelle I walk I few paces down the street or cross to the opposite side of the road and he usually poops there. But he’s a medium sized dog so does pretty large wees 🤦‍♀️ he’s very nervous so it’s taken quite a while to get him properly house trained so him peeing outside was the main thing for a while. We’re slowly working on getting him away from the door but it’s hard when he’s clearly desperate and other dogs pee around the door/lampost. I’ve spoken to the vets and he’s on anxiety medication which helped a lotttt but I think he just has a really weak bladder 😅

@Mhairi I’m glad I’m not the only one with a nightmare sign writer 😅 I even called our landlord to explain the situation as I didn’t want them to report us and our landlord think we were just letting him wee wherever and not care 🤦‍♀️ they said they’ve had some issues with the neighbour in question before and this isn’t the first time they’ve heard about them being difficult which has helped eased my stress about it. It’s just so embarrassing and there’s only so much I can do as training takes time and there’s not always possibility to go into the road regardless of how we’ve trained him 🤦‍♀️

I’d put up a sign saying “chucking bleach encourages every dog in the neighbourhood to pee here so wind ya neck in!” 🤣🤣🤣 Pro dog all the way!

Don’t sweat it, it’ll settle down! Folks clearly need something else to do!

How do you know it's your dogs that are doing this? It might be someone else's dog. If you're dogs are still weeing right outside the door I'd look at simple solutions patio wee spray. It takes out the smell as its enzyme based and acts as a deterant. It could even be foxes that are weeing outside the door so please don't feel like it's your fault

You can get a doggy litter box and encourage him to use it with pheromones. Also, bleach does not contain ammonia. In fact, if you mix bleach with ammonia, it produces chloramines, which is toxic gas. This can cause irritation to the respiratory system… So, if someone is throwing out bleach, then I think it is best to avoid that area altogether for peeing. It could harm your dogs 😫 On that note, if you bleach your toilet, please flush before peeing! :)

@Poppy a lot of people don’t! Which is unfortunate, as many people use bleach and floor cleaners (which often times have ammonia in it) for cleaning their homes and they don’t know they have the formula for a toxic gas 😫 I also used to pee in toilets with bleach in it (accidentally) and you can immediately smell the gas. Definitely try to alert your landlord and, if all else fails, at least ask for them to use a different kind of cleaner that isn’t bleach! If they refuse to stop with the bleach, then definitely try out the dog litter box or tray. It is a bit more work for you, but definitely less expensive than recurrent exposure to toxic gases and causing health issues later!

I would ignore it personally. Especially if you're taking water/disinfectant to spray if they do go, but if yours are now going in the road it's likely not you. At the end of the day it could be someone who doesn't even live there so 🤷🏻‍♂️ Regarding the bleach, you could always tape up another note saying "please note, the smell of bleach can encourage toileting from animals" which will tell them they are potentially making the issue worse for themselves...

@Poppy side note - why do they both write in comic sans?? 😂

Just because my work brain sets alarms off when I hear people doing this - if there are any drains in the road where they are throwing bleach please report it to the council and your water company because most surface water drains go directly into water courses and bleach is pretty deadly to most water courses…

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