Neighbours and the dog.

We have a dog. A great big chocolate lab named Cadbury. He's very trainable, and we've trained him to 'go' in a certain spot in our yard, in the back corner. We are in a new subdivision and don't have fences yet between the backyards (although we are meeting with all the neighbours and a fencing company tomorrow to hopefully get that underway).

This morning I was out in back with the yard and one of our backyard neighbours (we have 3 along the back, since we have a corner lot) came out and asked to talk to me. We have been in our house for a year and a half and this is the first time they have spoken to us, ever! Even though we wave to them and say hi if we are out there, they ignore us! Four weeks ago we went around with a letter from us asking our neighbours to talk to us about getting a fence - and left our email, phone, said talk to us if we're out (we're out back a fair amount) and they totally ignored it!

So what did she want? To complain about the smell from our dog's 'area' that he goes in. Now I know we need to clean that up more regularly than we do (we did it about 6 days ago). And yes, popular belief has it right - poop stinks. I could smell it in her backyard and I could understand, nobody wants a backyard to smell like that. She suggested that we move the area to somewhere 'beside our house'. (It was up beside our house until a month or so ago when we moved his area so we could put in the vegetable gardens. Our plan has always been to use this particular back corner of our lot for him).

So we cleaned it up this morning. But, we are not moving his area. I am hoping the smell is reduced when we get fences up, at least blocked. And we are going to really make a point of cleaning it up more often than once a week. I don't want to make our neighbours unhappy, but it is our yard.
What do you think? Are we doing enough? Should we let our neighbour decide how we use our yard? Are we being totally awful neighbours?

I don't want to make an enemy :(

Anyway. I have found a couple giveaways today (I don't usually do this on weekends but here I am).

For the ladies:

• Win a $25 Layers Clothing gift certificate at Dev's Favorite Giveaways. Ends May 29th.
• Win a Hip-T at Blessings Abound! This is great for short shirts, low pants, or even as a belly band! Ends ay 26th.

For grown-ups:

• Win new Durex products at Household Treasures! Five winners each get two new products - Utopia and Quiver. Ends June 6th.
  

For baby:

• Win a pair of Leg Huggers at Thrifty Minnesota Mama! Ends June 2nd.
• Win a onesie or tee from Crazy Baby Clothing at My Mom's View. For all those punk rocker babies out there! Ends June 1st.
• Win a Muttaqin cloth diaper at Dazzled By Diapers! Ends May 24th at midnight so hurry!
• Win a pair of Shoo Shoos baby shoes at My Organized Chaos! Ends June 1st.
  

For the dog:

• Win a Dog Duvet from Karma Charms at Sweet Dog Organics! Every dog needs a comfy place to lie down! Ends May 29th.
  

For anyone:

• Win a tea wallet by Recupefashion at Recuperation Nathalie Brault. I love tea wallets since I always take my own decaf Earl Grey teabags when I go to friends' houses or restaurants. Ends May 30th.
• Win an audiobook of Michael Connelly's The Scarecrow at Book Love Affair! Ends June 8th.
  

Don't forget to enter my Snugs Boutique giveaway!