Condo Crazy Causes Crankiness
Dear Ann Landers: I need your help. My husband and I came to America from China in 1990. Two years later, we bought a condominium. After we moved in, our nightmare began.
There is a middle-aged woman who lives in the apartment above us. Every day before 6 a.m. she walks around with heavy, noisy footsteps from bedroom to kitchen to bathroom to living room. It sounds like she is wearing army boots. She turns on her washing machine, radio or TV, drags her furniture around and is always hanging pictures or fixing appliances. The pounding never stops. She exercises on her treadmill or bike, and I not only hear the machine squeak, but the ceiling shakes.
I have spoken to this woman and written her a letter, hoping she would start her day a little later, but she ignored me. We rang her bell when she decided to start exercising at 11 p.m., but she yelled at the top of her lungs, saying it is her house and she will do whatever she wants.
We have written letters of complaint to the condominium board of our building. We were told to call the police or get a lawyer. We did phone the police once when she started her noise at 6:30, but by the time they arrived, it was after 7:00, and they said there was nothing they could do.
How can we stop this woman from ruining our peaceful life? We must wake up whenever she wakes up, and we can’t go to bed until she does. We have already put the condo up for sale, but nobody seems interested in buying it. Any ideas? - Beside Ourselves in Brooklyn
Dear Brooklyn: Ask the condo board for permission to make structural changes in your unit. You may need to put in a false ceiling and offer to buy your neighbor some carpeting, but I urge you to do whatever is suggested by a professional. It will be cheaper than a nervous breakdown.
If this doesn’t work, ask the condo board to conduct a hearing on the level of noise. If they find it to be unreasonable, the woman can be fined.
Dear Ann Landers: I have some suggestions for all your readers who may want to get a puppy and don’t know anything about animals.
1. Do not let your dog have the run of the house until the animal has proven it can be left alone. Until it is about 18 months old, put your dog in a penned area or outside if you are not watching it. I am tired of hearing about people who beat the dog because it tore up the house. A dog is like a small child. Would you leave a 2-year-old child alone in a room with fine antiques and china?
2. Beating a dog does not train it. It only trains the dog to fear you. If a dog does something bad and you hit it two hours later, the animal has absolutely no recollection of what it did and no idea why it’s being beaten. Even if you put the chewed-up chair leg in front of the dog, it will not make the connection.
3. Dogs learn with praise and positive reinforcement. If there are ongoing behavior problems, take your dog to obedience classes, or call your vet or local humane society for advice.
4. It takes time and patience to have a well-behaved dog. I have had many dogs, and it takes about a year for an animal to start trusting you and wanting to behave for you. If you keep acquiring dogs and giving them back when they misbehave, you will never have the kind of dog you want. - An Animal Lover in St. Clair Shores, Mich.
Dear St. Clair: Thanks for a splendid letter. Any dog that lands in your household is a lucky dog indeed.