What to do about my neighbors boundaries and wandering dog?

Me (22F) and my girlfriend, have been living in our one bedroom apartment for 3 years now. I started working from home and we have two dogs, so we needed to find a place with more space and preferably one more bedroom for my office space. A two bedroom apartment became available a few apartment buildings down from us, so we applied and got it. Our move in day is today! Exciting. While we were putting our plants in the backyard that we are going to be planting, we met the next door neighbor as she was smoking cigarettes on her back porch (which is very close to ours and our back door). We introduced ourselves and made good conversation, and she said she has been living there for 13 years. Through the conversation, she mentioned her senior dog who she stated is not leashed when outside and will wander anywhere, including stating the dog will try to enter our apartment. Im a dog person, however this dog barks in defense to people and other dogs. My 3 year old beagle doesn’t mind other dogs, but can become anxious around other anxious dogs and this may create a problem. She also stated that her husband works with his CDL, and she had a problem with her upstairs neighbors smoking marijuana inside of their apartment because her husband can’t be around the “smell or smoke” at all because he has drug tests. Now we live in a legal state for both recreational and medical cannabis, and the only legal place to partake in this is at your home. In our lease, it’s permissible to smoke outside of your apartment which is what we have always done without issues. We make sure it isn’t directly close by anyone who has open windows, doors, or even their AC units running to make sure it isn’t too noticeable, but this is out of respect as it is allowed in the complex. I want to make sure I’m being considerate and respectful of his job, but I also want to be comfortable where I live and be able to partake in smoking as previously mentioned, it is allowed. I also want to point out that she clearly smokes a lot of cigarettes, and has a bucket full of smoked cigarettes both on her back and front porch (where the husband smokes) Her cigarette smell will definitely get into my apartment as well, as where they smoke is very close to my front and back door. I don’t want to smell cigarettes all the time! But it won’t affect my job like my smoking would affect her husbands. Does anyone have any recommendations on a solution on her dog wandering and the smoking? I know a conversation goes a long way, but I also don’t want to mention that we do smoke marijuana since we already take precautions to not bother anyone with it, and have her be paranoid and looking out a little extra for some smells if she may not notice it to begin with. Any advice will help! Tia.

Posted May 7, 2025, 2:31 PM UTC

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