When we first moved into our neighborhood, there was an eldelry couple living diagonally across the street from us. The wife was nice. The husband was kind of sickly and a bit cranky. I think they had been friendly with the man who used to live in our house...also an elderly man...who had passed away. So I think no matter what, they weren't going to be loving us because we weren't their friend who used to live here.
Then we got our dog Ted. We registered him with the town, put up a fence, took him to obedience school so he was pretty well-trained...did all the right things a dog owner should do. But he was a dog, and therefore would bark if a squirrel or something ran by. He wouldn't bark incessantly all day, he would bark briefly at whatever was "offending" him. If he barked for much longer than about 30 seconds, I'd pull him in the house. Well, this guy started calling every time he heard my back door open to let Ted out. He'd tell me the dog was out and he was going to bark. And I'd say "He may, and when he does, I'll pull him in like I always do". He actually went so far as to call the dog warden and thave him come and sit in their driveway (which I couldn't see from my house so I didn;t know he was there) to determine whether Ted was a nuisance or not, which the dog warden told him he wasn't, that he was actually a very well-supervised pet. This went on for the 5 years they lived here that we lived here. I didn't want to upset the elderly people so I always tried to be pleasnt and polite and monitored the dog VERY closely. Frankly, I didn't want him disturbing ANY of the neighbors, including me! I found it annoying if he got onto a barking jag, so I would
always pull him in and let him settle down. The dog was never outside if someone wasn't home, we didn't leave him in the yard all day unattended...all of that stuff. Eventually the elderly man died and his wife went to live in New Jersey with family.
I thought "Ah relief....we'll have new people there and maybe the dog won't be as annoying to them".
So, new people, a much younger couple than the previous owners, bought the house. In welcoming them to the neighborhood, they told us how they had lived in a condo for 20 years, they were President of their condo association, they kept everyone on the straight and narrow, following the rules and making sure the place disn't look like crap etc. I'm thinking "Great! They'll take really good care of their house!". Really what I should have been thinking was "great...they are going to think they can run the neighborhood like they did the condo complex". Still all good until the day about 2 weeks later when Ted was outside and barked 3 times at a squirrel, then came back and sat on our porch. My phone rang, I heard someone say "Your dog is barking" in an extremely snotty tone of voice. No "Hello, how are you, go jump in a lake", nothing...just "Your dog is barking". So I said "Who is this?" and she said "It's Carol across the street and your dog is barking". I said "Actually my dog barked 3 times at a squirrel and is now sitting quietly on the porch". So she said "Well, it's 2PM and it's disturbing me". So I said "Well, when it's 2AM & it's disturbing you, you can call me. Until then, don't bother me" and I hung up. She called back to tell me that she didn't appreciate being hung up on and I told her I didn't particularly care and I hung up again. Then DH tells me that she called one day the previous week when I wasn't home and DH was and Ted was out and had barked like 5 times at a truck going by. At that point, they had lived in the neighborhood for 2 weeks and she had called 2 times to complain about my dog. DH, of course, made the fatal mistake of pulling the dog in the house the 1st time she called, which apparently meant to her that she would be dictating to us what we did over here at my house. How very wrong she was! Then DH starts with me with "Well, we don't want to anger the neighbors. We want to be friends." to which I replied "She hasn't been worried about angering us, now has she???? Plus, I have enough friends."
These are the same people who gave me grief about my trees and not being able to see as well into my yard...that being the point of the trees!
But, for the most part, they have left us alone since then. I think they realized that they weren't going to get anywhere with the "witch" across the street so why bother trying? When we have people over in the summer and are in our yard, they do a lot of looking out the window. May I add that DH & I are middle-aged and are not having wild screaming parties with blaring music till 2AM. Our outdoor parties usually consist of a few friends, us cooking something on the grill and going inside by 9 o'clock when the mosquitoes get unbearable. Might I also add that these people have also fought with their nieghbors on both sides, to the point where the neighbors put up fences. And when they first moved in to the neighborhood, they commented about how they didn't like fences. Well, stop being nasty and people wouldn't be trying to keep you out.
I think some people are just nervy and you cannot be gentle to them...you just have to be firm and let them know they will not be dictating to you what happens in your house.
then get up and start hanging yours to dry....
You just keep right on squeezing those clothes pins girl! If she comes over to tell you about it again, ask her if she could please stay inside because she is not nice to look at. 
