TOUGH LOVE THAT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO WANT TO HEAR 1) That is not an "indoor" dog. 2) You are not in a place in life to deal with this bullshit. 3) You have had the dog less than a week. One of three things is going to happen: 1) You move. 2) Mrs. Jenkins moves. 3) Cooper moves. I'll bet you have a lease. Mrs. Jenkins has lived there 52 years. Cooper has been there less than a week. Seriously. All that's left is the waiting. And with the waiting, suffering. Because you want to be nice, but you're deciding you're giving over your life to making a poorly-behaved (your own admission) rescue dog not freak out your neighbor. That's going to make you resent the dog, the neighbor and yourself. The energy you're sinking into this is energy you didn't have in the budget. Sure, you have "a boatload of time" now but what you just decided is that you never want to use that time for anything but keeping a dog under control. A dog you didn't have last week. A dog that is now fucking up the lifestyle of an 80-year-old lady that has lived in her house twice as long as you've been alive. And you think the dog wants to live indoors? Don't kid yourself. I recognize you feel responsible for the dog's well-being in this situation but not only is the dog a tragedy unfolding, it's beyond your ability to deal with. The longer you spend deluding yourself about "indoor exercise" the more time you're burning before you find somewhere the dog isn't busy being the irritant in a fragile relationship. Oh, you didn't think your relationship was fragile. Wait until you've been dealing with the dog for a while. One of three things is going to happen. Choose or have the choice made for you.
I keep re-writing a response to this, but I'll just go with: I appreciate that you don't let people off easy. I needed that. I spent the morning watching the eclipse on Mrs. Jenkins' deck. We were watching on lawn chairs at the end of the cul-de-sac, and she invited us over to watch with her. I met 2 of her 10 children, we talked about soap and where they were in 1979 for the last eclipse. She made me some coffee, and we talked about Cooper. She told me that having one more dog around doesn't change much - that as long as he's not in the yard when she's gardening near us (6 am - 8 am), she doesn't mind at all. And plus, she thinks he's cute. After that, I went on a walk with Cooper. I introduced him to everyone on our block. This was also the first time I met most of them. Most of them said they hadn't noticed there was a new dog, and the ones that did notice said he was fine. Finished up dog proofing the yard. He's been running around all morning, only a few barks. Seems plum tuckered out now. Believe me, every concern you have is one I've had ten times over. But I'm dealing with whatever immediate problems I can, and everyone in my house is happy. We're not a perfect home for him, but we're better than what he had, and now that the yard is ready, he's getting the exercise he needs. Thanks for looking out. I mean it.
Hey, man, if you're willing to deal with the blowback, good on ya. As _refugee_ can attest, my default solution for problem pets is "ditch the pets." I grew up wiht some seriously suboptimal critters in my life and fuckin' hell I don't need that shit anymore. Full stop. But if you're willing to go into it eyes open, I wish you the best of luck.