The physical health of your pet is only part of the responsibility of pet ownership. Whether you've chosen a dog or a cat as your companion, you also have an obligation to teach your pet proper manners.
For housecats, this can be a simple manner of using the litterbox, not scratching the furniture, staying off the countertops, and keeping its claws retracted during play. Your cat should be well-socialized when company visits, or should have a comfortable hiding spot where it can hide undisturbed until company leaves.
For outdoor cats, polite behavior becomes a larger chore. You should try to teach your cat to stay on your own property and respect your neighbor's property boundaries. After all, you wouldn;t want your neighbor's pets coming to your house to do their 'daily business' or pick fights with your own pets, would you? There are few things that can create animosity between neighbors faster than one's flower garden smelling like cat urine because the next-door neighbors won't neuter their tomcat and believe he should mark wherever he pleases.
For dogs, this issue is even more extensive. You should teach your dog to stay in your own yard for its own safety as well as to keep good relations with your neighbors. If your dog eliminates in your neighbor's yard, you should certainly clean it up! Wouldn't you expect the same from them?
Dogs also bark, and some of them bark constantly when left unattended ' for attention, for food, or simply out of habit. This isn't uncontrollable or uncorrectable behavior, and can be controlled with simple discipline and training methods. Kennel owners can demonstrate this ' they have entire yards of dogs that are trained to stop barking with a simple voice command, and generally only make noise at feeding time or to set off an alarm when an unusual event occurs.
Training a dog not to bark spontaneously takes time and patience. Special training aids, such as handheld ultrasonic units, electronic collars, or scent spray collars may be useful reinforcement to distract dogs that enter a rhythmic barking cycle. No matter what is used, however, the most important aspect of anti-bark training is always personal contact. Sometimes the best way to teach a dog not to bark is to train it to bark on command ' then barking becomes something special that the dog should only do when it is going to be rewarded, and it is less likely to bark spontaneously. Training takes time and patience, but you will be rewarded with grateful neighbors.
Just remember, no matter what type of animal you have or how far away your neighbors are, it is in everyone's best interest that your pet have good manners.