Minnesota man's yard is now a destination for all the dogs in his neighborhood

When he moved into his new home, Keith Roles found a surefire way to become the most popular person in the neighborhood — he started handing out dog treats from his front yard.

Roles didn't stop there, though. He also put treats in his pocket and distributed them during his daily walks. It didn't take long before his canine neighbors caught on, and now they flock to his yard and wait by the windows for him to walk by their own homes. "I never thought — ever, ever thought — it would turn into this," Roles told KARE 11.

Keith and his wife, Linda, live in Apple Valley, Minnesota, and thanks to those treats, quickly got to know their neighbors. Amy Austin told KARE 11 her dogs Nora and Molly pull her along to the Roles' house, and she can "hardly control them coming down the hill." Christine McCahn said it doesn't matter "whether we have time to stop or not," her pups Bear and Cooper "make sure we do."

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The dogs love visiting the Roles family, and their owners like it, too — every evening neighbors stop in the yard to chat. "When I grew up, people got together and visited and just kind of popped in on people, and it wasn't announced," Linda Roles said. "Well, that's kind of what's going on here. It's really brought everyone out of their houses." The Roles don't have their own pet right now, and Linda said that's fine, because the neighborhood dogs are "all our dogs, we get to enjoy them all."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.