It'll never happen. Trust me. My yellow lab got so fat from eating everything she could get her hands on and when she was around 11 they removed a 5lb fatty tumor from her chest. She had arthritis like crazy but any mention of food and she was a puppy again.
If people think you starve your dog, tell them "Then why isn't she thin?" Our dog was hungrier than anybody's dog. We told people she was the runt of the litter and was deprived of food from a very early age (she was bottle fed because her mother attacked her), so she would never change.
Besides, it doesn't matter what the neighbors think, you know your dog. If your dog has access to the neighbor's food dish, it's up to him to remove it. The dogs I have now are less food-driven but even they would eat the neighbor's food just to have it...
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