Advice from dog owners please.

keefg

Hi,

Firstly, I just want to make it clear that I am not any kind of dog hater - I actually like them a lot but I do have a problem with one & I need some advice from dog owners.

A neighbour of mine has a small terrier type dog which is left in their back garden (which backs onto my house) from about 8.30 am to 10 or 11 pm everyday including weekends. The problem is that this dog barks continuously all day - that high "Yap Yap" bark - and this is no exaggeration. It has been going on now for about 6-8 months and it is just unbearable, my wife works shifts in a hospital and cannot have a lie in on her days off because of the noise of this dog. In the evening we have to have the volume on out TV turned right up to drown out the noice of the dog.

So, what can we do?

Earplugs do not work so please don't suggest them.

I have considered knocking on the owners door but you never know how people will react, I might get a punch in the face for my troubles or told to get lost & mind my own business so that won't help the situation.

As dog owners, what would you do in this situation if a neighbour knocked on your door to complain?

Should I go to the local council and complain about the noise nuisance?

My next door neighbour is just as P'd off with the situation but doesn't know what to do about it either.

Any suggestions?

cheers.

sebastianv

It's a hard one in an ideal world you shouild be able to approach your neighbour in a "friendly manner" and say for a little dog he/she sure has a fine pair on lungs A friendly manner should always be the first port of call in these situations, friendly and informative, you could try saying that your mate had a similar situation and he got in a dog trainer for advice, so your not just pointing out the situation but offering a solution, unfortunately as some of us know not all neighbours are receptive to others.
If the friendly approach does not work you can contact the council and complain about the noise, I'm sure others here will have more advice for you, I don't envy you mate, we had a similar problem in our last place, but our neighbours were fantastic and just as "fed up" with the barking as we were.
We also have a new dog and she was unsettled for a few weeks, I approached our neighbours (again we have fantastic neighbours) and told them that this was an issue we were working on, and they were fine.
Good luck mate Seb

macshadow

Excessive barking causing a nuisance to any person is an offence. A private action may be taken to the district court via section 108 of the environmental protection act 1992.(thats from dublin city council)

You could just talk to your neighbor and ask that the dog be taken inside.
There is a very simple explanation as to why a dog does this but thats neither here nor there if your neighbor is too ignorant to care.

luckat

The poor dog is lonely, God help it.

I'd go and talk to your neighbour. Most likely the dog is barking *when the owner is out*, making his house a magnet for thieves who can see that the house is unoccuppied by the fact that this yap...yap...yap... is going on - and the owner probably doesn't know about the yapping.

If he got a second dog, the yapping would probably stop. But meanwhile, is the dog walked? Is it a responsible owner? The solution might be to keep the dog indoors and get it walked every day. (By the way, is it a pedigree dog? There's a craze for stealing pedigree dogs from gardens at the moment - the owner may not know this.)

Is this house next door to yours or backing directly on to yours? If so, you may be able to help to some extent. Go out into the garden with a supply of small treats, and wait until the dog falls silent. Then immediately blow a whistle - a short, gentle blast - and throw a treat over the wall. Wait until the yapping stops again, then repeat. When you have the behaviour set up, you can wait for a slightly longer pause before whistle-and-treat, then when you have a longer pause set up, wait for a longer one again, and so on.

This works in pounds - it's becoming standard practice in US pounds - but it may not work for a small dog if it finds yapping rewarding in itself.

If none of this works, you'll probably have to go the legal route and complain to the Gardai, but maybe start with these.

kerrysgold

If the poor thing is left on it's own in the garden all day it's bored & lonely. when dogs get bored they can get destructive and I suppose barking incessantly counts. maybe it's just trying to attract some attention or amuse itself. if the dog isn't walked, and you have some spare time, maybe you could offer to walk the dog for them? it'd give the little dog something to look forward to and would tire him out so when he'd come back from his walk he could have a snooze.

keefg

Thank you all for your comments.

I think you are right and the friendly approach should be my first option.

I agree with the comments about the dog being lonely because I think the house is empty most of the day but I don't know why the dog barks so much in the evening (7-11pm), it just seems that the dog is left alone all day in the back garden.

I shall let you know how I get on.

Thanks again.

kerrysgold

Poor little thing, it's awful that he's isolated like that.....

does he have shelter, food and water? If he didn't maybe an SPCA could take him away.....

Freddie59

Why is it always 'the poor dog'? What about the poor girl on shiftwork? It never, ever ceases to amaze me how thoughtless so-called 'neighbours' are.

A dog is a dog. If these people can't tend to it and show it some attention and affection then it should be removed from them - period.

Trojan911

keefg wrote: »

Any suggestions?

Try this if the friendly approach does'nt work.

luckat

I think 'the poor girl on shiftwork' can be taken as read.

Freddie59

luckat wrote: »

I think 'the poor girl on shiftwork' can be taken as read.

Your point is?

Gummii

Heres my advice. Give the neighbours a nice kick up the rear end. :mad:
As far as I'm concerned people like that don't deserve a dog. They must think hes just some sort of an ornament. Well, rant over. Hope everything works out for ya mate.

Freddie59

Gummii wrote: »

Heres my advice. Give the neighbours a nice kick up the rear end. :mad:
As far as I'm concerned people like that don't deserve a dog. They must think hes just some sort of an ornament. Well, rant over. Hope everything works out for ya mate.

If only ya could Gummi!:D But doesn't work out like that unfortunately.:(

sebastianv

Any news Keefg. I hope it all went well for you.

keefg

Hi Folks,

Sorry for the late update, I forgot to be honest.

So anyway..........I paid a visit to the dog owners and it went better than I expected.

The guy who lived there was very abrupt, I got the impression that he was a bit fed up with people complaining about his dog because as soon as I mentioned I was there about the dog he just nodded his head and said "I know, I know".

The point that did annoy me was that he denied that it was his dog barking all the time because (he claimed) the dog was inside 90% of the time and only outside for an hour in the evening and it was another dog a few doors away (this is rubbish by the way) and closed the door on me while mumbling "Yeah, I'll do something about it".

Anyhoo.....result so far is a noticable reduction in barking, but it does still go on a bit but it is more bareable than it was.

Time will tell anyway and if the owner lets things slip back to how they were I will have no hesitation going back to bang on his door again and maybe take it to the next level (if ness).

Thanks to you all for your advice and comments.

My advice to anyone in the same position is to knock on the dog owners door asap (don't leave it as long as I did), talk to them and explain your problem - you never know, it might fix the problem easier than you think.

ODD-JOB

This is quite funny really,...... how many posts have we had lately where the neighbours are complaining , and we also got posts from dog owners who are complaining about thier neighbours complaining !!!!

A dog that barks in the garden dosent always mean a case of neglect.
my dog will bark from the second the back door is open.
he gets the exact same amount of attention as the last dog we had that never barked in the garden !!

barking out into the thin-air is most probably a territorial warning for otheranimals who pass through the garden whilst the dog isnt present !!!!

I wonder , if you did have a neighbour who was un-approachable.......
you could post an anomoyus note to the house just to let them know,.... then on the occasions where the excessive barking is out of order , you could drop an anomyomus phone call to the offending house. i.e just ring the phone and hang up.

my neighbours used to do that to us if we ever had the music up tooo loud , when we were teenagers........ i never took offence at it , it just let me know that i was P****ing somebody off , and i would then turn down the music/noise immediately.

keefg

ODD-JOB wrote: »

This is quite funny really,...... how many posts have we had lately where the neighbours are complaining , and we also got posts from dog owners who are complaining about thier neighbours complaining !!!!

Yeah, I agree. I have seen quite a few posts on here from both side of the fence (no pun intended).

The way I see it is that owners can be very passionate about their dogs and see them as an extention of their family - and I think that some owners just don't see any fault with their animal in the same way parents don't see the same faults in their children as others might do.

Another problem (in my case) is that the neighbour in question's back garden is at the side/front of my house so when the dog is in the garden barking I get the full effect because both my bedroom & sitting room are at the front of my house.

The owner of the dog however is at the front of their house so the barking has hardly any effect on them and when they bring the dog into the house it stops barking. The guy wouldn't believe me when I told him that his dog barks non-stop when it is outside.

I have endured this problem for far too long but if the owner lets thing slip back to how they were then I will not hesitate for a second to take further action.

dizzydub

ODD-JOB wrote: »

I wonder , if you did have a neighbour who was un-approachable.......
you could post an anomoyus note to the house just to let them know,.... then on the occasions where the excessive barking is out of order , you could drop an anomyomus phone call to the offending house. i.e just ring the phone and hang up.

Please don't put an anonymous note through the door. Somebody did this to us. We've had a problem with separation anxiety with our 8 month old rescue dog and when we keep him in if we're out he tears at the skirting board and scratches on the door until he bleeds. We started putting him out as when he scratches on the glass door he doesn't hurt himself. We'd done this for about 3 days (dog is on his own for max an hour a day maybe 3 days a week) when I came home to a note through the door saying after listening to our dog barking for some time they were concerned about his welfare and that the constant barking was distressing. This really upset me because the dog is very much loved and spoiled. Because the note was anonymous I couldn't explain the situation or let them know that we were expecting the dog trainer that weekend. It's better to speak to them face to face

CCMARTIN

Hi,

Can anyone advise how to stop my 4 year old male boxer dog from starting fights for no reason? He doesn't bite, he's just all paws and pins other dogs down.

keefg

OK Folks,

Time for another update on my barking dog problem.

After a short improvement things have gone back to the way they were and this dog is let out to bark all day. I seriously think the dog gets zero exercise apart from being let out into the back garden.

So I knocked on the door again to voice my displeasure, politely of course, and this time the lady of the house answered. Well if I thought the husband was abrupt this woman was just downright rude and seemed happy to escalate the issue.

When I told her that this was my second time to complain she just said “So what? My dog can bark all day if he wants and if you don’t like it…….find another house to move to!”

Charming :rolleyes:

She just had no regrets or shame in the problem her dog is causing.

Apparently she has checked out the regulations for noise nuisance and as long as her dog doesn’t bark before 8am or after 11pm she thinks she can let it bark all day – if this is the case, then perhaps I should wire my stereo speakers over the wall to pump thrash metal at full volume into her back garden from....say... 8.05 to 10.55? I would be within the law right?? :rolleyes:

My research shows that regardless of the time, a constant nuisance caused by excessive barking (or other noise) is considered an offence.

I contacted my local council who told me there is nothing they can do about it and it is a civil matter between us and I have to risk taking them to court at my own expense which I am not happy about but if that’s my only option then so be it.

I know there are other people on the estate who are also fed up with this dog so I may have to knock on a few doors to see if anyone else is willing to do anything about it.

Glowing

Your neighbours should be ashamed of themselves. Thats a disgusting attitude . Yes, you should definitely rally the neighbours together - and maybe you can make life difficult for her too (although that may escalate things further).

Stupid wagon.

hadook

Does the dog have food, water and shelter or is it just tossed out the back barking?

If it's just out in the back garden without any of those call the DPSCA/ISPCA and report them. Fecking muppets, people like her don't deserve to have dogs.

The Artist

id sudjest you call a dog wardern if no sasifaction call the guardi they have the power to report the dog warden at any time if its ongoing and check for details of the dog eg lincece,where its kept,water,and collars.As the law states any noise from next door neighbours after 11.00 pm is against the law that includes barking,radio,domestic disputes,drunken behaviour etc.
Or would it be better to ask the neighbour politely to adress the barking noise that you are not getting any sleep???

I quoted this on a another member as it seem your still not happy,Just call the guardi and explain the whole story and you are getting abused by your neighbours antics or remarks.It should be responded quickly to solve the problem,if they dont come (note it) ask for the supertendant guardi and do the same,il garantee it be sorted as ye neighbours are breaking the law!

dizzydub

That's awful....might be worth getting a petition up for the council? Knock around the neighbours and see if anybody would be willing to go in with you on the court action. People like that shouldn't be allowed have dogs

Puddleduck

Thats awful OP. I own two dogs, and one tends to bark more than the other, but when he starts up well go out to him. We had one woman knock on the door saying the dog was waking her baby, didnt seem that loud to me but we brought him in anyway. It sounds like the dog is just left out and gets no excersise hense the constant barking. Youve tried twice to speak polietly to the owners and neither heard a word you said, the next time Id be mentioning that you and a few neighbours may take this as far as a court.