What should I do - neighbours barking dogs

Acc72

Hi All,

Our next door neighbour (semi-detached houses) has 2 large doberman dogs that are alone in the house all day.

My girlfreind and I both worked during the day and there was no noise from the dogs in the evening.

Recently my girlfreind has changed shifts and is at home (in bed) in the mornings.

As soon as the neighbours leave for school / work the dogs both constantly bark loudly until they return.

I don't want to be a moaner so haven't said anything yet - but it is obviously affecting my girlfreinds sleep.

I was also reluctant to say anythnig, because it wasn't as though I was saying the TV was too loud - you can't adjust the volume on a dog !!

What would others do in this situation ?

Are there any ways of keeping a dog happily quiet when they are out - eg. if the neighbours gave them toys to play with or something ?

Smashing

A dog should not be left alone all day - it should be walked at lunchtime at the very least.

They'r probably bored out of his mind and in desperate need of company, especially if there is no noise when they're home. You need to talk to them and they need to take steps to deal with the problem, most likely a dog sitter/walker to break up the day for the poor sods.

Bossyboots

Your neighbours probably don't even know this is happening. My dogs used to be sleeping quiet as church mice when I got home from work. My neighbour then told me that in fact they were howling during the day when we were out:eek:

In our case the solution was simply to move them to another room. It turned out that one of the radiators in the room they were using was making strange noises. As soon as we let them have the use of another room it stopped. In fact, they were so quiet our neighbour was fretting that we had either got rid of them or they had died.

The dogs here may have the same issue or may be suffering from separation anxiety. There are things the neighbours can do about this with training but they do need to know there is a problem first.

irishjohn

as you said, there are two dogs, so it cannot be loneliness which is making them bark, more likely to be the confinement. I have the same problem, although mine is one doberman, in the back garden of the house next door, put out at 7.30am and left out there in a squalid muddy garden all day, where it alternates between barking and crying.

I tolerated it for 4 weekends - it was a 7 day a week situation - but I am at work most of the time other than weekends. Then I went and spoke politely to them - their response was that a dog has to bark, but I pointed out politely and firmly that while I accepted this, I did not accept the perpetual noise and that it was a social nuisance. I asked them to change their dog management to reduce the noise or I would be compelled to take action - the noise stopped - don't know where they put the dog in the daytime now but I suspect its in the house.

You need to make them aware at an early point that this is a nuisance, otherwise if you leave it too long they will consider that it has not annoyed you before

Acc72

Hi All,

Many thanks for your replies.

We have only recently noticed since my girlfreind changed shifts, as we were both previously out during the day.

When I moved in (2 years ago) the neighbour mentioned that somebody had previously reported their dogs to the Environmental Health department because of the noise (I guess he was warning me !!) - but as it didn't affect us, we never said anything.

He is the type of neighbour who makes a big issue about anything - I just dodn't want to start any long running feud, and wanted to make sure first that I was being reasonable !!

Mrs_pbradley936

I think Dobermans are particularly vocal. Our neighbour had one that barked non-stop. I was told that it is bred into them because they are guard/alarm dogs and the idea is that people know they are there and do not break in. Not sure what you can do about it because our neighbour always had complaints and she could not stop the dog barking.

JennyW_2

this type of thing makes me so mad :mad: irresponsible owners leaving dogs alone all day.

I have 2 dogs and they are only left for the mornings but they sleep.

If you don't feel you can approach your neighbour then you should really report this to the environmental dept at your local council (for the dogs sake as well as yours)

Lillibet_2

I am both a dog owner & have experienced this problem from the other side (of the wall...literally!). In the first case it was 2 German Shepherds & they weren't even home alone, just my neighbours thought that letting them out into a (small) back garden was sufficent excercise plus let them bark unchecked all the time. I reported them to environmental health who were very supportive & helpful, they suggested various stratigies to our neighbours who unfortuantely ignored them all & just shouted at the dogs to shut up! (So I had barking & shouting to contend with then!) Fortunatley they moved but EH were talking about taking them to court over it.

We currently have dog owners in the upstais flat next to our house, the (small) dog barks continually once he is disturbed : cars/sirens outside, our raido/tv, their downstairs neighbours opening the front door. Fortuantely these neighbours are very approachable, they have improved things by confining him to one room but with the door open, they have put a child gate in place, this way he can't see out of the front windows & bark at passers by etc, they have put in plug-in calming air freshners which they got from the vet (I'm sceptical about these personally), they leave a raido on very very quietly through the day, he is walked at lunchtime by a walker or else collected mid-morning by a friend so that he isn't left alone all day.

My ex husband was a paramedic & worked shifts, even before the arrival of the German shepherds he had lots of trouble sleeping through the day just because of normal daily noise. He swore by ear-plugs!

HTH;)

Dead_Eye_Jones

count yourself lucky, my neighbours are 'at it' for an hour every night at about 1am (arent they tired by then???). Unfortunately the lady howls and grunts, much like a dog actually, throughout this time. Next time (probably tonight *sigh*) Ill make sure I have my MP3 player to hand, Im gonna make a recording for internet circulation, but until then you'll just have to imagine. (;))


But seriously, im not sure how to approach that one, probably wait until Im a bit drunk and bump into them with a "have a good night ay? wink wink nudge nudge". Or realistically, remind them that the walls perhaps arent as thin as they think. God if you live in a semi surely you have to have some consideration for others, do they really think screaming their heads off at 1am is appropriate. I would love to get my decks out and pump out techno as if I were 18 again but then Ive lived with these escalating noise wars before and no one ever wins.

I guess I could report it to the council or whatever, get 'em an asbo. But the council are gonna tell me to talk to them first - which is easier said than done given the problem. Who knows, maybe one of them reads this forum? So if you are a late night noisy love maker, please show some consideration - you are making our lives a misery !

Anyways, sorry, didnt mean to hijack the thread. I'll start my own sooner or later lol!

bluezone

My parents had 2 dobermanns and they were left on their own all day - but they had a dog flap to get out into the garden for wee's etc. Our neighbour noticed that they only seemed to bark after our phone had been ringing. We asked the local vet for advice and after that we unplugged the main phone line when we left - 1571 would pick up the calls and we ddnt make a fusss of them for about 20 mins after we got home. This stopped the barking.

I hope that helps a bit

abijanzo

It really is likely that your neighbours are clueless that their dogs are barking. My neighbour was totally shocked when I told him his dog barked and howled constantly as soon as he left the house every time. He felt terrible that his dog was distressed but in the end did nothing about it....didnt bother us though as the dog was in a room at the other side of the house so we could only hear it in the back garden.