Dog and a neighbour

Welshchick28

I have a dog for almost ten years and lived in the same house for 20 years and had the same neighbours since then. Behind me there is an elderly lady about 70 with a dog. Couple of months ago i got a letter through the door telling me to keep my dog quiet ( i have a jack russel) she does bark but only when she can hear people. I forgot about the letter till i got one today. I went to the lady and she said it wasnt her ( but its funny how all this has started after she moved in) and said she was worried about my dog. I work part time so i have half an hour in the morning where i am home and in the afternoon im home for a hour so i let her out of her cage where she has a bed and water and let her out to the garden and a small walk round the estate usually as not got much time and then when i go back to work i put her back and been like that since we got her. While im in work i cant do anything about the barking but the lady says it non stop which i dont think it is. And the lady keeps telling me that the dog is sad and i should find somewhere else for her. Any ideas what i can do? Please help me.

cte1111

Maybe worth checking with your other neighbours if they can hear your dog. Then you would at least know if she is barking when you're not there.

Some people think that you're only really suitable to have a dog if you're at home all in the time. It's possible that's the problem here. It sounds to me like your dog has plenty of time with you, given that you come home and take her out in the day. However if she's barking solidly whilst you're not there, then I can imagine that being annoying / upsetting to your neighbours.

TheDancingBanana

To be fair, a dog barking constantly is a real pain in the you know what and it really is up to you to sort it out. Personally I think people who are out at work all day shouldn't have dogs, it's unfair to the animal and to your neighbours.

redfox

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gettingready

Is the dog locked in the cage all the the time while you are at work?

I work part time so i have half an hour in the morning where i am home and in the afternoon im home for a hour so i let her out of her cage where she has a bed and water and let her out to the garden and a small walk round the estate usually as not got much time and then when i go back to work i put her back and been like that since we got her.

For 10 years?

spasguidedogs

Hi
Leave a dictaphone recording while your are at work, at least you will know one way or another.
I picked one up from Argos the other day, reasonably priced.

Our old neighbours kept dogs that would bark when they were at work etc, and to top it off when their teenage kids came in from school, we had no choice but to listen to their music and drumming.
They were the neighbours from hell, so glad we moved :rotfl::rotfl:

Hope you get this sorted.:)

gazwood

So are you saying the dog lives in a cage for 22 or 23 hours a day, I'd bark, maybe the solution is to accept your lifestyle isn't conducive to the dogs best welfare.

m0nkeymrs01

I have had he exact same problem, there is nothing worse than sneaky letters through the door, if a dog barks whilst the owner is out the owner does not know unless they are told, a quick word in passing will likely make the dog owner apologetic and look to see what action they can take. Unfortunately the letters I received were that nasty that the police got involved after threats were made to kill my dogs.

I agree with a previous poster that says check with your other neighbours, I chose to write to my neighbours, I detailed the measures I go to to ensure my dogs don't bark and I invited anyone to come and discuss with me any issues... I put the letter through the door of six hours... Four neighbours came to knock... All of them saying they never hear my dogs, including a police lady who works nights. So I agree with the original poster that sometimes barking is an excuse to cause trouble. Funnily enough since I notified my neighbours that I had called the police about the nature of the threats I have not received any more horrible letters.

That said I wouldn't like to live next to a non stop barker, therefore I do take precautions, my dogs are also crated, I leave a radio on near the front of the house which covers any outside noise, I keep the blinds shut, they are walked everyday, also one of my dogs who can be slightly hyper wears a bark collar, this is a collar with a sensor on it that detects noise and let's out a little spray. These collars are approved by RSPCA they are not cruel they do not harm the dog it's merely a distraction and it works well.

Now I am confident my dogs don't bark whilst I am out because the liquid tank on that collar could be empty within five minutes of continual noise.. It always still has liquid in it when I get home which it wouldn't if she barked all the time. Also every time I get home I pause and listen as I approach my house and have never heard anything!

Good luck with your neighbour and ignore those saying people working shouldn't have dogs, I know plenty of non workers with dogs that get shut out in the garden or kitchen and never walked etc... Sooner people have a dog work for a few hours and then walk it than ignore it!

m0nkeymrs01

Agree also with spasguidedogs I recorded mine at the height of the trouble!

-F*Dragonfly-

We've been lucky where we are now for years and now have no neighbours either side as both houses are now empty (elderly owner/s in rest home family not selling yet etc)

We also crate our dog who is now 1, though we will be slowly weaning him out of the crate all the time when we're not in to at least give him a bit more room to move etc. We are hoping to move by the end of this year so then neighbours might be more of an issue for us, though our dog isn't the barky type really.

What I did to find out what he was doing when we popped out to Asda and such like (someone is usually always home with him at the moment apart from an hour popping out to shops etc) was either the voice recorder idea or what I did was if you have a webcam / laptop put that opposite your dogs crate and then you can actually see what's going on, if your dog is making noise, if your dog is stressed etc.

krlyr

Record your dog to be sure. I didn't think it was mine barking when a neighbour mentioned it to me, or I thought he was exaggerating - but nope, she was barking the majority of the day. It turned out she had a health condition causing anxiety, and combined with our recent move she developed separation anxiety displayed as various behaviours including barking a lot.

I used the webcam on my laptop so I could see what was happening as well. This gives some extra clues, e.g. whether the dog is barking at a particular door (so it could be the postman triggering the reaction), the window (so people walking past are what she's barking at) etc. - I know your dog is crated but it may still help to have the video feed if possible

Just because your dog hasn't displayed the behaviour before, it doesn't mean it couldn't develop a behavioural or medical condition to cause it now. And if you build up several recordings (this is where video would be handy, to prove it's your own dog you're recording), you could perhaps contact your local council's Environmental Health/Noise Control team to provide evidence that it's not your dog, before it gets escalated down that route (because they do have the powers to enforce you to rehome the dog if they believe the barking is your dog, and deem it a nuisance noise)