Neighbour's dog - advice please

KiKi

Thanks, Cath - yes, I'll definitely tell her. She was surprised when I told her of the howling earlier in the week, and she's invited me to tell her if there are any problems. I was more wondering if it's likely the dogs will settle (I know nothing of dog behaviour!), or whether I can suggest anything to help. She might not appreciate that, of course!

The dogs do bark when they see people directly outside the house - but they stop very quickly. It's the howling from this one dog that's a problem. If it weren't for that, I'd have no issues whatsoever.

Call me selfish, I just so desperately just want to enjoy my new house! And I feel very tense at the moment because I'm worried about the mornings when I'm at home next week!

TBagpuss

I would keep her fully updated - she may well be trying different things to address the problem and knowing whether the howling is better / worse on particular days may help he to find a solution which works more quickly than if you say nothing.

catkins

Obviously you don't know if the dog howled before as that would make it clear whether it could just be the move that has started it off. If that is the case it probably will settle down. It must be difficult for some dogs to move to a new place and then their owner leaves them straight away. I personally would have taken a couple of days off work (which I did each time we moved with our previous dog even though he was the most laid back dog going).


I would probably see what happens this week and if it continues I would have a chat with her. I am sure she wouldn't be happy to know her dog is unhappy and also disturbing you and, hopefully, she will take steps to sort it out.


Are you saying she left the dogs yesterday from 7am until gone 7pm? If so that is wrong especially in a new environment for them. I know dogs have to be left when people work but that is far too long. My dogs are not left for more than 4 hours (and that is rarely). Any longer and they either go to a doggie boarder or a dog sitter comes to our house.


Out of interest how do you know only one of the dogs is howling? Could they not both be but at different times? My OH can't distinguish between the barks of our 2 dogs (or the very rare occasions they howl) but I can

KiKi

catkins wrote: »

Obviously you don't know if the dog howled before as that would make it clear whether it could just be the move that has started it off. If that is the case it probably will settle down. It must be difficult for some dogs to move to a new place and then their owner leaves them straight away. I personally would have taken a couple of days off work (which I did each time we moved with our previous dog even though he was the most laid back dog going).

She did take some days off, but when we had a chat around Wednesday to say hello to each other, she told me her work pattern, and she definitely worked on Thursday and Friday.

Are you saying she left the dogs yesterday from 7am until gone 7pm? If so that is wrong especially in a new environment for them. I know dogs have to be left when people work but that is far too long. My dogs are not left for more than 4 hours (and that is rarely). Any longer and they either go to a doggie boarder or a dog sitter comes to our house.

She was definitely gone by 0700, as that's when I woke up to the howling. I did add another post to say that whilst she was definitely not at home, she'd obviously organised for a friend to stay because a guy next door got a pizza delivery, and he doesn't live there. I got home at 1800 and he was there then, but I don't know when he came over - I was in out from 1300 and they weren't howling after that point so he may have come over at lunch.

I don't think she'd leave them for too long from the impression I got from her - she deliberately moved to be right near her job so she could be with the dogs at lunch everyday, and she takes them out very regularly - she certainly seems to love them a lot more than people from what I've heard from her (which I identify with!). She was surprised to hear how long he howled for, she didn't realise how bad it was.

Out of interest how do you know only one of the dogs is howling? Could they not both be but at different times? My OH can't distinguish between the barks of our 2 dogs (or the very rare occasions they howl) but I can

She told me - you're right, I'd have no idea otherwise! When we had a chat on the Wednesday she asked me if I could hear the dogs barking and told me they could be barky, so to let her know if it was a problem. It wasn't, then, so I said the occasional barking wasn't an issue, although they were howling the day before. She told me she has two rescues, one boy, one girl, and it's the male dog that howls, but she was surprised how long he howled for when I told her. She did mention that they were in a new place which might not help. He then howled for Sunday all morning, when I had to leave the house. I'm working at home tomorrow and Friday, so I'll see how things go. I'm trying not to get worked up over it when it's not yet happened!!!

She used to live with her partner, and I get the impression the dogs were rarely on their own, then. So this is probably all very new for the poor thing!

catkins

Yes if she lived with a partner and now it is just her and in a new place the dogs could well be unsettled. I know lots of people with dogs and cats that have had some problems when they moved house. I was lucky with my previous dog as in the 11 years I had him me and OH moved around a lot (because of his work) - I think we lived in 6 different houses plus various hotels, caravans, houses OH was working on and we never had any problems! One laid back dog.


Anyway hopefully the dog will settle but if not it's best to speak to her because the dog must be unhappy. I'm glad to hear the dogs weren't left for over 12 hours on Sunday - she sounds like a pretty good owner and I am sure she will want to sort things out for her dogs

Tygermoth

I worked nights and struggled through a whole summer where the neighbours dog barked and howled all day. The neighbour was a big ole scary dude so i didn't want to rock the boat.

Then, due to being disturbed, i slept in for a night shift!

Next day i popped round. he was a love, just goes to show don't judge a book by its cover. he had no idea and took the dog to his mums every day after.

duchy

Sounds like my neighbour huge and loads of tats - and one of the nicest and most reasonable people you could meet - who takes great care of his dogs.

KiKi

Tygermoth wrote: »

I worked nights and struggled through a whole summer where the neighbours dog barked and howled all day. The neighbour was a big ole scary dude so i didn't want to rock the boat.

Then, due to being disturbed, i slept in for a night shift!

Next day i popped round. he was a love, just goes to show don't judge a book by its cover. he had no idea and took the dog to his mums every day after.

Oh, I'm not judging her at all - I only talked with her for about ten minutes but pretty much got her life story, and she seems like a good dog owner. She invited me to say if there's a problem, so that's great as well. I just know very little about dogs, so not sure if this is an unsettled thing, or a constant behavioural thing!

Anyway, working at home today - no howling so far! Not sure if she's in or out, though! The dogs had a really long walk this morning, so maybe they're knackered!

(Just realised I must sound like a really, really nosy neighbour, knowing that they're in / out etc! I promise I'm not! I think the fact that I've been so worked up about this morning, worrying what it would be like, meant I heard everything outside my bedroom window. I heard them leave and come back, that's all!)

catkins

I don't think you sound like a nosy neighbour at all (and believe me I have some of those!).


It's good that she asked you about her dogs barking/howling. Some people just don't care. My dogs are rarely left any length of time but if they are I often ask my neighbour if she heard anything just so I am aware whether they make a noise. I would hate to think they were barking the whole time and, obviously, there is no way of knowing unless you set up something to record them.


I know my dogs bark if there is someone at the door or sometimes if they see someone through the window or hear a noise but they only bark for a short time and stop. My neighbour says she likes that because then she can look to see what they barked at and if there is any problem.

lynnemcf

I think you should start keeping a diary of dog noise, I would certainly want to know if my dogs were distressed. I have fitted obscure film on my living room windows because my dog gets distressed when people walk past. It was a simple solution, and solved his problem.