problem neighbours

andydiysaver

Brief History - I live in a nice house in a nice area one problem is yapping dogs getting worse- about a year ago I posted another thread on yappy dogs - was at time tongue in cheek as didn't bother me as much as now - got various advices, some constructive some "how dare you, dogs should be allowed to bark freely" and all in between. Etc


fast forward this year - next door who have a chiuahua and a shitsu are really starting to annoy me - reason being - they seem to have given up on their dogs, and therefore bang them outside a lot presumably so they don't get annoyed by them - so it's now my problem as then the yapping begins and doesn't end until these dogs are let back in - of the two of them it's the chiuahua that's the problem - it has shrill never ending yappy bark and barks at everything, it has gone on all day today each yap so loud that it goes through a pretty well built detached house, bricks and mortar and all. Moreover, I wear hearing aids, my partner more laid back than me doesn't. I can hear this constant yapping without these appliances in, God only knows how my fiance must feel. All I can say is I have the worse hearing and the shorter fuse of the two of us and now she's agreeing with me, it's too much and it has to stop.


Anyway before Christmas it got to a head, I went around there the neighbour really nice actually -she said she appreciated the yapping had got worse, but then tried to say it was my cats, to which I said "none of my cats go out" leaving her speechless - the reality is it's because they themselves get annoyed by their own dogs, turf them out for hours, so they yap yap yap until they get back in and this is seriously affecting my quality of life. I'm sure I am not alone - I'm in a detached house with hearing aids, I hear it, so I bet the whole street hears it, in fact when I went around one of first things she said was "was just talking to other half about how neighbours must hate us- was expecting this" - so she knows these dogs are a problem. Bottom line is she was very nice, very understanding etc, but she's done jack all continues to make our life a misery with her never ending yapping dogs.


since then I've opened patio doors once and yelled "for the love of god they've been yapping all day " then earlier today, put my window open shouted "for Gods sake is it EVER going to stop" in reaction to being yapped at all day


point is & long story short although I've been round once and yelled a couple of times, these dogs are barking all day every day nothing is being done


I think my next step must be the council. What does everyone think?

andydiysaver

I hasten to add, I'm a computer programmer, I run one of my businesses from home, obviously it's complicated mathematics, and I need a bit of a concentration on me to get things done right - then the yapping starts and it all goes to hell - I made this actual point in the conversation I had with the neighbour - I clearly said it's affecting my work so I'm taking the lack of change as the only real indictor of how seriously these problem neighbours are taking me, I reckon the nice "you can talk to us any time approach " is nothing more than to make me go away, turf dogs back out, yap yap yap, another unproductive day etc.

System

Call the RSPCA and report them. That should get their attention.

I feel for you, I've just moved out of a terraced house where one of the neighbours got a little yappy dog. That thing would bark day and night for hours. The couple did apologise once, but I don't think they really cared. They also used to go out the back door around midnight and bang a saucepan with a wooden spoon to call the cat in for the night.

sulphate

Firstly you have my sympathies - barking dogs get on my nerves at the best of times.

I would suggest you stop the shouting out the windows etc.

You don't say when you went round last, but if I were you I would perhaps wait a few more days, then go round there whilst the dogs are in the middle of a barking session and say something like "Hey, I was just wondering what you are planning on doing about the dogs barking all the time because I'm trying to work and it's extremely difficult". It seems like at the moment the neighbour isn't really interested in resolving the problem, and the suggestion that she should look into an actual solution may make her think about it.

Depending on her reaction, and if the situation doesn't improve, go to the council after that.

mum2one

I would doubt you would get anywhere with the RSPCA, as yes the dogs are outside in the day time and yapping for England, - but as there being given shelter, food and water it is unlikely this can be classed as "abuse to the animals".

Its more than likel you would need to go down the council / environmental health route and see if you can get help that way. x

moneyistooshorttomention

Are you keeping a diary about this, eg Monday, x date = dogs turfed outdoors at 8.11am. They started barking at 8.13am and its now 11.30am and they have been barking continuously ever since?

It would be a good idea to have such a diary to produce for the Council/whoever in order to prove that its an objective fact, rather than your subjective opinion, that those dogs are barking as frequently as this.

If you can produce the evidence that those dogs are indeed barking for literally hours at a time on a daily basis then that proves the neighbour is being unreasonable.

In your position (ie working from home and doing a job needing concentration) then I would also be keeping a record of my workhours and how many of them had proved unproductive due to lack of concentration (courtesy of her dogs), with a view to being able to produce a bill for the amount of lost income she had cost me. It might help concentrate the neighbours mind a bit if she got presented with a list of work for last week that went "Work hours 40 hours at £20 per hour - of which unable to concentrate for the following 20 hours due to dogs barking = £400 lost income".

I_have_spoken

Offer the owners you'll pay the vets fees to have the dogs put down?

andydiysaver

wouldn't be difficult to keep a diary as my office faces outward to the garden where the dogs are always barking, including now, of course.


I think what we may have here is yappy little Chihuahua dog for "Christmas" one two christmasses ago her boyfriend clearly hates it and has it outside every time she's out, making it my problem not his, and then it barks to get in 24/7 as they're spoilt needy little rats


RSPCA would be good but I think they'd be happy with it being my problem. I think I'll either speak to her one last time and tell her in no uncertain terms I didn't buy a hosue to get this kind of noise pollution and it is the council next, or just skip it and go straight to the council, they know this is annoying me and keep doing it, I bet I'm not the only neighbour annoyed - chiuhauaus are an extremely annyoing breed that simply love barking for the sake of it- they bark at everything in a high pitched shrill yap that is tireless and incessant. Including me because clearly the house I paid for is this little brats territory and all - I don't care if she thinks it makes her look like paris Hilton, it makes me a prisoner in my own home


2015 will see change of some sort, and i'll probably be a neighbourhood hero for taking them on - some people are selfish beyond belief


if the council dish out noise equipment they'd better give me it with full battery charge because its a set and forget system, leave it anywhere in my house and it is recording for up to 10 hours a day reacting to that shrill never ending barking.


Thanks all for advice.

andydiysaver

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Offer the owners you'll pay the vets fees to have the dogs put down?

they'd hate me for that - she wants the trophy dog that makes her look like Jodie marsh sans range rover with less muscle on a cheaper budget, but doesn't want the commitment that comes with it i.e. walking it, tiring it out so it isn't so bored and aggressive towards eveyrthying (small dog syndrome -angry little chiuhauas infamous for thinking they're hard and can take on anything) realising that every time it's turfed out it'll yap forever until she lets it in because truth is it's not a mans dog it's a needy little ankle biter that expects every whim waiting on


- then you have her younger bloke obv got a yap machine as part of the relationship - direct link between her not there and dog turfed out all the time - he clearly hates the thing so out it goes so it can annoy me and not him


she cares because she's the home owner but a bunch of words isn't going to solve a problem they're not solving

andydiysaver

has anyone successfully got a result from involving the council?


I can play the long game - it's been going on years and I moved away from a terrace where a guy in and out of prison was having parties until 7am so horses for courses, I've got the background and the luxury of it only being a dog


has anyone done this and if so is there any result to it -councils notorious for having absolutely no powers in this situation, I'd need some kind of legal injunction, it'd get very ugly and likely to escalate their anti social behaviours

System

Stuff some tranquillizers in to some sausages and throw them over the fence. Better still, invest in a tranquillizer gun, shoot the dogs when they're outside, and the owners for good measure.

In all seriousness though, the RSPCA would be my route, because at least a surprise visit from them might spook the owners enough to be a bit more conscious of the barking. Just imagine the dogs barking their heads off when the RSPCA come knocking, it's not going to look good is it?