Complaint about Excessive Barking, what exactly is excessive?

soffkay

HI guys i have just got a letter thru post from council saying they have had a complaint about my dogs excessive barking (i have three dogs).

please can someone explain to me each of the following parts of letter

part 1.
it mentions the following, it is environmentals health departments role to investigate all cases that effect well-being and comfort of land and if noise is considered a statutory nusiance or not..

part 2
the person whos complained is keeping a diary of dates and times duration of barking. if complaints continue, council officers will undertake visits and may use noise monitoring equipment to gather evidence. you will not be informed of these visits.

part 3
if investigation confirms statutory nusiance council oblidged to serve a statutory nuisance abatement notice,(what is this!??) and if the terms of such notice are breached further action will be taken, this could include a court prosecution and the seizure of any noise equipment in the property causing a nuisance.

can someone please please pleaseee! help me as to what this all means...

in my opinion the dogs are not excessively barking, but i would really like to know what is going to be deemed excessive to the council tho please!?

PasturesNew

Excessive is not defined absolutely.... "it depends".

I hear dogs barking where I live. Typically I will hear 2-3 barks every 10 days. There are about 4 dogs within earshot of me. Once every 3 months or so the 1st one will set another one off and they'll both end up barking about 6-8x.

This is clearly not excessive.

If one were to bark, say, 3-4x a day, for 20-30 minutes non stop, every day ... that'd be excessive imho.

But - the thing is - do you actually know how often your dogs bark and for how long? Maybe they start the minute you leave the house, until they hear you returning.

So what do your records show for when you were in/out and when your dogs were barking?

Comms69

It's not that simple.


Basically one of your neighbours has complained; they're letting you know so you can try address this, but if you don't want to - they will at some point arrive with recording equipment and check whether the noise is indeed excessive.

lika_86

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statutory-nuisances-how-councils-deal-with-complaints

Browntoa

Two sides to every story , someone near me let's their dogs out to wander along the back alley , ones fine but the other is a vicious little so and so and "goes" for anyone walking past.

The stock reply was " he's fine don't worry" until he bit someone and they complained to the dog warden and got a visit . They stopped letting the dog out but still moaned to everyone that they couldn't understand what the problem was.

Your neighbours may be being unreasonable , but your dog's may be barking on a regular basis all day.

Red-Squirrel_2

Its completely subjective, some people think a dog barking at all is excessive, some people let their dogs bark almost constantly.

You could ask the council what definition they will be using so that you can address the issue if there is one.

Rosemary7391

It also matters what time the barking is. Late at night/early morning is more annoying.

DCFC79

Is there anyway you can record ( whether it's just noise or a video plus sound ) what they do ?

soffkay

In terms of noise there is definately no noise after 9pm because quite simply we are all in bed then! Or going to bed and they dont go out.. during day there is a little yapper we have but minute he does 1-2 barks im on him and he goes back indoors, very very few times has he been left out to bark for much more then them initial 1-2 barks. I believe it is the neighbours behind us (who are slightly physcotic) they have been to another neighbour and threatened to shoot them they scream.and shout outside and 3-4x have screamed and shouted at my dog for barking -this is when he does more then them 2 barks- but in all honesty he has only screamed shutup or f-off 3x in a year.
Also to note dogs dont go out for wee till 7am (when i wake up!).
Times dogs are loud.. post, someone knocking door, food deliveries.. all typical.
I am going to get a bark collar for lil yappy dog (spray one). Just for when hes outside and randomly annoyingly barks them 1-2x, oh yipper can also bark at people going past house if they are loud 1-2 barks again bark collar now be in use for this situation.

elsien

I am a dog owner. If my dog was barking every time the post came, someone walked past, I got a delivery, someone knocked on the door, and it was more than a couple of barks I'd get annoyed quite quickly.
I'd get even more annoyed if it was the dog next door doing it.
I think what you may not be taking into account is that for the few times your neighbour has been outside swearing there's probably been a lot more times when he was !!!!ed off but didn't come out to make a fuss. "Shut that effing dog up" is generally not someone's first response.

Maybe you need to start your own diary to double check just what is happening and how often.

Rosemary7391

That is quite a lot of barking... rather like my neighbours dog, which irritated me enough to have a chat about it. They told me it was a rescue and they were talking to a trainer about it, and that seems to be working. So I didn't take it further. I'd be more annoyed if it was the status quo.


Edit - do you leave them home alone?