Complaint about Excessive Barking, what exactly is excessive?

Silvertabby

bouicca21 wrote: »

My next door neighbour has a little dog who barks at the postman, anyone walking past, delivery people ... It's annoying. No one has complained yet as we are all actually quite sorry for the dog, who is clearly bored out of her mind.

And of course you can teach a dog not to bark. Mind you the dog next door isn't trained at all.

You must live next door but one to me !

motorguy

soffkay wrote: »

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!?

Are you there all the time to know?

Years ago our neighbour had a dog which didnt bark much when they were there - if at all. As soon as they went to work it was literally bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark constantly.

paddy's_mum

I suspect most people's hearing can tolerate a large dog's deep bark without difficulty but find a small dog's piercing yapping much harder to stomach.

In our local scrapyard, they sometimes half drop empty skips to the ground. The enormous bang doesn't hurt my ears but chalk scraping on a blackboard does! It may not be fair (in terms of the complaint against your dogs) but it is many people's reality.

Good luck with sorting out the problem.

soffkay

update: thanks for all replies so far...
At the moment i am with them pretty much all the time, i work part time and at most leave them 4 hours a day monday - friday (including travel)
We know who has done this, the guy is nuts, he has a grudge with everyone and is regularly outside swearing on the phone or shouting at someone. Our actual next door neighbours who are joined to us are fine with noise, saying it is not there. Its these "people" behind us who have made complaint. Noise outside is very minimal, i have done a small diary for my own benefit and so far we have had 6 barks (2 dogs) that lasted 30 seconds (if that).. that is in over 4 hours so far. and was at 10am.
He is a hot headed and a angry guy, he has had the police called to him in the past year for threatening to kill someone down our street for them playing music during day.
Like i said, there is no way he could hear what noise is made inside house, only outside due to where he is, our garden is 50 ft his must be atleast the same if not bigger, and outside they are quiet end of story.

soffkay

to add, there is no way i would go and talk to these people either as the guy is unhinged (you really should hear him to anyone and everyone!!)
id be personally worried of safety (might sound ott but is very true)!

Elinore

If you believe it's the dogs behind you best record your own dogs with date and time to show they are not the culprits. (sorry, i can see you are now doing this)

I had a noise complaint, i was shocked, then i realised that it just couldn't be my dog as the letter mentioned a particular day when two complaints by different houses had been received. I knew for an absolute fact the dog was in daycare that day. with me till collected and i was home when he was dropped off - so not a peep (not that he's a barker anyway)

turned out it was the house behind me - a right nasty bunch and quite troublesome.

It was easier to prove to the council it was not me, than to tackle them - as i could prove my dog had not been in the house during such incidences.

i also got a cam with a bark monitor which showed minimal barking - only when next door have a shouting match and slam doors. The council weighted this evidence over the rest as 'own' diaries are open to not picking up all incidences (sometimes you don't hear, distracted, tune them out where as a digital record records all)

soffkay

Thanks for reply. Theres no disputing our dogs bark -they r dogs end of day i cant say they never bark outside- however... It is in no way excessive, basically 2 barks and im like no get in they come in. In nearly 5hours now we had 1 incident where 2 dogs barked, 6 barks between them lasted 30 seconds really if that tbh...
I meant to say the people who are behind us are the ones who have complained (trust me if you lived here you just know its them!) Down my street we have 9 houses in a row. Our joined to neighbours have said theres no problem as far as they are concerned (they are honest, nice people who we get along with i really dont believe its them). However this physco behind us.. well as i said hes mental, hes always screaming down the phone at someone in garden, swearing and just is crazy! Bullish and nasty. He has had police called to him. I believe only reason we have been left alone and not physically threatened is because of the dogs.

Rosemary7391

Hm. Your neighbour does sound... interesting?



Wonder if you could use Elinore's suggestion of an electronic recording device, but place it at the bottom of your garden (so between you and the complaining neighbour if I've got the layout straight in my head?). Would be interesting to see if it picks up more barking or swearing! I'd find the latter much more problematic btw.

FBaby

You're out 4 hours a day and don't know how much they bark then. 6 x 30 seconds in 4 hours is not great but if that's what they do when you're with them you can assume it's likely more when you're not.

Dogs are like kids they are much much less annoying when they are yours. No point in defending them on a 'Dogs are dogs' basis. What matters is what they've recorded and what the council might record themselves. In the end they'll either agree with you or they'll agree with your neighbour.

ska_lover

We have a neighbour a 2 doors down, who shoves their dog out in the garden for hours on end, in any weather...and it spends the entire time barking to be let back in. Much of the time the noise doesn't bother me, but when it is still going on past midnight we do get very fed up

I know it is irrelevant but they don't work, and we are both up at 5am, whereas I see them in their front garden in their nightware as we are getting home 6pm-ish. Leaves a bit of a bitter taste ref their complete inability to care less about anyone else or their own pet.

We don't hear anything when the dog is inside and despite their lifestyle have no complaints about them, other than them being thoughtless to their own dog, and to the surrounding neighbourhood

Sorry i know this is irrelevant OP, and isn't your situation at all . Just felt like a vent to be honest - and this has been helpful, didnt even know this was a thing that people could complain about