Dogs Barking and driving me crazy

Catapillerry

Hi all,


I wondered if anyone had a constructive view on this.
About 5/6 years ago, we had our youngest child, and about the same time, our neighbours got a German Shepherd. We'd previous got on with them very well, and everything had been fine for years.


The connected house to ours also has a dog, so we were pretty used to the odd barking at the postman, family coming back, etc, but that's what dogs do.


The german Shepherd, as it got older although not barking constantly, would bark in the garden at squirrels, etc, and would bark down the sides of the houses, which would reverberate through the house, and wake my child up at night. It would do it mainly when it was left in the garden on it's own, for about 30 seconds every 15 minutes or so, and I don't think I exaggerate when I say it pretty deafening and meant you'd have to go back in the house.


I spoke many a time to the neighbours, and it was always friendly. Their excuse was always that dogs bark, and there wasn't much they could do about it. I told them (again we were still friendly) that eventually I would have to go to the council, which I did, and they wrote to them, and sent me a "noise pack" I wrote that, even showing next door, and sent it off, and eventually the council took the next step of telling them they might need to take them to court.


It came to a head when the Dad and 22 year old son started shouting at me about it, and how he couldn't live without his dog, if it was taken away he'd become a nightmare, and that I should get a solicitor, because if I couldn't prove it was his dog barking, I'd be in trouble.


Anyway, over the next few months, they stopped the dog barking after 7.30 pm, it became colder and darker at nights, the dog was in more, I decided just to bear with it, and my son grew up more and wasn't as scared by it.


A year later, they got another German Shepherd, which was noisy, but not as loud, and the eldest one had calmed down somewhat, so again, we lived with it.


Last year, they got ANOTHER one, this time a puppy, and on Tuesday, the other two did what they do, and the puppy pretty much yapped all day (Sunny day, out in the garden, etc)


Eventually, my son, who is autistic and noise sensitive, asked to go inside and close the windows, it was extremely irritating.


I think the time for talking is pretty much over now, and I'm going back to the council.


My concern is the obvious confrontation every time you walk out of your front door, the thought of court action.


Is there another path to take? Can they "counter sue" and make us/the council have to prove that it's their dogs barking (Note that the puppy, I think, was bought by their parents - who live on the other side of them)

GDB2222

You need to be able to show it's their dogs making a lot of noise, but some videos taken with a mobile phone should do the trick. That should be easy to do.

I can understand that your neighbour needs a dog for company and is distraught at the idea of it being taken away. But that's where my sympathy ends. What possessed them to add to their collection? Anyway, yes, you should keep a detailed diary with video evidence to give to the local authorities.

Catapillerry

Thanks.


I'm going to struggle to get video footage, as I don't have a view of where they tend to roam - they have a pen and a kennel behind the garage.
But it'd be pretty obvious to anyone that came to check that it was theirs

Davesnave

Are there any other neighbours affected by this and could you enlist their help if there are?


Sometimes, it just takes one person to set the ball rolling and others will then have the confidence to support. Other times, the complainant may find they're on their own.


Ignore the threats; which will be bluster and BS. If you have a supportive environmental health team and keep the diary they'll require, they are very likely to come out and hear for themselves where the noise is anyway.

Catapillerry

I'm pretty sure I'll be on my own with this. These dogs don't bark incessantly through the night, the bigger one would bark at 15 minute intervals down between the houses, or in the garden in the day, which made it very loud for us. When they stopped the night barking, I wound my neck in because of the fact that I knew other people were in worse situations with constantly barking dogs, even though it stopped us using the garden a lot of the time.


Now with the puppy, it's all the time, and I don't think the puppy yelps will be affecting others (their parents on the other side of them)

Sea_Shell

I'm not sure if this is legal, but...if you are at the end of your tether...

Do you have a wooden fence between you and is it yours? If so, using a "cake cutter" bit on a drill, drill a small, re-pluggable, hole in said fence, large enough to film through on your phone. (when they're not about obviously). Re-fix the plug with blutac.

Then when it's next a problem obtain footage, then replace "plug"!

Will probably go undetected from next door.

There may even be existing knot holes that would do the job!

Mistral001

Since you threatened legal action before, they are unlikely to respond to anything less than that this time round.

Carrot007

Move.


It will be easier overall. Even with an autistic child who won't like it at first.


The neighbour does not care about anyone but themselves and will find another way to annoy you if you get t heir dogs removed (which you should have done when it was one if it warranted it).