Neighbours dog barking becoming an issue

Pip1000

Nov 20 my neighbours got a cockapoo puppy.   They told me that their best friend trained guide dogs and they hated yappy dogs and it would be trained not to bark.  They needed a puppy as their 3 Childrens mental health was suffering due to lockdown.   So they got the cute little puppy and trained it to let them know it wanted to come in from the garden by barking at the back door.   So all is ok until last summer when it wasn’t so cute anymore, no one wants to take it for a walk so they just leave it in the garden for hours at a time.  It’s been trained to bark to be let in, only they don’t let it in.  So after an hour or so it’s so distressed it’s baying like a blood hound

Tried ringing the dad to let him know I’m concerned but he’s too busy to talk to me so I sent him a text to say his dog is in distress and please could someone let it in.    No reply and no acknowledgement later 

 since then they regularly just leave it in the garden and now it barks it’s head off as soon as it goes outside and it’s constant    The dad just laughs at us if we ask him to stop it barking.     I know the law is pretty vague about how long a dog can bark for.   We have pretty much fallen out with them.  Not really due the no consideration of us, but how someone can let their poor pet get so distressed is just beyond me.  They are thoughtless people.  Think nothing of letting it out at 130 am if they have friends over   If they are awake then all of us neighbours are awake.  

I know we can go to the environmental health people at the council but not really sure if that would help.  I know it’s not an Rspca issue even though the animal is in distress

Does anyone have any experience or advice please?

Are we being unreasonable?   I know dogs bark occasionally- however I do think a lot is down to training and the fact that they rarely take it for a walk. My sister has 2 dogs and I have never heard them bark, nor my brother in laws 4 labradors!  I think the owners would not be allowed a rescue dog from the rspca but anyone can buy a puppy even if they are completely clueless!

so- what can we do?

have tried asking nicely and been ignored or laughed at.  That ship had sailed.  What’s next?

sheramber

Do you have a dog warden. They can 'have a word'.

Keep a diary of when and how long the dog barks for evidence.

Does the dog have shelter and water available?

fimacdoodle

council noise wardens can help, but it needs to be pretty bad. stupid times of the day as well. 
If it is not cared for, the Rspca can visit. as above, what access to facilities has it , when stuck outside. does it look well fed?
we have a cockapoo, and it can get bark when it hears folk in the lane outside, doing its guard dog thing. We just call it in, and it is fine. 
Its all about nurture, not the breed.

Pip1000

thanks all.  It’s fed and watered ok by the look of it it is not starving !   And they take it to be clipped every few months.   It’s just they can’t be bothered to walk it and just leave it outside without a thought for it’s mental welfare.  I suspect it’s got separation anxiety as well.  I have friends with cockapoos and their dogs are lovely.   I know it is the owners at fault here. Not the poor dog

Interestingly they let it outside about ten minutes ago and it only barked about three times, in a really high pitch so I wonder wether they are actually doing something about it with a whistle or a training collar or something as it didn’t do a proper bark at all?   Could they be mse readers!!

It could be the fact it’s raining though……

I will see about the dog warden 

thankyou all

Snuggles

You are absolutely not being unreasonable. Yes dogs do bark, yes we have to live and let live and expect certain levels of noise if you have other houses nearby. But shutting a dog out and just leaving it to bark for prolonged periods is not only cruel to the animal (IMO), it shows a complete lack of consideration for neighbours. 

However you will probably find that these type of people just won't care, they'll trot out the "It's a dog, it will bark" argument, absolving themselves of any responsibility. They won't give a damn that it's causing disturbance and distress to others, having to listen to the poor animal. 

Sadly there's probably very little you can realistically do about it.

MalMonroe

This is what the RSPCA page says - 

"if speaking to your neighbour hasn't worked or isn't an option, try contacting your local council about the noise complaint. This can help resolve the underlying issue, and if there is a welfare complaint they'll contact us" - so if it's thought that the dog's in distress, in spite of it being well fed and otherwise well looked after, they can do something. 

The council will probably ask you to keep a record and a diary. And may even ask you to record the barking. We had to do that once when we had exceptionally noisy neighbours. Although we had moved before the council bothered to do anything - hopefully you have better luck.

It IS your council's responsibility, rather than any dog warden, in the first instance.

I feel really sorry for the poor dog, it obviously wants to be inside with its family and that's where it should be. What's the point of having a dog otherwise?

I just watched an episode of Graeme Hall's programme where he dealt really quickly and effectively with a constantly barking dog. Without any aids, treats or cruelty.  

TripleH

This type of situation annoys me and sadly was not unexpected. Whilst I know of some fantastic dog owners (one friend waited until he was mentally ready to properly look after a dog before getting one, when he might have benefitted from having one sooner), I am aware of people who knee jerk got a dog during lockdown with no thought of what to do once 'normality' returned or whose lifestyles realistically couldn't accomodate a dog.

For many years my mother and sister pushed my dad to get a dog but he refused knowing when the novelty wore off, he'd be the one in mid winter when it's chucking it down taking the dog for a walk (ironically a dog might have prolonged his life).

We like dogs but they are incompatible to our existing lifestyle (mainly our eldest cat would get upset).

Sorry, rant over!

Pip1000

Just lost a long post. Aaagh!!

I looked up council website and they really just have a very wishy washy leaflet that basically says pretty please don’t let your dog bark too much and make sure it has food and water if you keep it outside permanently.    

Son works nights in covid 19 lab  so 330pm barking time is prime sleeping time for him but would not be considered unreasonable for people who do their sleeping at night I suspect  so I don’t think that will be the way to go yet


anyway the Google feed on my phone posted some very useful articles about stopping dogs barking so at 7 am on Friday I sent one to the dad with a (very subtle!!) title “ just in case you ever wanted to give your neighbours a lie in”

next day at 7.10 am the dog was on a lead with one of the kids just to do it’s business and it did not bark at all

so I now know that this is fixable and irritated that It’s pretty much been deliberate so far 

as I said earlier. It’s not the poor dog at fault here, just lazy and inconsiderate owners


Thanks to everyone