Neighbours who complain

deannagone

I don't know if this is the cause of the dog crying problem but maybe you could limit the water late evening/night time and maybe your dog won't cry so early?  I have a dog with a bladder problem (getting older) and lol, I have been known to sleep on the sofa so I can let him out without having to clamber down stairs. Fortunately its a comfortable sofa!  Or let the dog sleep in the hallway or in your room if they are crying for you.  If you are out all day, perhaps think about a dog sitting service, there could be an anxiety problem if you are at work for longer than a couple of hours a day. 

This is just the first link I found, https://breedingbusiness.com/my-dog-wakes-up-too-early/#:~:text=A%20dog%20waking%20up%20too,health%20conditions%20and%20separation%20anxiety.

Please don't think I am being judgemental, I am just trying to give information.

HampshireH

Agree with most of the above.

You have instantly been on the defensive with your neighbours judging them without looking at the root cause which is a perceived nuisance you are allowing to happen.

What I don't understand is why you think the dog wouldn't wake them up if as you say you get up when it wakes you up. What's the difference.

As a dog owner it would also irritate me if someone else dog whined all day / barked. And I've been there. As a child our dog howled when you first went out. The neighbour loved it weirdly as she felt comforted by the fact no one would come near the house with a vocal alsation sat in the window next door. Luckily it was very very rural area.

As an adult if that happened now I'd be extremely annoyed.

You really need to address the whining/crying so early by either modifying your response (getting up earlier) or training it out and changing the set up in the meantime

lookstraightahead

My neighbour has a puppy and she is training it. We've worked together on ensuring we are not disturbed, and every time she leaves it (which is rarely and for very short periods) I can text her if I hear anything and she deals with it.

perhaps your neighbour  could have your number and can let you know when it's disturbing her so that you can rectify the situation? 

The dog also sleeps in a room furthest away from the adjoining wall and in her bedroom. We have old cottages with very thick walls as well.

bouicca21

I agree with the above comments, but would add that by attending to the dog when it cries it is possible that OP is actually reinforcing the behaviour.  OP needs to figure out why the dog cries and how to stop it happening.  In the meantime cake and flowers and profuse apologies for the neighbour

fourmarks

Grumpy_chap said:

Whatever the OP does, they need to find a way to amicably coexist with the neighbours.  They might not ever be best friends, but don't allow this to evolve to a feud or anything that would be recorded as a dispute in the future.

FWIW, I'd be unhappy if there was something waking me at 6ish every morning and would try to investigate and resolve.

I guess the clue is in the title  :-)

EssexHebridean

Hi OP - it does come across that you had already taken against these neighbours before the dog issue arose, that they’d not rushed round to greet you effusively might mean they were simply respecting your privacy, and were waiting for the first time they saw you coming or going to welcome you and strike up a chat? I’d call that considerate, rather than branding it as “ignorant” to be honest.  Not everyone feels that they should immediately be greeted by all and sundry when they move to a new home  - and someone who does feel that way themselves wouldn’t necessarily realise that others do expect that approach, I know I wouldn’t! I’d probably pop a little note through the door just introducing myself, but wouldn’t expect anything more. It should also be mentioned that often an issue with noise has to become a significant problem before someone will steel themselves to raise it - in part because they fear being branded unreasonable for making a perfectly fair request! (Trust me, when the noise disturbing you in the middle of the night comes from people’s small children running around in shoes, on hard flooring this becomes even more of a challenge!) 

I’m afraid I also agree that this may well be attention seeking behaviour from the dog - and of course as soon as behaviour is “rewarded” with attention that reinforces that it is the right thing for the dog to be doing. I’d suggest that the first thing to do is relocate where the dog sleeps - do you have a landing area on the stairs outside your room where the bed could be placed perhaps - an area that is well away from the party wall? It may even transpire that in fact the dog starts crying earlier than you think - that it has been going on for some time before it wakes you. (It’s a little unclear from your post - but perhaps in fact you are saying that you know when it starts as you are already awake by that time? In which case and easy and responsible fix is simply to get up before the behaviour starts, not giving it a chance to annoy neighbours!) This would also mean you can close doors between the dog and the party wall to add a further layer of noise proofing.

Dogs can be a huge bone (ha!) of contention between neighbours - for someone who is not a dog owner themselves they may be worried by the risk of noise and damage from having dogs move in next door. For someone who IS a dog owner, with dogs that are well trained and well behaved, seeing problem behaviour that affects them not seemingly being dealt with is infuriating - as they would know that this gets ALL dog owners a bad name (this is the same as the percentage of cyclists who go through red lights meaning that the perception is that “all cyclists ignore traffic lights”!) 

As a first time homeowner my best advice to you would be to take a little time to learn the etiquette - not only of being a homeowner, but also of the area and the street that you are in. It’s you that has to fit in there - not the locals who have to bend to fit you. I’d suggest your best approach now would be to buy a small bunch of flowers, pop round to the neighbour, apologise (whether you think you were or not) for being a little short with them when they knocked but they’d “caught you at a bad time”, and reassure them that you are going to do everything you can to tackle the problem. Then make good on that - and sort your dog out. Otherwise you may well find that the local chatter has your household marked down as the “problem” - not your neighbours! 

As an aside - for noise travelling through party walls, you can help to reduce the effect of this by arranging furniture along the wall, and also even hanging pictures helps, anything that will help to absorb  some of the sound. Similarly, if you’ve not yet got curtains up at your windows (it’s not clear exactly how recently you have moved in) then get that sorted ASAP too - again it helps to absorb the sound. A good test can be whether your rooms sound at all “echoey” with normal sounds. 

Hopefully you can resolve this issue quickly and will go on to be very happy in your new home! 

Gycraig

If your dog isn’t waking them up and they can’t hear it how do they know your dog cries at 630 ? Would !!!!!! me off tbh 

diystarter7

propertyrental said:

Ah! Dog problems.

No dog, no neighbour problem.

Sorted.

Hi

A first for me, agreeing with your post 101%.

(sorry to those that have/love dogs but it is how i feel)

Have a nice weekend

diystarter7

Dear OP

Please accept my sincere aplogies for agree with the 'no dog comments,' as it is what it is.

However, I have met many clients when I worked with dogs and they rightly so treated their dogs like family but TBH often treated their dogs better than some families, lol, just jesting

It is hard to move home when you own it. It is never nice to live near or especially next door to someone who does not get on with you.

At times, a bit of giving, taking and biting ones tongue can go a long way

I honestly wish you, your family, dogs a really happy and good time at your new place that is stress-free. Try to make the most of what you have and at times if possible, comments like they made, next door etc, in the one ear out of the other but put yourself in their shoes if possible.

Sadly, at times some people are just unreasonable, envious and you don't have to look far and the best thing is to ignore them, but better still just be civil, a polite hi and bye, see you later.

Good luck and God bless

prowla

Some neighbours whom I've always got on well with are dog people.

One if their dogs ruined my summer for several years as it was barking during the day, to the point I didn't like having my back door open.

They were both working, and I think the dog couldn't understand them not being there, so was just continually calling them in a distressed tone.

Of course, when I spoke to them about it, they were at home, so it was happy.

That dog is now no longer there and their newer one just barks occasionally, which is OK.