Neighbours dog barking

housebuyer7

Hello,

Our neighbours just got a 6 month old rescue puppy from Romania imported and adopted him 3 months ago. Despite assurances that they hate barking and are noise sensitive (think running out the house with their hands over their ears because their neighbours smoke alarm went off), the dog barks everyday excessively (to me). 

It’s a terraced property and the neighbour on the other side is in regular contact with me as they are also finding it intolerable. Today that neighbour spoke to the dog owner to say things aren’t improving and are they having support with training? The dog owner huffed, said barking is his way of expressing himself and walked off. 

My issue is twofold:

1. I intend to move in the next 6 months so a complaint to environmental health may not be in my best interests. On the flip side the barking dog may deter potential buyers and devalue our house.

2. The barking may not be excessive enough for environmental health to act - I feel they only do anything about barking that is hours and hours day and night and that’s not the case with this dog. Its spurts of barking everyday, throughout the day, reactive barking if anyone walks by, occasionally barking and growling at us in the garden, and excessive barking in the evenings when they segregate him while they cook and eat (so 2 hours). He does not bark overnight.

Any advice? The other neighbour is starting a noise diary.

RAS

Based on my experience of a friend's Romanian rescues, they often suffer separation anxiety. The friends sought support and advice. One dog is a happy bunny, the other still struggles a bit.

Did they adopt via a UK organisation? If so, maybe they can contact them for post adoption support. Or see if there is a FB or similar page for adopters?

housebuyer7

The neighbours are not really leaving the dog alone, the barking is all while they are in the house / garden. I am not sure unfortunately who the company was

RAS

Youhousebuyer7 said:

Hello,

Our neighbours just got a 6 month old rescue puppy from Romania imported and adopted him 3 months ago. Despite assurances that they hate barking and are noise sensitive (think running out the house with their hands over their ears because their neighbours smoke alarm went off), the dog barks everyday excessively (to me). 

It’s a terraced property and the neighbour on the other side is in regular contact with me as they are also finding it intolerable. Today that neighbour spoke to the dog owner to say things aren’t improving and are they having support with training? The dog owner huffed, said barking is his way of expressing himself and walked off. 

and excessive barking in the evenings when they segregate him while they cook and eat (so 2 hours). 

They don't need to leave the house to create separation anxiety.

And presumably they know who they got the dog from and whether that organisation can provide advice and support?

housebuyer7

Ahh interesting. They will know but currently it doesn’t seem like they are willing to engage with their attitude being dogs bark and it’s his way of expressing himself.

BonaDea

And perhaps your way of expressing yourself is to play heavy metal at 5.30am at weekends?

BarelySentientAI

BonaDea said:

And perhaps your way of expressing yourself is to play heavy metal at 5.30am at weekends?

Because exacerbating a neighbourly issue is a great thing to do when planning to sell?

It's a puppy, newly into the country and house, which by the OP's own admission is "reactive barking if anyone walks by, occasionally barking and growling at us in the garden" (so pretty typical behaviours for a canine) and "excessive" barking for a relatively short period of time in the evening (possibly separation as previously identified, which can calm down).

BonaDea

Yes, I was pretty flippant, and don't really advise inflaming the situation, I'll concede that.  But I do think dog-lovers don't always appreciate what a nuisance barking, even with the mitigating factors you've outlined, can be to people who are not dog-lovers and want or need peace and quiet.  What's typical for a canine I'm not knowledgeable about, but four dogs I am well acquainted with (in three different households) very rarely bark and when they do, quieten down instantly on their owners' instruction.  Whether the dog bothering the OP will ever get to that well-behaved stage if the owner refuses to see there might be a problem, is a moot point.

housebuyer7

@BarelySentientAI it’s frustrating for the amount of barking to be downplayed. It’s everyday from 7:30am until 10:00pm on and off spurts but with really excessive barking every single evening for a couple of hours  for 3 months with no sign of let up. The evening barking is at a time when I want to have downtime from a stressful day at work. I am not just being sensitive since the other neighbour feels the same! The issue is I am seeing no improvement. How long until things calm down? 

BarelySentientAI

housebuyer7 said:

it’s frustrating for the amount of barking to be downplayed. It’s everyday from 7:30am until 10:00pm on and off spurts but with really excessive barking every single evening for a couple of hours  for 3 months with no sign of let up. The evening barking is at a time when I want to have downtime from a stressful day at work. I am not just being sensitive since the other neighbour feels the same! The issue is I am seeing no improvement. How long until things calm down? 

Not downplayed.  Your own words.  "Every day from 7:30am until 10:00pm" is very different from your previous "reactive and occasional".  And a chunk of the problem now seems to be "the noise is at a time when I would like silence", although that's likely just frustration typing.

What exactly do you want done about it?  Would you like your neighbours to be banned from keeping dogs?  What about if one was learning a musical instrument?  Or had a baby?  Would there be the same conversation - "next door's baby cries at all hours, it's intolerable"?

There's another thread a few down the page - "my neighbour's kid is playing loudly in their own garden and I don't like it"

It's an unfortunate fact of living in terraced housing (although not exclusively to terraces of course) that you can hear neighbours.  That's why there are the statutory nuisance rules, which you've already said it probably doesn't breach.  If it isn't a nuisance, then you need to be moving to somewhere without any other neighbours in earshot to guarantee your downtime.  There are better neighbours and worse neighbours, you seem presently to have the latter, but other than moving those are the cards you've been dealt.

If it is a nuisance, officially, then that's a different matter of course - laws exist for a reason.

housebuyer7

@BarelySentientAI I said he has barking spurts all day I just didn’t give the timeframe and that this isn’t overnight. In addition to this he reactive barks everyday, and he occasionally barks AT US when we are in the garden. The biggest issue is the evening barking as that is constant. I believe this barking constitutes a statutory nuisance but just not of the level where the council will act because from my reading they won’t act unless it’s all day and night long for hours on end. This is more of a council resources issue I would imagine. 

Musical instruments are also an issue - the council guidance is not for more than an hour a day I believe? And babies crying is not considered a statutory noise nuisance so is a moot point. The noise I am describing falls in the remit of the council.

i want to know if people agree, that it’s futile to involve the council without the dog barking for 15 consecutive hours a day? The council don’t specify when the threshold “excessive” is reached for barking. Does anyone have any experience?