Neighbours dog-separation anxiety

[Arsenicinthesugarbowl]

I have a dog myself so am not unsympathetic but am struggling to know what to do. Our upstairs neighbour has a malamute/husky type dog. It looks well cared for and is walked but it barks and howls for hours if they go out which they do daily (to work I think). We can hear it over our tv all evening till around 10 and it has been as late as 2 in the morning. Its much worse outside though and must be heard by the whole street. The neighbours aren’t interested in our attempts to resolve and denied the dog makes any noise which has meant things are rather frosty between us currently. It’s awful as he’s clearly distressed-I don’t want to fall out but they clearly don’t care if we do.
They are tenants but the landlord is a friend of theirs.
Should I report to the council or write a letter to them advising I will report if things don’t improve. It’s cruel to the dog who is only young and it’s beginning to drive me crackers!

[Aprilislonggone]

Can't imagine it will be there much longer. There can't be much of the flat left.
*husky owner.
Try environmental health and rspca.

[Arsenicinthesugarbowl]

It certainly sounds like he’s wrecking the place. He’s thundering about up there !

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

If the dog is fed, watered and sheltered then the RSPCA will do precisely nothing.

Your only real routes are council (noise complaint), landlord (are you aware your house is being trashed and the dog is howling constantly?) or moving elsewhere.

It ought to be mentioned that huskies are often more vocal than other breeds, but this does sound rather abnormal, and certainly outside the bounds of what a neighbour should have to put up with.

[halfwaytosomewhere]

Can you record the sound to play to neighbours or their landlord? Friends dog also had bad separation problem but they didn’t believe it until they heard it live over the phone .

[Arsenicinthesugarbowl]

Thank you. I have started to record it on my phone. I feel like I’m at least collecting evidence then. It stopped at 22:30 last night so around 4 hours which is pretty standard.

[Arsenicinthesugarbowl]

And started again this morning which is annoying

[anniehm]

Keep a 7 day log and report to council noise team. It's not right to keep a dog like that in a flat - they are best kept outside in a kennel. A friend is a breeder and he gets so upset at people getting huskies but not realising they need specialist care

[PersonaNonGarter]

Well, you need to do the following:

Record (as in, write down) the periods of howling over a few days. Write the tenants a letter explaining how noisy eg ‘could hear over the TV’. Ask them to write to you confirming what steps they will take within 5 working days or you will take it up with their landlord.

Then, same again, to landlord -recorded delivery - and include the letter sent to tenants. Say 5working days to suggest resolution or you will be taking it up with the council.

Then letter to council with both letters to environmental health. AND second letter to landlord saying the property and tenants were becoming a nuisance and you will seek your expenses from landlord if you need to resolve it through courts.

See how you go. Hopefully landlord might think his friends aren’t so great that their noisy dog has to stay.

[Arsenicinthesugarbowl]

Thanks for the advice all. I’m keeping a log so will see how we get on.
It is annoying but I’m also concerned at how distressed the dog is and that they don’t seem at all interested in resolving it.
Fingers crossed they come to their senses.

[Rogueone]

That’s a good plan. My neighbours dog whines and howls whenever he is left. We can also hear him over the TV. He clearly has separation anxiety and does it every time they go out. They thankfully don’t leave him very often so it’s only once a month. If it was everyday I would be having a word as it’s definitely not fair on the dog to leave him distressed all day or night or the neighbours!

[chillpizza]

No point in keeping a log until you contact the council they won’t care that you have a 7-20 day log of the hours, they only care about the noise once you’ve loved it with them and they have issued the official diary and a letter to the house being complained about.

[Rogueone]

Spoke to soon my neighbours dog has started howling and barking and its 23.15! They better be back soon

[Snappymcsnappy]

Amazing how the posters of these threads are always SO concerned for the dogs welfare

The dog is left around 4 hours a day, like virtually all dogs in the UK...
Because the reality is if only people who could ensure the dog is never alone got dogs, we would have virtually no dogs, as pretty much everybody works.

It gets distressed and barks and howls, yes this must be driving you absolutely loopy, I sympathise, but, what exactly do you expect the owners to do?!?!

Give up work?
Or get rid of the dog?
Because realistically those are most likely the only options open to them.

Get rid of the dog who you claim is well fed, well exercised and well looked after, presumably deeply loved and is not being mistreated in any way to rot in a rehoming kennel?
Quite possibly rehomed to a family who will keep him alone even longer.

I feel really sorry for your neighbours actually.

[Rogueone]

Yes rehome the dog with owners who have the time and patience to look after the dog. If a dog is howling and barking every time it is left you should seek professional help and certainly not ignore neighbours who are complaining about it.

[Snappymcsnappy]

Where are these wonderful owners with all day free?

If there was an abundance of stay at home owners we wouldn’t be euthanising perfectly nice dogs in their thousands every year for lack of homes...

[bunnygeek]

Snappymcsnappy - doggy day care, dog walkers, there are perfectly reasonable ways to manage both working and leaving a dog. Plus training for a dog to settle and not trash the place and howl the whole time.

[Whitney168]

what exactly do you expect the owners to do?!?!

Not own a type of dog that is patently unsuited to living in a flat and being left alone regularly, perhaps?

Respond to their neighbour's apparently polite requests to try and alter the situation?

I'm a dog person, but this would drive me demented too. Yes, rehoming the dog would be better for the dog.

[Santaisgettingbusy]

A Husky is not a house pet ime. Certainly not a dog to be left alone in a flat!! Our puppy days were on a farm for the first year so no damage to our home! Me and dh work PT each so our ddogs aren't home alone for long at all. High walled garden allows us to leave the back door open anyway. If I was you I would be posting a note every day detailing the noise.
But I am not worried about having a nasty neighbour.
They are very cruel imo.

[Snappymcsnappy]

Doggy day care may or may not be feasible, not all dogs are suited for it.

I just think it’s sad.
Virtually all dogs are left for at least a few hours a day and I would bet that the overwhelming majority exhibit some degree of anxiety that their owner may or may not be aware of.

Sad but it’s unavoidable as most of us have to work, not all of us can afford £20 odd a day for day care, assuming the dog is even suitable.

If the dog is otherwise well cared for then (trying) to rehome it is very unfair and will likely cause more trauma than being left for 4 hours a day.

It’s not easy to rehome a dog.
All rescues are full, the dogs rot for months, sometimes years in cages depressed and confused.
Assuming they don’t get pts first of course.
The fate of thousands of friendly, healthy dogs every year.

As for being a husky, separation anxiety affects all breeds.
The fact it is a husky in a flat is not the reason it has separation anxiety.
And actually, you don’t know how much training and exercise it gets, for all you know it may be very fit and happy and perfectly content in the flat when it’s owners are there.

[PurpleAndTurquoise]

Snappy it is really unfair on the OP though. Don't you feel sorry for her?

[KingLooieCatz]

Dogs are not a necessity in life.

Some breeds are better suited to being left than others.

[Snappymcsnappy]

Absolutely I feel sorry for the OP.
The noise must drive her bonkers, it certainly would me!

But I think it is a shit situation all round with no good resolution.

No dog breed is immune to separation anxiety, they are pack animals.
It has nothing to do with being a husky.
Plenty of potential issues like poor train ability, mega high prey drive etc could be attributed to it being husky.
But not separation anxiety.
There is no breed ‘unlikely’ to get SA because it is a universal problem.

I think it is very difficult, if not impossible for the owners to fix.

Training is, afaik, desensitisation over time which would require time off work which they probably can’t get.
Daycare/walkers costs an awful lot and it is something that probably wouldn’t be factored in when getting a dog for most people, and it may not be suitable anyway.

Sure, they could get rid of the dog.
But aside from the cruelty aspect of the dog being kenneled, suffering and potentially being placed in a new home not as nice as the first it would create massive neighbour issues.
Speaking from experience, some people are batshit crazy and can make your life a living nightmare, far worse than 4 hours of dog barking.

[SistersOfPercy]

OP, I had TEN years of it.
NDN's Jack Russell. From the moment she closed the front door until she returned it barked, howled and cried.
In her defence she did try everything from crate training to diffusers but nothing stopped it and in the end we just learned to live with it and turn up the TV.

We moved in August and I can't tell you how lovely it is to be able to sit in silence. My DS rents our old property from us and confirms it still barks constantly.

[Arsenicinthesugarbowl]

Thanks for all the messages! I do care about the dogs welfare snappy so you can keep your eyeroll. But yes I also care about being able to come home from work and not listen to the incessant howling, crying and barking of a clearly distressed dog that sounds like it’s destroying the flat upstairs all evening -every evening (and sometimes till the early hours of the morning).
If my neighbours at least gave the impression they were trying then that would help but they are totally denying the dog makes a noise. It’s a top floor flat with no garden-the dog has been there about a year so they made the choice to have a huge dog in that environment and so I feel they should be dealing with the consequences.
I know things could be worse-I could have violent or antisocial neighbours but I posted asking for advice on what to do about a barking dog. Interesting you feel sorry for my neighbours snappy-perhaps you would enjoy living below them?

[Rogueone]

I am shocked that snappy thinks that living in a flat with a howling , barking dog upstairs is fine because it is well looked after, The OP should suck it up, as what are the poor owners meant to do? Are you the owner?

A good owner would not move into a small flat with a big dog that howls and barks when left alone and subsequently leave it alone for hours in the day then ignore neighbours who complain about the noise. This is one example of advice via a council. www.medway.gov.uk/info/200220/dogs_and_pests/405/if_your_dog_keeps_barking

The next step is reporting to the council .... so keep the record of he noise. When I got my dog he howled when he was little and my neighbour complained as it was keeping their DC up. I didn’t ignore them and suggest they were making it up.