Neighbourly relations and dogs barking

[PookieDo]

Sorry if long. How do you all manage barking? I feel like I am always worrying about it!

I live in a quiet street with multiple dogs around the neighbourhood many of whom seem to be ‘allowed’ to bark sometimes for long periods outside and it can be very irritating.

My dog is used to many of the regular barks now and doesn’t always react but now and again he will (5yo small terrier) and run into the garden barking once or twice. When he reacts I will also react I do not shout at him but I go towards him and say no quietly with a pointed finger then ask him to stop or to go indoors which he will usually comply with and will stop.

I play with him a lot but I don’t wind him up to barking, although sometimes he can get very OTT playful and will bark at you when he is demanding you throw a toy which I also say ‘no barking’. He may bark briefly if someone rang the doorbell which I can’t control. I am actively trying to get him to be less barky but he has bad habits from his previous owner and trying to stop a dog barking is really hard!

Tonight this happened where he ran into the garden, he barked twice and I got straight up as he barked the first time, and followed him and pointed indoors, which he did. I noticed at the same time my next door neighbour slamming their back door. They must have got up at exactly the same time as I did, on the first bark. So I feel like they are super aware of it

For context my male neighbour will not speak to me since I moved in and has done some passive aggressive shouting at me when I have been making DIY noise and made me feel quite uncomfortable. I have been friendly and said hello and thrown back their DC balls and also said I hope dog does not disturb them to which the female neighbour his wife said he didn’t.

I live in a housing association home and am really worried about being reported for noise, I also do not want people to dislike living next to a dog! I feel really worried about this!

[AquaPris]

Dogs bark.its fine.

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

I could have written a very similar post - though I'm a private tenant not HA so even less secure. It sounds like you're doing everything you can to keep barking to a bare minimum.

Male NDN sounds very odd - DIY noise is normal unless you're doing it at 6am on a Sunday. HAs don't evict on the basis of one unreasonable complaint from a neighbour.

[newmomof1]

I have a Pomeranian who's good as gold in the garden (he'll retaliate but then come inside when told, like your dog).

But he'll bark at anyone walking past/when new people come to the house etc.
I have spoken to both neighbours and they've said they don't even hear him. Don't worry, you probably think the noise is worse than it is.

Your NDN is a funny cookie

[Cleanmywindows]

You're going to get biased answers on this board I fear. Of course dog owners find dog barking acceptable! That is a given. It is almost certain that as a non dog owner / lover your neighbour finds the barking more irritating than you do. For some people it is an extremely jarring sound. It sounds like you are aware of the issue and are doing what you can. It's very easy to make recordings of dog noise for the purposes of making a complaint to environmental health or your housing association. If he were to do that, they would be able to decide based on the evidence whether the noise was prolonged enough to be considered unacceptable. If it really is just the odd bark here and there when someone is at your door, you will have nothing to worry about!

[PookieDo]

I find Ddog’s bark jarring, it’s strong for a small dog! He will often make ME jump!

I worry that my dog is perhaps mistaken for barking when it isn’t him at all. NDN are strange and I do not like the man at all so far, the DIY noise was during the day on a weekend. A few weeks ago the DC went through a phase of kicking balls over the fence (fine, not an issue) but then ringing my doorbell immediately asking for it back before I had time to throw it over, which sets the dog off and I need time to pick him up before opening the door and they kept ringing it and he kept barking. They don’t seem to play out much or go to the park just occasionally will play football in the garden hitting the fence really hard which stresses the dog (small garden). They also play swing ball about 9.30pm which is when the dog is most alert as it’s getting dark and all the night creatures are coming out!

I don’t know if he barks when I am not home so I may have to get a camera, the layout of my house is good because the front is the kitchen with a high window so he can’t see anything and the back is the garden with no overlooking houses or passers by. We have a tom cat who comes in and tries to go through the bins, a lot of cats that fight at night and foxes so usually that is what he is barking at (also birds!)

On a side note, do dogs generally tend to have crap night vision? I sometimes wonder if mine does and that makes him more alert because he can’t see as well

[PookieDo]

Also I notice there is a lot of scratches on my patio doors which leads me to believe a dog was shut out there an awful lot in the past it is possible perhaps previous neighbours have left a bad taste in my NDN mouth from being bad owners

[adaline]

I try and consider what's reasonable.

Dogs bark and you can't train them out of barking completely, but that doesn't mean it's acceptable for them to bark all the time.

My neighbours' have a terrier who barks at everything and it is really frustrating. You can't walk past the house or go in the garden without being yapped at. My dog can't go out in his own garden without receiving a volley of yapping in his ear. Ours gets called in every single time he barks (and he only ever barks at the neighbours dog!) because I don't think it's acceptable behaviour.

You can desensitise dogs to sounds though - watch Victoria Stillwell on YouTube. She has some great videos about desensitising dogs to the sound of the doorbell or someone knocking on the door. Basically they can't greet whoever's at the door until they're quiet/the door doesn't get opened until they're quiet and then they get rewarded.

I would also make sure he doesn't bark when left alone too.

[PookieDo]

Mine seems to be ok if he has heard the noise before and it doesn’t seem to be a threat to him. So when they play swing ball in the garden or talk out there, put things in the bin etc although he can’t see them he will notice it but not bark. He also doesn’t always bark at the other dogs barking now either.

But he will always bark at a cat noise (cats fighting) and the doorbell because he is an alert barker. Anything unexpected could make him bark

I feel bad for him when he is barking as he is only trying to tell me/the intruder about it 😂 and warn them off

[stuckinagut]

As a non dog owner/lover I'd like to say thanks for at least trying to be considerate to your neighbours. Yes, dog barking is incredibly annoying for people like me, especially if dogs are just left outside to bark for long periods of time (how this does not annoy the shit out of the owners is beyond me). I consider it a bit of a give and take situation - if my neighbours let their dogs bark at unreasonable hours I worry less about my noisy children. If they make an effort to keep barking reasonable at sociable hours then I too keep a lid on my childrens noise. Our main annoyance is our neighbours dogs are routinely just left at home alone in the garden so they just bark at whichever neighbour is using their garden - I've bought one of those pet correctors that makes a hiss to try and keep them from barking at us. I'll be happy when the bloody things go to that farm they all end up at!