Neighbours dogs

[TulipsInbloom1]

I live in a flat, and have done in variois flats for 10 years. New flat has a neighbour with dogs on the ground floor (I am first).

I appreciate there is a certain amount of give and take with regards noise when living in such close quarters. We are mindful of them when up early/kids are playing etc.

They have what I think are three dogs. Every time the two people who live there come home the dogs go loopy. Barking, yowling, jumping up and down and we can hear it as if it is in our own home.

I accept and dont much mind when this is in the daytime. But they seem to work shifts. So dogs can "go off" any time from 9pm to 2am as well. And if they are both on different shifts it happens twice. Last night was 1am and again 2am.

Im not a dog owner so I dont know whether it is possible to train them not to bark, bit like my kids know not to squeal/run/jump round the house.

How do I approach this? I dont want to be a dick of a neighbour and complain each time it happens; but similarly I dont want to have endless nights of broken sleep. We already wear earplugs - historic due to always having some light neighbour noise.

Bump

Speak to them and ask of they can look keep them quiet when they come in at 2am. I don't think that's unreasonable. Remind them you're being woken up every time.

They should be able to train them not to do that totally - although harder to untrain then never train.

But its quite likely that they won't because (i) it makes them feel good and they don't recognise that it probably means the dogs have separation anxiety or challenges regulating their emotions (ii) it will take quite a lot of work.

Good luck!

Is it also weird that I never see them leave the house with any dogs?

Oh poor doggies no wonder they go crazy when they seem them. Sounds like they are not getting proper exercise or any other stimulation.

It' a lot of work looking after a dog properly - especially in a flat. Sounds like they're not doing what needs to be done...

To put it in perspective when I used to live in a flat with no garden with my dog we were out and about at least 4 times a day, although to be fair he had no toilet area outside and maybe they have a yard?

Dogs all need a walk at least once a day though.

If they work unsociable hours they could be exercising the dogs at unsociable times too. I have often gone out by 0400 with mine for a good few hours and come back before most people are up and about. When I lived in NI one of our neighbours accused me of never walking them when it couldn't have been further from the truth, they were very well exercised daily.

I remember a neighbour commenting that she never saw me take DDog out. In reality, he was getting 3 walks a day - she just never looked out her window at the exact moment.

As for the noise when they first come home, are they aware you can hear it? They may not realise how much the sound travels.

It won't be easy to train the dogs not to do it - it's certainly not going to be an immediate fix. Personally I'd start by completely ignoring the dogs until they've calmed down and have stopped barking etc, and then give them attention, but that's likely to result in a short term worsening of the problem. Unfortunately you can't explain these things in a logical way to dogs as you can with kids!