Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

How much barking is too much?

7 replies

GrouchyKiwi · 08/01/2019 09:24

I'm probably being over-worried, but how much barking would irritate you from a neighbour's dog?

My puppy has started getting more vocal now and I want to make sure she doesn't annoy our lovely neighbours. I try to keep her inside (detached house) when she's in a barky mood, but she loves being outdoors so it can be a bit hard on her.

She'll bark at passersby (we don't get many), the postie if she sees her, birds sometimes, and our cats if they're sitting outside the fence instead of coming in. It's not a lot of barking at this point in time. We're working on her being unconcerned by the above things.

OP posts:
Huffleypuff · 08/01/2019 09:26

The daytime barking doesn’t bother me. It annoys me at 9/10pm when my neighbour lets their dogs out and they bark for a good half an hour. I had to switch my sons room to stop him being woken up.

Slightlycoddled · 08/01/2019 09:35

No advice but watching as our "puppy" (older but young for her age owing to her previous neglect) is quite vocal. I know the theory is that you have to distract them from noise with reward-based "look at me" commands , but the timing is difficult to get right. We are going to get a dog-loving friend to help us by coming in and out of door whilst we train. Going to disturb our neighbours even more in the process but hopefully worth it in the end!

Slightlycoddled · 08/01/2019 09:37

Oh no, half an hour of barking is totally unacceptable. Ours currently bark for only a minute or two (but still not ideal). We intend to get on top of it before the windows and kitchen door are open in the summer.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

GrouchyKiwi · 08/01/2019 10:04

Huffley That half hour must be so difficult. Are your neighbours open to requests for quiet?

Slightly That's my plan too.

OP posts:
SpoonBlender · 08/01/2019 10:18

Pretty much all barking is unnecessary, and can be trained out. Puppies are puppies though! But you should be working on it with her, barking at passers by is not on.

As a neighbour any barking more than a couple of "whuff!" is hugely irritating - and often concerning, it's a sign of distress or warning.

Slightlycoddled · 08/01/2019 11:56

Agree Spoonblender but more difficult to train out when issue was neglected/encouraged during puppyhood under different ownership.

DeathyMcDeathStarFace · 08/01/2019 12:55

Personally I would want as little barking as is possible. I do understand some barking happens and accept it, but what some dog owners (I assume not you) don't take into account is how much other dog barking happens in your area.

One dog barking 3 or 4 times a day for 5 minutes a time is bearable, but a dozen different neighbours' dogs barking for different 5 minutes in the same day makes it a lot less bearable, especially if they set each other off. So it is useful to keep in mind what other noise (not just barking) happens in your area while your dog barks.

You seem very considerate of your neighbours though, so i am sure they will give you a bit more leeway over a bit of barking while you train your puppy if you explain it is not a permanent thing and it will just take time to train properly. (Usually a heads up about a bit of noise and saying you are trying to get it to stop gets a lot of understanding from nice neighbours.)

But i am also probably a bit more sensitive to dog noise after having to put up with some previous neighbours.

We used to live in some old colliery rows in an ex mining town, so lots of rows of terraced houses packed into a small area, 7 foot tall solid brick walls dividing back yards.

We got new neighbours right next door who had two powerful, well built dogs (think Staffordshire bull terrier type breed) who would bark at everything. We couldn't go into our own yard without barkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbark. It was absolutely awful and rarely did the owners do anything about it, even after having children and needing to get their babies to sleep. The dogs were in their back yard a lot (neighbours had built a shelter) and fought/play fought regularly. They would bash into the wall so often and so hard when doing this it really seemed like they were going to come through the wall regularly!

Unfortunately there was little we could do about them. Iirc one of the owners was an ex marine turned police officer and he didn't do much for neighbourly relations, the dogs regularly escaped out of the yard and, even though they looked for them, didn't give the impression they were in a hurry to find them; and when taking them for walks regularly took them off leash beside the roads (as a police officer I would expect he knows dogs should be on a leash on the roadside, they definitely didn't have perfect recall and there was a pedestrian bit at the end of the street where all dogs should have been on leads, with a children's park not far away where there were signs saying dogs had to be on leashes at all times.) and didn't control them properly. Mentioning their dogs barking to them would have be a waste of breath, but if they actively tried to stop them barking I would have been a little happier about the noise, hoping it would get less and less with training.

Of course, this noise was compounded by other dogs in the area barking. It was harder to cope with other dogs barking when I'd also had to put up with ndn's dog already, even if the other dogs barking were just one-offs.

Live in a much less built up area now but there is one neighbour who lets their dogs into their garden at all hours. Sometimes they bark for ages at 3 or 4 am and I am often woken by them. Thankfully they are not next door so are muted to us, but I often feel sorry for those living close.

So, as far as I am concerned, one dog barking a couple of times a day for a few minutes, fine. But if this is coupled with 1,000,000 other dogs doing the same - major irritation, unacceptable. Dog barking but being actively trained not to - fine, dog barking but not being trained not to - unacceptable.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page