Neighbours dog barking - I'm so stressed and anxious

[Chefpig]

My neighbours dog barks frequently when they're home. They're home pretty much all the time. Their attempts to shut the dog up consists of screaming at the dog or saying its name very meekly. This has been going on for 18 months since I moved in. I tried to talk to male neighbour twice when I bumped into him the street but he was full of excuses such as ill health as to why they hadn't trained the dog. I also went round during one particularly bad morning which was constant barking til 1pm when I'd had enough. The man was incredibly short and rude to me.

I ended up going to the council and they fit a recorder. The readings were just below the threshold and I wasn't surprised as they'd kept the dog especially quiet that week.

It's all started back up again and I'm going out of my mind with the noise, the sheer stress. I feel like I live with a dog and two people because I can hear them so often.

The council are willing to fit another sound recorder but can't for a month due to my and their availability.

The barking is scaring my own pets as well as disturbing me.

It's started late at night when he goes to and from the pub, which it used to do but stopped but lately it's been waking me up again.

What can I do?

We have a neighbour where they supposedly have it under control, well trained etc. It has no recall, jumps up, barking and growls at everyone (hates dh and bolts towards him everytime growling😂).

You need to move and in the meantime you need to have another noise to mask the barking. Or how about those Loop earplugs though I've never tried them.

There are devices you can buy to deter dogs barking which emit high frequency sounds that you press when they bark. It may however also affect your pets so could be an avenue you don’t want to explore.

We moved from our last house a couple of years back because we had selfish noisy neighbours that took a mental toll on us in the end so we sold up. They also had quite barky dogs that they never seemed to take for walks. Her next door used to scream at the dogs and I felt sorry for the dogs because they were a Labrador and a springer with no exercise or stimulation!

I think too many people get dogs without considering just how much exercise, stimulation and interaction they need! Our neighbours where we live now went and got a cockerpoo puppy a few months back - our neighbours are in their mid 80's so I don't feel it was right for them to get a puppy because there'll be problems in the future when they become too old to give her the care she'll still need! But she's a very yappy dog, as soon as she's in the garden she starts yapping continuously. She's not left out there for ages thankfully but my partner has been grumbling this week about her yapping in the garden at 11pm and 6.30am!

I don't know what is bizarre about getting stressed with a dog barking constantly - any constant noise that you do not personally generate can build up stress?

I had a neighbour once who had a consistent barking dog and when I spoke to her she actually said "people just don't understand that that's what dogs do - they bark". I informed her that she wanted the dog, she bought the dog so she could think what she liked in her house. I hadn't bought the dog so to me it was just noise pollution that I hadn't wanted or asked for. I did become a little petty and played a bit of tit for tat noise back but luckily she did eventually move.

We had a neighbour with 3 big dogs. In a small semi detached house. They were kept in crates next to our adjoining wall whilst the owners were out. (Joined living room to living room sadly).

They barked all day, every day. Even when the owners were in. And when the owners were out, the barking changed to howling. We spoke to the neighbours nervously one evening as it was ruining our lives. They said they would look into keeping them elsewhere but instead they chose to completely and utterly ignore us from that moment on and do nothing about the noise. We had similar property numbers (think 1A and 1B) so often got mixed up post. Any of ours that went to them was left in a pile in the middle of our driveway, better than binned I suppose. They also sent away a takeaways meant for us which is beyond petty. Who knows what else got sent away or binned.

I had started a noise diary and was weighing up the repercussions on filing a noise complaint (having to declare it in a house sale etc). However, this was meant to be our forever house and I was switched off of it completely by the thought of living next door to two completely inconsiderate human beings so we moved. Sold to a developer (made me feel better than passing it onto another unsuspecting family) who last I heard had subjected them to months of construction noise.

A long winded answer to say sometimes a financial loss is better to protect your peace than to carry on fighting. We lost money on the sale but our mental health was worth it