to expect my neighbours to stop their dog barking in the night?

[naturelover]

I've never had a dog, I don't claim to know if they can be trained not to bark at night - please tell what your experiences are.

This dog yaps a lot - every time they go out it barks for hours, it clearly can't stand being left. I don't really care except at night. It frequently wakes us at 11pm, midnight, 1am, then usually starts at 6am (when they are there!). I'm up at least twice a night with the DCs and I'm on my knees with exhaustion. This dog is fast becoming the bane of our lives.

AIBU to talk to the neighbours about it? We've talked to them in the past but they seem as bewildered by the dog as anyone. They don't seem to have any control over it.

Obviously, if possible, I want to stay on decent terms with my neighbours, as we will probably live next to them for years to come.

No YANBU, that does sound bad. The yapping in the day thing should be sorted too really.

However these things can go badly wrong between neighbours and beloved/pampered pets so I would tread carefully. Maybe you could just ask them if they have noticed the night barking and see where it goes from there?

I don't know the answer to this, but fwiw and I were you I would be feeling rather pissed off about it.

YANBU. I'm not sure what you can actually do about it though. Presumably if the dog is waking you up, then it must have it's owners up half the night too.......unless they are really deep sleepers.

maybe you could begin a conversation with them along the lines of "you must be exhausted with the dog keeping you up half the night etc etc".......kind of sympathising with them rather than criticising IYSWIM.