to ask my neighbor to do something about his barking dog

[landphil]

My neighbor recently got a young dog dog. I think it's a bichon frise.

There is a high wall between our houses so I can't see but I think he lets it into his garden every hour or so where it runs around. it also barks really loudly in a high pitched wu wu wuooooowoowoo way. Just for about one or two minutes( sometimes longer ) until he lets it back in.

However it's pretty annoying as it's otherwise a very quiet area, and it does happen several times a day .

I can hear it from every room in my house.

I don't think there's a welfare issue - he's a nice man and I have seen him walking the dog .

We get on well but are not friends as such.

What is the nicest way to approach him to ask him if he could do something about the noise? I think he will be ok about me speaking to him , and I suspect he just does not realise how much the noise travels ( His house is double glazed - mine isn't !)
I just want to do it in as kind and effective way possible and hoped I could get advice here. I've seen lote of websites about training dogs not to bark etc .
I've put this in the Doghouse section too but am interested in all views

Thanks

i would say what you said in your post, that you can hear it in every room of the house and that you realise that he probably doesn't know about it being an issue but that your house is only single glazed and that the sound travels. keep it nice and light hearted and say that you would really appreciate if there was anything he could do.

you are complaining about a dog barking for 1 minute? are you really, really quiet ..otherwise i think you could be opening a can of worms. eg do your kids play in the garden, do you heaven forbid have barbecues in the summer and invite people round, or play music?

yabu

YABU. I thought you were going to say he let it bark all day/night in the garden and starved the creature. It goes into the garden for 2 minutes every hour or so. That isn't unreasonable and he would probably be a bit if you mentioned it.

Thanks qazxc, I guess I just have to do just that. I would hate to cause any bad feeling with my neighbour but a direct and polite approach seems reasonable.

Dreaming, yes, I am really quiet ! I would never ever play music in the garden or let my children yell within earshot of neighbours.

Yes it is sometime is just for a minute, but it is repeated all day long - In the evening it's generally for much longer .

It's loud enough to wake you from sleep as I found out when one of my children were ill last week.

I kind of though it best to say something while the dog was young and perhaps easier to train.

it has actually been barking for the last hour !

IMO its part of living in suburbia that you are going to hear noises from neighbours. Lawnmowers, kids playing, dogs barking, people arguing or laughing etc. If it isn't happening late at night or for long periods of time I think it is perfectly reasonable.

You admit you are really quiet. That kind of proves that you aren't the norm and your standards aren't what everyone should be judged by.

Sorry!

IF you decide to say something perhaps you should only say something about the evening when the dog barks for longer. You might even say something about "I don't mind a couple of barks" (even though you do) "but when it barks for longer it bothers us"

Yes you are.

A couple of minutes at a time a few times a day is not unreasonable. Dogs bark that is a fact of life and compared to a lot of dogs that is nothing. Its a good job you don't live near me you'd have probably reported me and half my neighbours by now coz I know mine bark more than that next doors barks more than that and the woman down the road has her dog barking for about 20 minutes a time every few hours including late at night when every other bugger is in bed and I've yet to hear any of the none dog owners complaining that any of them make unreasonable amounts of noise and I live near some downright narky people who certainly aren't afraid to make it known if they are annoyed with something.

I am going to disagree with the majority and say YANBU. Our neighbours have one of those little yappie type dogs, they let it out in the same way (never take it for walks ) and it will literally bark at anything and everything.

Now during normal waking hours that would be fine, but not at 6am on a bloody weekend morning when we are trying to get a lie in.

I feel the same way about the prat down the road who starts doing noisy DIY at 7.30 am on a weekend (think drills and circular saws), or people who won't turn the music down after 10pm during summer night parties. We all have to share a neighbourhood, if I can be considerate why can't other people?