Dog barking!

[SoggyBottoms]

Just moved into a new house; I have a newborn and a toddler and I'm on Mat leave. There is a man in his 70s next door who has a big Alsatian which he leaves out in the garden for at least 3/4 hours a day. The dog barks so loudly all this time that there is no way I can nap (which I badly need to occasionally with a 5-week-old). It also wakes the kids up sometimes.

What would you do? I'm sensitive to the fact he's probably lived here for ages and we've been here 5 minutes; that he possibly can't walk the dog as much as he would like to; that our kids will probably sometimes be annoying and noisy in the garden in the summer. I also want to be friends with the neighbours and he seems very nice. But it's making me feel really tense. Help!

it won't stop until the dog dies or is taken better care of. Alsatians do cark earlier than other dogs but that's no help now.

endless barking is a real nuisance, this bloke needs to employ a dog walker if he can't do it and actually gives a stuff about his dog. Not sure how you broach that, though!

I'm a dog owner and can't stand it when I let ours out and he starts barking, I call him in if he starts.

He should not be leaving the dog outside if he goes out for a start.

Can you offer to walk the dog for him, explain to him about the barking and offer to take the dog out.
1 - Your doing an neigbourly good deed
2 - It may calm the dog down a bit

Thanks for the replies. I thought about offering to walk the dog but apparently it has a habit of going for other dogs (wears a muzzle) and we have a small dog ourselves - not sure I could handle walking them together with the kids too and I don't really fancy doing two separate dog walks a day as I'm already pretty busy...

not your problem.

HE needs to arrange to have HIS dog walked.

Any other thoughts? Many thanks

Letting a dog bark is very antisocial behaviour. I have a big Alsatian type dog and I'm fortunate that she's very quiet but if she wasn't I would retrain her and consult a professional if need be.

We walk past some houses when we are out walking and the dogs in the gardens just bark continually at me and my dog as we are merely walking past. My dog gets quite stressed by it and doesn't even look at the dogs but they just keep barking until we are well away. And it's not just one house.

Never do the owners even come out and ask their dogs to stop barking.

If that was my dog barking at people walking past I'd be mortified. I love dogs but I really believe you shouldnt allow YOUR dog to impact OTHER people. If people didn't see me walking my dog they wouldn't know we had one, and that's something I intend to maintain.

Have a word with the guy and if he won't do anything phone the council. You need your sleep.

Noise cancelling headphones.... If your monitor has a headphone jack you can plug into your monitor so you can hear your baby but nothing else. Bliss.
I work nights and they're the best thing I've ever bought.