Insomnia/ Dogs barking in the middle of the night.

[Littlepleasures]

Not been sleeping well lately, sometimes not falling asleep till 4 in the morning. Starting to feel tired now so will go to bed and hope I can drop off in a reasonable time. I’m lucky to live in a quiet residential area but have noticed that during the night, there are dogs barking and howling outside at random times throughout the night. 2 o’clock, 3o’clock, 4 o’clock. OK I probably notice it more as I just can’t get to sleep, and it’s not the reason I can’t sleep but what are their owners thinking? Does it not wake them up? Do they not care that it’s likely to wake up their neighbours? Do they not even hear it themselves? Do they chain their dogs up outside all night, or get up at 3in the morning to let them out for a pee then forget about them. Sometimes I feel like walking round the neighbourhood at 3in the morning to track down the barking dog so I can wake the owner up to let them know their dog is barking but it’s not got to that yet. I just feel grateful that it’s not my immediate neighbours so not so intrusive as it might be but I do feel sorry for those who live next door to these dogs. Not sure what my AIBU is, just needed a moan. Insomnia is not much fun. Trying to keep to regular getting up time of 8am, even if not working that day, but when your body doesn’t want to sleep till 4am going to bed at a normal hour is torture. Tuesday night went to bed 9.45pm. Fitbit told me I fell asleep 4.05am. Last night forced myself to sit up till I couldn’t keep my eyes open, which turned out to be 4am and Fitbit recorded that I fell asleep at 4.10am. Will try for a happy medium tonight and go now but there’s currently a barking match going on in the distance, pretty big dogs by the sound of it so might wait till that’s over.......

We have two neighbours that compete with car and house alarms 24/7, and a bunch of rowdy cats. You can download MP3's of white noise, and I found they really help cut out a lot of the background noise. I dont even have to wear the headphones, they're just on the pillow.

As a dog lover, it's not acceptable for dogs to be left to bark overnight. They certainly shouldn't be left outside all night in this weather.

YWNBU to knock on the relevant front door once you're certain you're at the correct house

YANBU it's totally unacceptable to leave dogs outside overnight. Personally I would say that at allny time of year but particularly Winter. Dogs bark overnight when cold, they clearly aren't comfortable and are in distress. If you can identify the houses you can report it to the local dog warden who should go round to make sure the dogs have sufficient shelter and advise the owners of an anonymous complaint so the owners may get the hint and bring the dogs inside. Makes me furious when people get a pet and then don't allow it inside overnight.

Depends if its the same dogs barking and length etc. It might just be a cumulative effect of one dog then another etc.

For example I have a big dog who occasionally barks in the night. He is indoors etc but the foxes in our garden sit and tease him! They put their heads through the cat Flap, sit against the window etc or sometimes he just barks at the security light turning on the to cats etc.
Most of the time it's a couple of barks etc and stop all by himself and it's over by the time we get downstairs. Sometimes id imagine it can be heard by the time we have woken up, realised he isn't stopping, got down stairs and calmed him

Like i say it's pretty unusual for him to have a long bark so it takes us by suprise. Sometimes it's other dogs barking that sets it off then I assume he starts someone else off!

Like Fallofrain mine do stick their heads out the cat flap and bark if a fox is outside, if it went on for a bit I'd go down and settle them again. They are normally very active when there is a full moon (werewolves ) so perhaps these are indoor dogs being disturbed by something.

However if the poor things are being left outside all night then I really would try to find out who it is and report them. It's possible that nothing will happen though unfortunately. There is someone further down the street who has a working dog and keeps it in an outside kennel. You can sometimes hear the poor thing barking which can then wake mine up and set them off. He lives next door to a vet so she is aware of the situation and because his dog has shelter there is not much that can be done. Makes me sad though.

@Fallowfrain
Depends if its the same dogs barking and length etc. It might just be a cumulative effect of one dog then another etc.

Yes this happens where I live too, one dog will bark which sets off the next and the next. Incredibly difficult to stop your own dog when you don't know when it's coming and you're asleep to boot!
There are 4/5 owners on the estate where I live whose dogs live outside, all are working dogs who are generally out all day working and too knackered at night to make much of a noise! The exception is one whose dogs carry on when they get up/get in and this then has a knock on effect around the estate. Was terrible when we first moved in, because mine would just join in with the Mexican barking wave, they've settled more now and are lazy used to it so a couple of half hearted barks is all they do now.

Working dogs, kept outside with adequate shelter, company and water/food shouldn't be a problem, they work all day (farm dogs and a couple of dogs used for shooting) and rest at night. The ones I know personally are quiet until someone else's start because they're not looked after properly and are probably cold, bored and miserable. There's no excuse to keep a dog like that whether it lives inside or outside really.