To lose the will to live over my neighbours' dogs?

[Notsureabouthis]

They live in a huge house with a massive garden (2 acres at the back) with their front door quite close the road, directly opposite us.

They have 2 dogs and never seem to walk them, just let them roam around the garden. The dogs seem to like sitting on the front porch. They bark to get let in, bark at any passer by and bark at us when we come in and out/get in our car. It's not usually for more than 5 minutes but it could be a bark every 30 seconds for half an hour. This happens about 10 times a day or more on a bad day. We've been out most of the day and I've counted about 6 occasions in the few hours we've been here.

Due to the acoustics and the high walls it's so loud, like the dogs are in our house! The granny is deaf so often doesn't hear the dogs.

We've spoken to them (last summer was awful and I was in tears with the barking one day) and they're apologetic but then they go back to normal, just leaving the dogs outside. I think due to the size of the house/garden they think they live in the country and don't have to worry about neighbours!

There has been a few break ins locally so I understand that they like the dogs to be visible (the granny is sometimes home alone) but it's really getting me down. It sets my teeth on edge and put me in a bad mood as soon as I pull up home in my car! Quite often it wakes us up on a Sunday morning at around 8 am which is particularly annoying as its our only lie in of the week.

Any advice? They are nice people but we've had enough now! Oh and we have our own dog so I'm not a dog hater.

I feel your pain. Report them to the relevant authorities in your area. I had to do this, and they were very helpful.

In my case, I contacted the local council and they sent someone from environmental health around. I made a point of phoning the council when the dogs were barking, and the people I spoke to were shocked at the noise level. They came around the very next day to investigate (during which time the dogs were silent of course), but I had been keeping notes on the barking and growling from day one, as well as recordings on my phone for the previous week, so that was all very helpful.

This led to the lazy idiot owners deciding to move (it was a rental and I think they broke the lease early) rather than actually doing something about it, ie. training the dogs properly. I considered that a definite win for me, as even if the dogs had been silent from that day on, they weren't trustworthy and it probably would have only been a matter of time before they broke through the six foot high wooden fence between our properties.

I agree, that sounds very persistent and if it's making your life a misery, you need to report it. Do you get on well with the neighbour? Perhaps showing her your log of how often they are barking and disturbing everyone would make them realise the extent of the problem? And perhaps suggesting training, otherwise you have no choice to take further action?
It sounds awful but at the same time, it's your life!!
A dog barks on our street sometimes and that peeves me off and it's only like once a day!

Also is it just you or are other neighbours getting fed up of it? Maybe if it's more than one person pointing it out it'll be taken more seriously?

8 o'clock? It's Sunday and our neighbour's dog was out for the first bark of the day at 6am.

Not bu at all. My friend had neighbors with two dogs that barked all day long. It was impossible to visit and she used to spend ages round at my house. We all lived on the same estate.
Neighbors left them in a run in the back garden as they both worked full time. Face to face complaints didn’t work with them so complaints to the council by her ( and others) did work in the end. The dogs went to live with the husbands mother we were told.

Have you met the dogs and got to know them? We have a Maremma....which are very territorial. We introduced ours to the neighbour and he stopped barking at him.

Feel your pain OP neighbour we are joined too bought a dog last year, and would leave it locked in a cage while they went work for over 6 hours a day next to our wall and the dog would bark non stop until she returned (and I literally mean non stop) after first hour or so I could feel myself stressed and on the verge of tears with it, i couldnt cope and in same tears rang council for advice, they told me to have a word, my partner did and she came round with flowers and apologised and said she would buy something and look online to stop it, but it didn't stop, it continued. Months later and with a newborn and toddler unable to nap I put an arsey note through the door for when she returned and magically never heard the dog bark since. Sometimes being nice and decent doesn't work unfortunately and u have to be more assertive for them to listen.

Call the RSPCA to get advice, local district council will have a dog warden, call them and ask for advice

We had a dog left to wander itself and dog warden got envolved and now the dog is not let out alone and owner walks on lead

Ajaslipstick, the dogs are barking at people in the street / it’s nit just the op that they bark at

If they are ruining your health, could you do something that ruins the health if owners or dogs in return?

I feel for you, and I say that as an owner of dogs who bark (not all day thank god!)

There’s some good suggestions up thread. I just don’t understand how owners can be oblivious to it. When we moved a few years ago, we’d moved from a rural house with nobody around, so the dogs were supposed to bark whenever they heard anything, to keep us safe. But then we moved to a house with one neighbour, and we explained when we moved in that they bark at the door knocking etc. They’ve been pretty good at this house because there are more comings and goings (and we are probably more relaxed knowing there are other people around) but they will bark if a different car pulls on the drive, or if someone knocks the door/comes into the garden that they don’t know. We kept telling the dogs to stop, but in the end the neighbour came round and asked if we could please not discourage the barking because they felt more safe!

Are you quite certain the dogs are never walked? A neighbour of mine made a comment to the effect that she thought my dog was never walked. He is - he's out for at least 2 hours a day. She just never looked out of her window at the exact moment to see me coming in and out with DDog.