Sick of their dogs

[sickofthedogs]

We live in a quiet road and new neighbours moved in a few weeks ago. They have four dogs and three young children in a small house. Everybody else is retired except us, we are both key workers with grown up children living elsewhere. We are trying to enjoy our garden at the moment but they are out in their garden all day. Today is the first day we have both been off together in three weeks. I was off on Friday and it was noisy all day with their dogs, music and them FaceTiming people in the garden, DH says it was the same on his day off last week.
The dogs don't get on with each other or the children and are constantly growling at each other or barking, the children wind them up as I can hear the father telling them to stop winding them up all the time but not doing anything sensible like separating the dogs and kids. Aibu to wish they'd do something about the dogs
? I don't mind the children's noise playing as they have nowhere else to play but the dogs are too noisy. There are two adults so one can walk the dogs and the other supervise the children.

YABU it would be inhumane to keep dogs or kids cooped up all day.

Yes, it would be but they need to stop the kids winding up the dogs and the dogs barking and growling all the time. Three kids and four dogs in a small house and garden is too many and it's spoiling our quiet enjoyment of our garden and the same for the other neighbours. They can take the dogs for a walk sometimes when the kids want to play out, they can do their FaceTime in the house, they can stop playing music in the garden.

They don't stop the kids teasing the dogs that don't like them? That's only going to end in disaster.

Well you could try to speak to them but telling them they've bought too small a house isn't likely to go over well really. There's bugger all you can do legally so I'd try to be a nice as possible and see if they can try to keep the noise down a bit.

Quite. I can see one of them being bitten. I've got no idea what sort of dogs they are as I've never seen them but the growling at the kids concerns me.

Is anyone else noticing how often people 'slip' key worker status into their posts these days?

The humane thing would be to take the dogs somewhere where they can be free to roam and bark as much as they like! Siberia for example

Maybe a petition to end dog/cat slavery! I'll sign up.

And yes one of the most annoying things about dog owners is when they sit there saying "stop that" "Down boy" or "leave the dog alone" and don't DO anything.

Growling and barking are not always warnings. They are also play sounds.

I'm not sure what the facetiming or music has to do with the dogs, though?

I appreciate your frustration but that's the joys of living close to other people. I'm afraid they can do what they want in their own garden (within reason), it's unlikely it'll be seen as unreasonable to have kids playing, dogs barking, FaceTime and music, as long as it's not excessive.

You could report them to environmental health via the website but they'll tell you to keep a diary and if needed they'll put recording equipment.

This is the time where everyone should be being a little more considerate but what's one families downtime is another families hell. My neighbours are none stop diy in the garden which means constant work noise (my hell), we have kids and dogs (not 4 ) which means kids playing and the occasional bark (your hell)

I feel your pain OP, until lend if March I was working full time all I would like is some peace & quiet instead of next door playing the fecking radio at a loud volume & splashing around in the garden then the other half is watching videos at full blast on his phone - it is driving me bloody mad. Just give me 15mins of quiet

All gardens are noisy at the minute, in my experience. All kinds of mowing, drilling, shouting, playing, banging, bouncing, barking, music etc.

Personally I think the better answer, considering the state of the country right now, is to just try to accept it rather than everyone try to keep quiet.

People should be outside in their gardens, getting some fresh air and sunshine. IMO, anyway.

I agree it's time for people to be considerate, that's partly why I'd rather complain on here to get it off my chest than go and talk to them. I mentioned FaceTiming and music because they can do that indoors and not FaceTime when the dogs and children are together with one adult.
If we make phone calls and listen to music we do it indoors, the most noise from our garden is the birds on our feeders or the lawnmower occasionally.

@FindHimForThreeKillHimForTen exactly what I’m thinking

Hey op at least you’re not a keyworker with your kids still young - juggling work, childcare, etc AND have to listen to the peasants next door? How’re your other retired neighbours coping? Maybe they’ll start smoking weed from the stress

I had to check your post in fear I was your neighbour - thankfully only the one dog but a horribly yappy one and I've been snatching him up to hush him every two minutes since 9am this morning trying not to disturb others in their gardens. Some of it is that it's so rare to have lovely weather like this and everyone outside that the dog's hearing all sorts of exciting and unusual sounds he isn't used to!

Sympathies, constant barking is beyond annoying.

To be fair you don’t know these people and don’t know what exactly is happening.
Everyone is entitled to be in their garden all day every day.
Yes they can walk the dogs but not all day every day just to please you! You don’t know what is going on they may be in complete lockdown and unable to walk the dogs which is why the dogs are a bit more lively more then usual as they are not letting off energy. You also don’t know those dogs and their behaviour. The owners do and can assess the situation for themselves. As you said you haven’t even seen the dogs to know what dogs they are, so as for ‘I can see them being bitten’ that’s rubbish you don’t know the dogs or the household.
You have made a lot of assumptions just because you want to sit in your garden without noise, you have been spoilt by having so many retired people around you for so long, I should know as I moved into a road where it was all retired people or childless middle age couples and wow are they not nice people to live around and I don’t even have a noisy child or dog!

Leave them be!

How’re your other retired neighbours coping? Maybe they’ll start smoking weed from the stress

Maybe I could have a whole new career supplying it

the most noise from our garden is the birds on our feeders or the lawnmower occasionally

Us too but these are not normal times. People have nowhere else to go, so will be using their gardens in all sorts of ways they don't usually. Good on them. Being cooped up is hard and those lucky enough to have gardens should use them.

Completely understand but afraid nothing you can do. Before I moved last year I lived next door to a family which fit your description to a tee and it was awful. Don't miss them at all!!!

I expect that family are having a nightmare and can’t cope. Speaking to them won’t help, there isn’t a lot they can do and it’ll just add to their stress levels. Plus, some people would turn up the noise in defiance. You can tell that by reading threads on here.

They would probably love a bigger house but couldn’t afford it. The interior is probably not set up yet for them to manage 7 kids/dogs.

There is probably no such thing as a day off for either of them with so many kids/dogs and a new house to sort out.