To put a note through their door anonymously?

[studychick81]

We live in quite a built up area and have houses around the side and back of us so I am used to noise and know it's to be expected when you choose to live in a semi detached house. I am not one for making complaints about things.

However, the neighbours at the back of us have obviously just got a puppy during lockdown or Christmas and I am becoming increasingly frustrated with what I consider to be very inconsiderate behaviour. I wondered if others would think this is inconsiderate?

Whenever they let their dog in the garden it barks and barks with no attempt from them to correct it/call the dog inside. This is mildly irritating during the day but not too much of a problem. It's when they let it out about 10pm that I find it very inconsiderate. I ve been really tired recently and try to go to bed early to get extra sleep, I am just drifting off around 10pm only to be woken up by the dog barking. I then find it hard to drift back off and can't for some time so there goes my early night! The same in the morning, I am trying to have a nice lie in and the dog starts barking about 7.15 most mornings. I think 10pm is far too late to let your dog out and allow it to bark for a period of time, fortunately it doesn't wake the dcs but bet it does some other peoples. I just want to be able to have an early night sometimes without listening to that.

I am not good with confrontation so was thinking I would just post a polite letter through their door. I know it's tricky to stop a dog barking but they don't seem to make any effort, I don't think they go out with the dog and make no effort to call it back for try to calm it down.

I put my dog out in the garden at 10pm for his last wee of the night nothing wrong with that. In the summer when the nights are lighty I take my dog for walk at 10pm but I wouldn't do it in the winter as it's not safe. My dogs first pee of the day is also about 5.30am when I get up for work.

Perhaps if you really don’t want to talk to them first, send a note, be friendly, state you don’t want to be confrontational and you understand it’s not easy with a puppy, if you can help, offer to do so. Explain it’s affecting your sleep etc and keep it very friendly and non judgemental. And always sign the note and say if they want to, you are happy to talk about it with them but you didn’t want to put them on the spot. I would be more appreciative of a carefully worded, friendly note than an irate and possibly nervous neighbour knocking on my door.

If it wasn't for the fact you say you live in a semi I would have said you live next to a friend of mine who got a pup during lockdown 🙄 this thing barks incessantly. Indoors and outdoors.
In your shoes I would definitely be knocking the door and speaking to them.

10pm for last wee is ok. If you have a problem then try and drift off ten minutes earlier than you are currently trying?

Or move to detached!

It should be illegal to have dogs on a housing estate unless you can make them quiet. I believe as they get older they get more quiet if you can stand it that long. I would keep a diary and do a recording during unsociable hours and send it all to the council. If you put letter thru door, you are quite within your rights to be leaving your name off it. All you say is that you live nearby and give them a couple of weeks to make the puppy more quiet. Otherwise you may rightly assume there is something wrong with the animal and ring the RSPCA. You just need to tell the RSPCA that the dog is left unattended and has been barking for a very long time and that it happens frequently. I had a neighbour with a barking dog and when asked nicely told me to f... off. So I dont bother being nice about that sort of thing anymore.

I feel for you. Next door got a puppy in the summer and it barks all the time. They must know we can hear it and have apologised but still the barking goes on.
However we have a baby and the two of them set each other off. Dog barks our baby cries. If our baby cries the dog barks. So I can't complain really.
Why not go to bed earlier? Would the dog disturb you if you were deeply asleep.

@honeybee88

It should be illegal to have dogs on a housing estate unless you can make them quiet. I believe as they get older they get more quiet if you can stand it that long. I would keep a diary and do a recording during unsociable hours and send it all to the council. If you put letter thru door, you are quite within your rights to be leaving your name off it. All you say is that you live nearby and give them a couple of weeks to make the puppy more quiet. Otherwise you may rightly assume there is something wrong with the animal and ring the RSPCA. You just need to tell the RSPCA that the dog is left unattended and has been barking for a very long time and that it happens frequently. I had a neighbour with a barking dog and when asked nicely told me to f... off. So I dont bother being nice about that sort of thing anymore.

You sound lovely.

Do you not think the RSPCA have better calls to attend where animals are in real harm?

I'm not surprised your neighbour did that .

I agree with the previous posters who've said that an anonymous note will not go down well. I had a 'neighbour from hell' quite a few years ago,and she was an 'anonymous' note poster with everyone in my block of flats. (Funny how the person who caused the most trouble was the only one who found it necessary to post snarky notes through other people's doors). Anyway,I know that it annoyed me no end,as it did my neighbours. I would far rather someone talk to me face to face than hide behind an anonymous note.

Hi OP. I haven't read all posts (yet), so, forgive me if this has already been asked. Do you know approximately how old the pup is? I'm no expert, but, it seems too cold to put a young puppy outside in these low temperatures? X

I have said that I don't expect silence and I have given a couple of examples of how I try to be considerate of our immediate neighbours. I just expect it to be a two way thing

That's the bit where you look like you think the world revolves around you. You think that because of your actions, other people should amend theirs, to follow the boundaries of what you think is acceptable.

It's a bit ironic that you've used this as a defense against a comment about what a shock you'll have when you realise the world doesn't revolve around you.

The council will not support a complaint because the noise isn't between 11pm and 7am. The RSPCA aren't going to do anything about a dog that barks when it's let out into the garden for a reasonable period, so unless it's barking for hours at a time, you're just going to have to cope.

Take responsibility for yourself rather than expecting the world to look after you: Get some ear plugs.

You keep on saying you should have the right to an early night or lie in, yes of course you have those rights.
The neighbour has a right to let the dog out, at 10pm and 7am
Who's rights are more important? Ridiculous question. But perhaps if noise annoys you maybe you could shut your window/ wear ear plugs / swap bedrooms?
We have a dog, generally she is quiet unless someone comes into our garden, and then she goes bonkers. Once she starts, next doors dog starts, then the dog behind them, followed by the other two in our close. And vice versa. It's rare for any of them to bark at night or early morning, but ours has been accused of yapping, one morning 'incessantly' , or so said the neighbour stood on our door step, apparently she barked every morning like this, woke them up every morning, so I took him up to my bedroom, bed was made except the hump in the middle, and lifted the duvet, and there she was snoring her head off.
Dogs bark, and the sound travels around properties, the sound tends to focus either directly behind or in front.
Have you got young children? I bet they annoy neighbours too. But few people would complain, it's community living......noisy!
For the record we were very hurt that our dog had been assumed guilty.

If it's a puppy and they push forward the last toilet outing then it will just need letting out earlier. If you know they have a routine why don't you go to bed at 10.30pm then you won't be woken after dropping off. 10.30pm until 7am is more sleep than most adults I know!

[quote Otellie]@Wheresmykimchi
it's absolutely nothing like letting your children out , unless they pee in the garden

Not sure why you needed to direct that to me as it's not what I said 🤔

Bizarre.[/quote]
Didn't you say it's like letting your kids out to play after 10?

An anonymous note is a super shit thing to do not matter how it is phrased. It’s cowardly. I’ve had it and like a PP it made me feel so vulnerable and unwelcome in my own neighbourhood.

• no matter how

Perfectly reasonable.
I personally find barking dogs really stressful.

I would just post a polite letter through their door.

We had this on our local FB group. The dog owner recipients posted a photo of the letter and said that plenty of neighbours also had dogs, but as the are the only openly gay couple the letter was most likely a homophobic attack and how sickening, in this day and age, that people aren't free to love who they want to love and that this poison pen letter was not going to make them hide their love. Cue 50 responses in support and lots of gay pride flags being hung out "to shame the homophobic person who sent the letter".

Sorry but I think you’re being a bit unreasonable, 7 and 10 is clearly first wee and last wee. You say they got the puppy for Christmas so they’ve had it a in the region of a couple of weeks? Puppies don’t come instantly trained. I’ve had this issue myself in that we got two puppies and they used to bark together in the garden playing when we first got them, it wasn’t even barking to be honest they sounded more like a low playful grumble, anyway they never made noise during the night or early morning but when we first got them I would let them in the garden for half an hour at a time and they would muck about together and make a little noise. I was a bit shell shocked by how much work they were, it was the first lockdown and I was trying to homeschool two children too So I did need a half an hour break to get other bits done a couple do times a day. Anyway one morning while I’m in my nighty in the garden picking up dog poo the neighbour behind me accosted me through the bushes and proceeds to start ranting at me (but falsely politely l) about how noisy my dogs are and how she can’t sit in the garden or have the window open and how I shouldn’t have got the both of them as her sister told her you should never get two puppies together and I am probably going to have to get rid of them etc etc etc, but she told me she didn’t mind listening to my children laughing and signing in the garden, that was ok! Well I was too shocked really to respond much beyond that I was really sorry, trying my best and they were puppies that I was trying to train and no I wouldn’t be getting rid of them because they were family, and it was quite a fraught time what with the toilet training and double home schooling. Anyway long story short she had me in tears, there’s now complete awkwardness and the dogs were trained two weeks later! So if I was you I’d give your neighbours a little more time to find their feet before you say anything.

I see why you want to remain anonymous, especially if you think they might be hostile....it would have to be a very, very non-aggressive note, politely asking them not to let the puppy - who is clearly delightful!- stay out unaccompanied. Say you understand the problems with such a young lively dog, but a bit of timely behaviour intervention would be much appreciated, smiley face etc...

The OP is really looking for justification in sending an anonymous note and not prepared to listen to reasonable comments made by others. I agree with previous poster. The word entitled comes to mind.

I think it's best to just get earplugs. They fall out in the night but will get you through the 10pm barking. Mine goes out for a last wee late and unfortunately that's when the cats are out. I rush out and bring her back in if there's any barking but if I'm doing something else she might get a couple of good minutes in.

My neighbours children scream all day every day in the garden in summer (holidays and weekends) and I've had to resort to listening to music through Bluetooth earbuds whenever I go out.

Just life I guess.

Surely the need to remain anonymous (ie they're likely not to be respectful) obviates the chance of a note doing the trick anyway?

I agree they should stop the dog barking so late at night. It could wake up sleeping children.

However, anonymous notes are spineless and cowardly!

I’ve been on the receiving end of one (for leaving a large cardboard box in the communal bin for too long when I had crippling morning sickness).

It was really frustrating never knowing who it was. I smile and am on good terms with all of my neighbours - or so I thought! It really made me paranoid for a while. Every time I bumped into someone and smiled at them I thought - god was it you.

Talk to them politely. Then if they don’t take any action at all try more forcefully. Then eventually call the council. If you hate confrontation could DH do it?

This assumes the dog barks for ages and it’s not just the odd one or two barks.

study, you said

”However, I don't agree with doing nothing.”

So that’s it then; you don’t think you are being unreasonable to say something.

I do, but my circumstances are not the same as yours.

I agree they should stop the dog barking so late at night. It could wake up sleeping children

But having a drink in the garden and a laugh at 8pm could do the same. 10pm isn't classed as 'so late at night' by many many people. Most adults aren't asleep by 10pm.