To let my dog bark for an extra half hour even though the neighbour was already annoyed

[Candlestand]

I have 2 dogs, DH usually takes them to work so Mon-Fri they're never here during the day. Due to a bit of excess faffing yesterday morning he forgot them. Normally he puts them in the dog box in the car and sorts out DD and they all head off to nursery then work but somehow yesterday he just forgot he hadn't already put them in the car and I got a text from DH to tell me the dogs were still in the garden. Fine. I'm up in my office, WFH, the back door is open as it was such a nice day, they can mooch in and out as they please and we'll just walk them tonight instead.
I work for the local authority and we've had a nasty incident occur with a safeguarding issue for a child and I was part of back to back meetings so I never even went down for a cup of tea. I'm then in a meeting that I have been volunteered as minute taker for and there are over 20 people in this meeting and that's when my neighbour starts banging on my door. Initially I ignore him thinking it's a delivery and I can't leave this meeting but he is now practically pounding my door down so I race to the other room to open the window to ask them to go away whatever it is and he starts swearing that the dogs are barking and its really annoying. I shout down that I'm sorry but I'm in a meeting and I will sort them out as soon as I'm out of it. I can see he's furious and he storms off still swearing but the meeting is still going on without me and I have to be in it. I'm now vaguely aware that my younger dog is barking because it's been brought to my attention but honestly I just hadn't noticed before because it had been such a busy morning so I don't know how long they had been barking for. I didn't want to disrupt the meeting by asking for a break because there was a lot going on in it and we were, I hoped, almost finished but it turned out we were still going half an hour later before the meeting actually finished and because I'm now aware of it I can hear the dog still barking on and off for that time.
The thing is, we have a big garden and they don't come in when called straight away because it becomes a game to them so although me being out in the garden with them stopped the barking it takes me over 5 minutes to get them to come into the house (which I knew it would and why I didn't want to stop in the middle of a very large meeting to chase around my garden for ages). I appreciate it must have been annoying and I could see my neighbours over our fence so when I could go get them I apologised properly and tried to explain that I couldn't leave the meeting to come and get them and they were furious with me and said I was ruining their day. They are retired and are always in their garden. My dog was actually barking at their dog who was sat with them and my little dog could smell him, the older one wasn't actually barking. I tried to explain that he was just excited by their dog and if they had taken their dog in, he would have stopped barking but this just made them angrier (I meant it to try and break the tension as a discussion rather than a criticism of them, though clearly I misjudged how to say that) as they said why shouldn't their dog be allowed outside when he's being well behaved. I apologised again and just got back to chasing the dogs into the house and went back to work.

I appreciate it was annoying but I'm not sure they needed to be quite so angry. It was the middle of the day, this never normally happens at all because the dogs are not here during the week and at the weekend we're both able to be much more atuned to them if one of them starts barking at another dog or a squirrel or something and it has never been an issue before. We live rurally so other than the house on the other side of our neighbours theres no one else to be upset by the barking.
WIBU to put work before my neighbours enjoyment of their garden for half an hour?

[HedgleyTheHedgehog]

I don't have a dog but if I'm at my dad's and he goes out I will immediately bring his dog inside if it starts barking at passers by etc

I find it extremely annoying so straight inside

[Icecreamsoda99]

To be honest I'm guessing this wasn't the first incident from your neighbours point of view which is why he was so angry. From your post it all sounds a bit chaotic, you DH forgets two dogs, your dogs don't respond to being called, you're able to tune out the sound of your dogs barking, I think it's nice you want to make ammends to the neighbour and hopefully they accept it but it does sound like you and you DH need to be more conscious of your and your dogs behavior.

[Candlestand]

Yes it was definitely a one off because they are literally not here the rest of the time. DH and I work the same hours, he takes the dogs with him to work so the only time the dogs are at home is when both of us are also at home to supervise them.

[Roussette]

You sound like a lovely neighbour and to take the time and trouble to go round with a bottle of wine is a great thing to do.

Posters laying into you on here are being ridiculous. One half hour period of barking? Absolutely nothing.
Your neighbours are stroppy.

I have lived next door to a barking dog. It barked from the time they went to work until the time they came home. It was horrendous and really affected me.

But this is nothing. OP you are a reasonable person who wants to put this right. Ignore the nasty posts.

[longwayoff]

Go into your garden with treats to ensure your dogs are rewarded for returning when you call them. Take them indoors. Why should your neighbours care about your important meeting? This is not on. Dont do it.

[Whoscoatsthatjacket]

As someone who lived behind a family who think it’s fine to leave their dog bark for hours in the garden constantly... YABU.
I can’t enjoy my garden because of the dickheads and their dogs behind. Other people’s barky dogs are a pain in the arse.

[picklemewalnuts]

You obviously had a difficult day. I appreciate at the point you were asked to get them in, you weren't able to. Two take away lessons...

Train them so they come in when you need them to.

Never leave the door open for them to come and go unless you are able to go to them immediately.

I have some sympathy - my dog is a bit shouty, especially when the neighbours' dog is out. Annoyingly they leave their back door open all the time, so we effectively can't use our garden.

[16purplecolour16]

YANBU - a one off. Neighbour OK to alert you dogs barking but not be aggressive if one off. This is what I dread about retirement; that I become hyper aware and intolerant of the normal everyday chaos that is people living in close proximity.

[NotQuiteUsual]

It clearly all went wrong this time so I don't think yabu. I have a 4 month old puppy who is a big breed (so people assume better behaviour than she's capable of sometimes) she was woofing and growling at a neighbours dog and he was starting to get annoyed. So I made sure to do intense training as soon as I had the time. She's improved loads, but neighbourly relations have improved more, just for him seeing me making the effort. Plus our dogs like each other now. I think if you can work on training this weekend in the back garden, you will achieve more than any apology can.

[seashells11]

It was a one off and you apologised, that would have been enough for me. Yes it was annoying but some people have to hear barking dogs all day every day.

[doorornottodoor]

A lot of projecting going on here! Some of the replies are .

If you can honestly say it’s the first time then I think going and making a nice apology with a bottle of wine is perfect. Then just don’t let it happen again - be very conscious of the barking. How you can tune it out, I don’t know. That to me implies that it’s a regular thing. Do they bark at the weekends?

[LakieLady]

@DinosaurDiana

Kids are allowed to scream all day and look over your fence while bouncing on their trampoline, neighbours are allowed to play loud music, allow weed smoke to billow over your fence, Rev their motorbike engines etc. But your dog must not bark.

Quite!

The kids who skateboard the length of our road, over and over and over again, for hours on end, annoy me far more than the occasional dog barking.

There's something about that skateboard on tarmac noise that sets my teeth on edge. And I always find myself almost holding my breath in anticipation of a squeal of brakes, as they skateboard right up to a blind junction. I'm amazed neither of them's been run over. Some delivery drivers fly round the corner, and even though I turn into to the road slowly, because of children playing in the road, I've had to slam the brakes on a couple of times.

[Butterflyfluff]

I don’t understand any the title of the thread doesn’t match the story

In the story it is implied that the OP stopped the dogs from barking when she could take a break from a meeting

Yet the title implies she knew the neighbours were pissed off yet let the dogs bark for 30 minutes more when she could have stopped that

[Isaidnope]

Obviously a one off so your neighbours should have been more tolerant. If you did this constantly then I’d understand their perspective more. You probably shouldn’t have let the dogs mooch around in the garden if this was a possibility though. Everyone has different tolerances to noise, some people are more sensitive to dog barking than others. I’d probably just take some chocolates and wine around and apologise again.

[Sometimeswinning]

I picked up from your post that you know your dogs and have a really good set up with them.

I do, however think that as previously suggested, you should have brought your dogs in. If their dog had been barking/yapping enough to disturb your meeting I think you would have been annoyed.

[Macncheeseballs]

Given how busy your day was and how important your meetings were, your dh really left you in the shit

[CovidCorvid]

I can stop him barking by being with him but I can't be with him in the garden and be in work.

So don’t let the dog be unattended in the garden by himself, bring him inside. Simple solution? Yabvu to let him mooch round the garden by himself if he barks, he needs to go out for a wee and then be brought in unless you can be with him.

[sunflowersandbuttercups]

One half hour period of barking? Absolutely nothing.

It's not just half an hour, though. It's however long the dogs were barking for before the neighbour got so annoyed he banged on the door, plus the thirty minutes it took OP to get up and sort her dogs out.

If the dogs had been walked or left inside from the get go this wouldn't be an issue - you can't just leave a young, un-walked dog out in the garden and expect them to behave

[ForgedInFire]

I think if its a one off your neighbour was very dramatic and all the swearing was our of line. It's not ideal but it's not the end of the world either. I wouldn't apologise again, I would just leave it.

[Dhyteydseg]

Leave it - you have apologised. Move on - just make sure it doesn’t happen again. The neighbour needs to get over themselves, utterly bizarre to get angry like that. I would have ignored the door and not explained myself. It was a half an hour!

[Creepygnochi]

@Moondust001

LIfetime dog owner here.

You are a self-centred brat who cares about nobody but yourself, and your behaviour was appalling. Nobody wants to hear your dogs barking incessantly, and "what you can do" is not let them run wild on your property disturbing the entire neighbourhood whilst you do your own thing. If you know they bark (and you do) and you know that you have them with you then you keep them in until you can supervise them in the garden. You and your oh so important job do not trump everyone else's life.

And having been told that your dogs are being a nuisance, letting them continue to be a nuisance is absolutely appalling behaviour. You have lived there for a short time and already you have annoyed the neighbours. I'd be expecting a visit from some other colleagues of yours from the Council if you don't get your dogs under control.

Jeeze, I was harsh on the op too, but this...

She was inconsiderate, she didn't stand by giggling as her dog took a dump in her neighbors mums crocs. Chill out a bit.

[16purplecolour16]

@Icecreamsoda99 - is correct. This might not be a one off for the neighbour. Perhaps your opinion that ‘dogs being properly supervised’ is not shared by your neighbour. When you take the wine round, perhaps worth asking outright.

[imforourfreedomback]

My opinion is that your neighbours are are unreasonable. They are retired..,well good for them but the rest of us have a job and we are forced to WFH. If you were in a meeting it's not much you could have done.
I've been there before and I know how stressful it is. You actioned it as soon as it was possible.
Take no notice of the self centred people leaving comments that you are at fault.
If your neighbours don't like people around then they should buy a house in the middle of nowhere.

[HerMammy]

I’m a dog owner and yes dogs will bark but to leave them all day without checking on them or even being aware of what they’re doing is pretty poor.
If a ndn told me to take my dog in to stop theirs barking I’d laugh at them, you CF!
My door is open on nice days but I’m always checking on them; is the water full? are they too hot? I hope your garden is super secure too as dog theft is horrendous at present.

[Kokosrieksts]

Such a long winded way to tell that your dogs don’t listen and you’re not bothered about your neighbors. What if they had a work call and your dogs kept barking. I find it very annoying that you are listing all the reasons of your importance. I say this as a dog lover. So yes, I think you are being unreasonable.