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?

@maddening

And of course forgetting, even big things, is very normal.

I don't think forgetting your dog when you take them to work with you daily is particularly normal.

But that aside, once OP knew they'd been left at home, she should have gone and brought them in, got them settled etc. not just left them to it.

A young dog left unattended with no walk is a recipe for disaster in my experience- they need to go out or they'll find their own entertainment and it's rarely something you'll be happy with!

OP what effort have you made to train these dogs?

I have dogs, I work from home. They can be barky in the garden BUT they will come in straightaway when called.

You need to work on your training. “They aren’t usually here” is a shit excuse that implies you haven’t ever really bothered training them tbh.

@maddening

And no you should not have left your meeting to appease 2 entitled people who have every single day to sit out in the garden, it was only for 30 more minutes, they could see you were busy, their dog popping in for 30 minutes would have helped, they have every other day to be out with their dog, a one off moment of cooperation would have sorted it

I'm really glad none of my neighbours have that attitude.

The dogs shouldn't have been left to make a nuisance of themselves

@beginningoftheend

I think they're worried it'll be every day. My heart sank when some new neighbours had a lot of yapping going on, it was just the one day though, now it is very sporadic.

You handled it badly I think, although they were very fast to knock.

The second home owners over the road from me have a very yappy labradoodle. Lockdown was bliss.

You've already accepted you're being unreasonable so I won't join the pile on.

Just a bit of advice, if dogs are left in the garden by themselves they tend to become territorial about it and bark a lot more than dogs who go into the garden with a family member.
Also try training recall with a whistle. Put chicken breast or ham on a plate and blow a whistle repeatedly when your dogs are eating it. Do it every day for a week or 2 (depending how smart your dogs are) then when you blow a whistle for them they should come running. Always give them a good treat when they come back for the whistle as it reinforces the training.

YABVU. Yesterday there were two dogs in our neighbourhood who barked constantly for over an hour. I cannot begin to tell you how annoying and stressful it is. Train your dogs PROPERLY. Apologise profusely to your neighbours and don’t let it happen again. If you cannot or will not do this, rehome your dogs.

I’m with Moondust, and I am also a lifetime dog owner. It sounds to me like your dogs are already pissing your neighbours off, and yesterday was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

It’s all very well people saying chill out but have you had to listen to dogs barking constantly where you live?

I don't see what else you could have done, and your neighbour sounds like a right twat, so YANBU and no need for any further apology.

Nobody has a right not to be irritated by their neighbours' use of their own garden. Sure, a dog barking is annoying, but as long as it's not excessive (ie much more often and for longer than in this case), that's just part of living next to other people. Some people have noisy dogs, some have noisy children, some have cats that come over and crap in the flower beds, some have the radio on permanently, some use power tools all day, some have the builders in, some play musical instruments, some have bonfires, some have BBQs and parties etc etc.

We live on a little block of terraced housing where all the gardens back on to each other and either cause or have to put up with all of the above irritations. That's life. You apologised. Just move on, OP.

You left your back door open so your dogs were roaming in and out unattended all day.

Your dog had been barking for ages and you didn’t notice.

It barked long enough for your neighbours to lose their rag and come knocking. They’ve not done so before, so it must have been a long time.

You ignored them too until they we battering the door. Then you said you were too busy and left your dog to continue barking.

You are an irresponsible and inconsiderate neighbour. I don’t blame them for being angry.

Keep your dogs indoors if you can’t supervise them.

It's not your neighbours fault you haven't put proper provisions in ace to look after your dogs. It's a bit much talking about your role like it's so important, it doesn't excuse you from caring for your pets properly.

Also if your husband can forget the dogs through faffing he sounds irritating as fuck!

Your poor neighbours. If it was bad enough for them to come and knock at the door then you should have dealt with it straight away. Your meetings aren't any concern of theirs. Unbelievably rude then you dealt with the aftermath badly as well.

This seems like a really strange situation. Your husband just forgot the dogs? You told the neighbours to take their own dog indoors? Talk about victim blaming!

Really this situation is your husband's fault though as he left you with two dogs he must know that you are unable to control. I'd be more annoyed with him than trying to justify your outrageous behaviour to your neighbours. The fact that you were in a meeting is irrelevant to them. Hopefully you can salvage a cordial relationship with them.

[quote Candlestand]@Creepygnochi I don't normally have them. They're never normally here during the day when I'm working.
Fine to say I'm being unreasonable, I've apologised, what more can I do? (Genuine question)
But to say I shouldn't have dogs or my dogs are ferral is unfair. He's only just over a year old and has found his voice since we moved here from a much smaller garden because there's lots of exciting things to bark at and they like to play chase in the garden because that's what we normally do. It's never normally a problem and yesterday was the first day it has ever been an issue. He stopped barking as soon as I went in the garden so I can stop him barking by being with him but I can't be with him in the garden and be in work.[/quote]
Good grief, stop making your dogs and your situation more important than others.
If you own dogs and they are intrusive on other people just going about their normal lives, whether in noise or behaviour, and you cannot deal with it immediately, then don't have dogs.
In your scenario, you really couldn't do anything whatsoever to manage the noise because of work?
Well get rid of the dogs then.

[quote Candlestand]@Sirzy That's unfair. It wasn't at all that I couldn't be bothered, I could not leave that meeting. It's not a choice to work, I have to work and its not my choice to work from home.[/quote]
In that case, get rid of the dogs! Would you have left the meeting if your house had fought fire? Or you had been desperate for the loo?
You should have apologised to the meeting and asked for a 5 minute break - you didn't need to tell them it was to get your dogs in - fetched them in, then returned to the meeting.
Your dogs were distressed, hence the barking, your neighbour is justifiably angry and you think you're in the right???

I don't see what else you could have done OP

Not leave the dogs outside when she was in a meeting?
Get someone else to take over with minute taking whilst sorting out the dogs?
Train the dogs?

Yabu but the mistake was your DH's and the point where he didn't turn around and come back to fetch the dogs the moment he realised he had forgotten them. Was this a decision he made alone or was it made together in conversation between the two of you in which you decided it would be ok to leave them unsupervised during your difficult and stressful meetings? At least you know now that this cannot be allowed to happen again.

If you were in a meeting so important it couldn’t be left then you should have brought the dogs inside.

Especially if you were so far away from them (upstairs by the sounds of it) you couldn’t even hear them.

@OverTheRainbow88

lol people are being obtuse and ridiculous.

It was a one off mistake, I would verbally apologise then not think about it again.

I agree. And this comes from someone who used to live next door to someone with two dogs that would bark incessantly for hours and hours, our garden wasn't particularly massive so it was LOUD. I used to get very very annoyed after a couple of hours, day after day but seriously, if it's a one off and the neighbours know that they need to get a grip. Also, if your dogs are just having fun in your secure garden with access to water they are fine, they are happier and more 'looked after' than being locked up in one room whilst someone is at work all day. I'm saying that as a Dog owner/lover FT worker too. I would go round later (as to me having good neighbour relations is a huge thing) and explain the whole thing along with your work stuff going on. If that doesn't smooth things a little they clearly have too much time on their hands and need to chill. Good luck OP.

It would drive me mad to hear dogs constantly barking. You should have sorted it out straight away. Surely you could have text your DH to come and get them.

OP you should have got the dogs in, or better still not allowed them to be out when you were unable to get them in ie. during meetings. When your neighbour raised it you should have gone and got them. Maybe they over reacted a little with the hammering on the door, I'd be shocked at that too if the barking wasn't an ongoing issue everyday, but at that point you should have sorted it out.

I have dogs that will bark at the neighbours dogs, it's like a game for them all. For that reason they cannot be outside when I'm in a meeting as I would be unable to go and sort it out. But I honestly think it annoys me more than them anyway!

You are unreasonable. Other people on your street were probably working too. Or trying to relax. And had to put up with half an hour of dog barking which is incredibly annoying.

As PPs have said, stopping a dog barking in the garden is simple. Bundle them indoors, shut the door and leave them alone for ten minutes. Most dogs will get the message after a couple of repetitions. It becomes a bit harder when they have developed a habit like this, but a consistent approach will still crack the problem. I have two dogs and a neighbour has a visitor whose dog barks when mine are in the garden. Mine look at me, deeply affronted, and the old one lets off a couple of woofs then looks superior. Which he is!

YANBU, you can't control dogs every minute of their entire life, they weren't distressed or unhappy.
As for the neighbors reactions, it is just a bit of noise that tolerant neighbors should be able to handle. Neighbors do occasionally make noise, be it DIY or building work, children, pets, party, loud music,etc... and it's part and parcel of life.

Other people’s dogs barking is a massive pain. That’s all.

On one day, it went wrong. After work hours I’d be going round to neighbours and apologising and then it would be done and over with. I’d also realise that I need to train my dogs if I can’t get them in from the garden. We use a whistle and treats while out so if dpup ignores me calling him in I get the whistle out. I don’t leave him outside unsupervised though as that’s when training is undone and they get used to doing their own thing with no boundaries.

I think the OP is getting an undeserved hard time on here. It was a one off and people ( her DH) make mistakes. No one died or was injured.
Yes it's annoying hearing dogs barking but we are in unprecedented times when people have to work from home and that's the way it is. Hardly the crime of the century. The neighbours sound intolerant. It was perhaps the biggest drama in their lives for a while... a dog barking! 😂