Out of control dog disturbing baby in garden - help?!

[soirritating]

I'll keep it as brief as possible. Basically I have a 3 month old baby and we are often out in the garden in the pram in the nice weather. Sometimes she falls asleep whilst out there (obviously I put her in the shade and stay with her just rocking her etc).

My issue is that next door have a small noisy dog which seems to have some sort of motion sensor on it. Literally every time there's any sort of movement, like me standing to rock her from sitting, the dog runs to the fence (I can see through the small slats) and starts yapping very loudly. And it's constant, continual yapping, until the neighbour eventually comes and retrieves it and what I would describe as half heartedly tells it off, eg. "stop it, come inside". Dog ignores her and continues. By this time my baby is wide awake and crying. This is every single time we are in the garden and make any sort of movement. Her "tellings off" are also few and far between - sometimes she just leaves the dog to yap at us through the fence.

As well as waking her sometimes when she's asleep it has also given her a shock and made her cry her on one occasion when we were out in the garden on her playmat - the best shaded area is right by my garden fence so that's where I was sitting with her lying on her mat. Next thing the dogs comes bounding over and is yapping inches from where we are. She startled and cried instantly. I was so upset on this occasion I just went back inside.

I know dogs bark. I get that. But i have owned a dog previously and if it was barking through the fence every single time a neighbour and her small baby were out there I'd be taking it inside. She doesn't seem to do that. So often we just end up back inside so baby isn't upset and can sleep, which I don't think is fair.

I don't expect silence in my garden by any means. But a dog constantly up at the fence, inches from where you know there's a small baby?? I just wouldn't let this continue. I'm starting to feel like I can't use my garden.

AIBU?

@Alleycat1

Wow! Op getting a hard time here. Forget the baby, forget the fact that Op has another child. Do some of you really think that a dog should be left to bark at a neighbour when she is in her own garden? I say this as a lifelong dog lover and owner - it is not acceptable. Nobody should own a dog if they are not prepared to train it properly and Op's neighbour should be more pro-active in socialising her pet. Why shouldn't Op sit in the shade or peg out her washing in peace? Having said that the situation is what it is and as the neighbour probably won't do anything then the suggestions re. screening and garden umbrella are surely the way forward.

Thank goodness for sense. Honestly this thread is next level bonkers.

[quote DoubleTweenQueen]@Toomuchtrouble4me ‘The dog is just doing what dogs do’ - generally only badly behaved, untrained, bored or badly treated dogs with crap owners.

To be clear.[/quote]

Well said

My dog loves water pistols... he barks for more!

It's not on OP... I would never allow my dog to do that.

Give the dog a bad experience when it barks through the fence, chuck a bucket of water over the fence. Dogs learn from experience, a bad experience will stop it from barking again if it's bad enough! I don't mean harm the dog, just make it feel uncomfortable when it barks through the fence. It will never stop with wishy washy owners.

@ferretface

Scaring the dog by squirting water or making a scary noise in response like rattle can etc might also work (positive punishment) but it has a chance of making it worse and is nowadays not thought of a very good way of training as it subjects the dog to punishment without changing their underlying emotional state. If it were me, I'd just chuck cheese and make my presence in the garden the world's best thing to that dog. It's not the dogs fault, their owner isn't training it.

Douse it down real good with a garden hose.

Why ask for advice and then get defensive at anyone who doesn't agree with you. And if you start squirting the dog with water, I hope your neighbour would do the same to your baby. How would you like it??

Some of the comments on here OP are literally barking mad!!

I have a dog and would never let him bark all the while in the garden. Our neighbour has a dog that would bark all the while if you let him but our neighbours are considerate just like us.
I hope you and your baby girl will be-able to enjoy your garden in peace.

Predictably bonkers I’d say.

Although I daresay my reasons for it being bonkers would differ.

🎣 🐟 🐟

Get a water pistol. Not your fault if the dog is yapping through the fence while you’re spraying your plants.

@NoMoreBananas

Why ask for advice and then get defensive at anyone who doesn't agree with you. And if you start squirting the dog with water, I hope your neighbour would do the same to your baby. How would you like it??

Fuck me 😂

I'm out.

Some of the comments on here OP are literally barking mad!!

😂😂

@WildfirePonie

My dog loves water pistols... he barks for more!

It's not on OP... I would never allow my dog to do that.

Give the dog a bad experience when it barks through the fence, chuck a bucket of water over the fence. Dogs learn from experience, a bad experience will stop it from barking again if it's bad enough! I don't mean harm the dog, just make it feel uncomfortable when it barks through the fence. It will never stop with wishy washy owners.

My neighbors had a dog it would keep me up at night. They left it out all night. I dumped a pan of water on it a few times. Then they had a cat that would have kittens all the time, and the dog was mean to the kittens, and the kittens all ran off. The neighbor said he was glad the kittens all ran off.

Privacy screening and wire ties? Or a wind break to block he dog seeing your baby?

I hope you and your baby girl will be-able to enjoy your garden in peace.

We will one day I'm sure, when we have a house in a quieter area with no neighbours for miles ( and no irritating barking dog)

I sympathise op as we had 3 barking dogs nxt door and nuisance cat when my first dc was a baby; it was awful. And there were 3 others next door to that! I was breast feeding once on a hot day with door open and the flipping cat hopped the fence and came in my house!

@SlothinSpirit

I know someone who had the same problem. They bought a megaphone and shouted "shut up dog, shut up dog, shut up dog" repeatedly through it whenever the dog was yapping in the garden. Their neighbours asked them to stop (apparently it was very very loud) and they refused unless the neighbours sorted out the dog noise. The dog noise got a bit better after that.

Not suggesting you do this (the person who did this hated dogs and was generally a bit mad ) but your post reminded me of them.

Yes, you should get a megaphone and hollar at the dog through it.

It's hard when you have young dc and there seems to be ignorant people everywhere who forget what it's like to have them! Alot of my neighbours have forgotten as theirs are older and make so much bloody racket.

Call the police.
There should be some kind of ordinance a dog is not allowed to be barking continuously.

@mrbreezeet1

Call the police. There should be some kind of ordinance a dog is not allowed to be barking continuously.

I'm not sure it's a police matter?

The council can apparently investigate it under the Environmental Protection Act but I wouldn't have thought the police would be interested unless the dog was harmful.

@Popcornbetty

It's hard when you have young dc and there seems to be ignorant people everywhere who forget what it's like to have them! Alot of my neighbours have forgotten as theirs are older and make so much bloody racket.

Yes... it's definitely hard!

@Popcornbetty

I sympathise op as we had 3 barking dogs nxt door and nuisance cat when my first dc was a baby; it was awful. And there were 3 others next door to that! I was breast feeding once on a hot day with door open and the flipping cat hopped the fence and came in my house!

Haha! I love cats too but they can cheeky sods.

This thread is mad. I wouldn’t put up with a mental untrained dog yapping every single time I moved my arm. Baby or no baby.
How do people think this is normal.

I had this and I blocked off the fence so they couldn’t see anything. That is your best option for now. Some MDF or tarp

LOVE the dog having a motion sensor.

I am in the garden with DCat who is sound asleep next to me.

I about 5 minutes, my neighbours will open their door and say "cat" (for some reason they think I can't hear this, but I bloody can) at this point their two dogs will dash out and stand at the fence going absolutely batshit.

Dcat (who thinks they are utter cunts) will briefly walk up, then go back to sleeep abs I sit here hating the little yappy bastards with the heat of a nova, whilst my neighbour sits indoors ineffectively saying their stupid names. This does not work.

I say get the megaphone.

@MaskingForIt

You’re being PFB. If you don’t want dogs next door you need to move to a detached house in the country.

You are going to face far worse things than a yapping dog through a fence, I think you might need to toughen up a bit.

That’s a bit harsh. Obviously you are a dog owner with little or no concern as to how their behaviour can impact on others. We don’t all have the luxury option to move to a detached house in the countryside. And TBH your reply could possibly undermine how she feels as a new parent.