To ask neighbour to change his routine?

[SPUNfan]

We are an end terrace, at the front are gardens and then the road, to the side is a dirt road going down the side of our house providing access to parking at the back. We're semi rural and so have no neighbours except for the terrace we're attached to.

Our neighbours are a retired couple in their 60s. They're friendly enough but beyond saying good morning we usually keep ourselves to ourselves. They have two small dogs, we have three.

Every single morning at 5.30am without fail my neighbour walks his dogs past the front of our house and up the road. Every time the dogs bark from the time they leave his house until they're past our house. Without fail this wakes either me, or one of my children (3 under 5) and therefore me.

I can't wear earplugs as the children still wake in the night but I'm at my wits end - my youngest still wakes several times in the night, the other two do occasionally and so being up for the day at 530 is killing me! I'm absolutely knackered.

Wibu to speak to the neighbour to ask him to change his routine so he doesn't walk his barking dogs past my house every morning at 530?

You give no indication re what your relationship is with your neighbour? Non existent, civil, friendly, acrimonious?

Did you read the OP? She said they were friendly but kept themselves to themselves.

Mine also bark when they first go out. They are super excited. But I wouldn't do that at that time utterly selfish

Huh? Some dogs bark All. The. Time.

Mainly because their owners have never taught them not to.

People at the back of us routinely let their dog out in to their back garden very early in the morning. Yestarday it was at 6.00am. It is left to bark there for around 20 minutes. Yesterday I'd had enough, so went round to complain. I was (I think) quite polite, stressing that there are a number of neighbours who, like me, will be woken up and it is anti-social. This morning there was no barking.

Speak to them. If they're not arseholes they'll want to do something so as not to wake you all up. If they can't do that I suggest next time you go to bed you knock on their front door and tell them you're going to bed (hopefully getting them out of bed).

Sone dogs get v. excited when they’re taken for a walk. My dog barks as soon as I pick up his lead and carries on until we’re quite far down the road. It’s sheer excitement, he’s letting the world know that he’s out and about.🤣 Then he’ll start sniffing around and quietens down.

I don’t walk him at 5:30 a.m. though.

5.30! It's the middle of the fucking night in my world!

Speak to them and just let them know that it's not acceptable to make too much noise so early in the morning. The problem is not that they're walking by your window but that the dogs are barking and they haven't been trained properly.

I'm curious – how does your neighbour going to bed set off your dogs? Thin walls?

I voted YABU. How would you like it if they asked you to change your routine? Maybe your kids that wake you are also waking them?

I had two collie x and they did silly yapping howling barks from the minute they saw their leads until we got to the field, every single time we went out and I walked them twice a day, every day of their lives.

I live on the approach to a park and large field and lots of cars come past my house with dogs howling, yapping and barking until they reach the field.

It may be annoying but I'm not sure there is much you can do, it's a public road and the noise is transient, you could ask him to walk on the other side of the road but walking his dogs at that time may suit his lifestyle just not yours.

I have total sympathy, my neighbour has two little terriers who yap and howl when they are put out, it's bloody excruciating listening to them constantly.

If I knew my routine was bothering my neighbour then I would certainly consider tweaking it to ensure it doesn’t, and would hope that vice versa ie I could raise and they would consider tweaking

no obligation to of course. Just a polite expectation with the caveat no expectation

YANBU but in my experience old people who do this kind of thing very much have the view that young people are always wrong and moaning and lazy and entitled. And that they are in the right, are infallible, have the priority, 'its always been this way' etc. So don't be surprised if they refuse (perhaps very rudely)

The stupid bugger know full well he's disturbing the neighbourhood. Don't be surprised if he reacts badly to being asked to stop.

As a dog owner, I think it would be perfectly reasonable to ask him to walk the dogs later-he’s retired so he can probably be flexible, I’d just as him.

To those people making comments about owners having dogs who bark more than usual-rescued dogs, for example, have often undergone trauma and even years of love and training can’t erase their reactions. So don’t be too judgmental.

Similar here - our Jack Russell starts barking and running round in circles every time he sees one of us getting his lead. He barks to the end of the path and then calms down and stops when we set off.

I would definitely tell him that he’s waking up you and your children, and its having a detrimental effect on you. It’s possible he doesn’t realise it’s a problem if no-one has confronted him up until now, and if you approach it kindly, you may well come to a solution. Are they your next door neighbours ? If so, if things don’t go well and there’s a bad reaction from him, you’re up and awake at 5.30 anyway so you might want to find something equally noisy to do in the house - radio on loudly next to the bedroom wall, for example, noisy play for the kids is another option, or early morning vacuuming. Hope you get it sorted soon.

Ask politely
but if he doesn’t tweak, please don’t adopt a tit for tat approach. No way to live - in passive aggressive war fare with your neighbour

What would be the bloody point of this?! He's waking you up so you make a lot of noise to... what? Wake them them up?

A tad harsh isn’t it? If the routine was later in the day maybe I’d agree, but 5.30am? I’ll bet the OP isn’t the only one who’s being disturbed either.

OP, in the first instance I would try to resolve it amicably by having a word with your neighbour - if no one else has confronted him he may not be aware that it’s a problem. If he refuses to do anything then the Environmental Protection Act 1990 can be used to resolve things. The dog(s) have to be considered to be causing a statutory nuisance - this includes things like time of day or night that the nuisance occurs, and also the duration, although the latter is more appropriate for dogs barking incessantly in neighbours gardens etc.

Report the matter to you local council and they will investigate. It can take around 4 weeks for a determination to be made, but once the council are satisfied that this constitutes a statutory nuisance, a noise abatement notice under The Act, will be served on your neighbour and if he continues to breach it, he can be fined.

I live in a terrace and my neighbour once asked us whether my teenage DD could practice a hobby earlier in the evening as it’s abit noisy and was interfering with their post-dinner TV watching.

I wasn’t offended at all, I just asked her to practice earlier and she does. No biggie, we have an adjoining wall so we need to be mindful of other people.

If the path he walks up leads to the back/parking, why cannot he not just take them out of the front door? That way he wouldn't need to walk by your house and cause such a nuisance.

No - he’s already awake and so is she, that’s the point. He might think twice if he’s not coming home to a nice peaceful house after the walk !! I did suggest that she try to resolve things amicably first, and I’ve also posted details of how the local council can help. I suggested this option only if he refuses to do anything. Whenever she’s awakened by the dogs at this hour, why not give him a taste of his own medicine by making a similar racket ? Would only work if they share a party wall though.

I was going to say yabu, in that you can't ask neighbours to change their routine, but I think in this case you can.

People who have barking dogs do not seem to give a damn crap about others and it is always those small dogs that bark the most. You are within your rights to ask them can they stop the darks barking as waking your whole family in the middle of the night. That would drive me insane and hope they change their routine but doubt it as bet the walk is for them and not the dogs as they cannot sleep.

Thanks for all the responses! Posted before work so just catching up now.

To answer some questions:

All 3 kids already have white noise in their rooms (they're poor sleepers regardless).

Yes we're a noisy family with 3 under 5 and 3 dogs. Noise doesn't really travel between the houses though so we can't hear their dogs barking when they're at home and via versa.

It's been the last few months, basically since the days have been lighter in the mornings. We've lived here for years but this is the first time it's an issue.

He is retired and is at home all day every day. He walks the dogs on the lead up the road for 10 mins about every 2 hours all day long. They bark when they see another dog but on our Ring footage i can't see any reason for them to bark on their early morning walk as there's nobody else around.

My dogs bark if there's someone at the door or if they see a dog through the window, but they're fast asleep and disturbing no-one after 10pm most days. I do appreciate dogs bark when excited and mine are much the same when they see the dog leads and collars coming out of the cupboard, but I'd never dream of taking them out so early.

The crucial (most annoying?) thing is he's literally walking them past the front of our house and back again. He could easily stick them in the car for 2 mins up the road and they'd be on a lovely walk with some nice public footpaths if he wanted to.

I suppose my tolerance and patience is eroded due to lack of sleep 😅🙈