Neighbours dog barking

[Hiimblahblah]

I don’t know if I’m being ridiculous here, perhaps I am! I’m so bloody tired of my neighbours dog’s constant barking. She never barks during the night, but barks a lot during the day. I’m lucky enough to be able to WFH, but it does mean that the barking gets to me a lot more than it would if I were in an office. If she’s in the garden and I go out to put clothes on the line etc, she barking the entire time I’m in my garden. She’s up and in her garden between 7.30am and 8am every morning and she’s barking. When in the house, I would say she barks on average every hour for about 5-10 minutes at a time. And she barks any time anyone comes to our door or their door.

We have a dog also, but he rarely ever barks which I’m grateful for.

Perhaps I’m being ridiculous, I’m not sure! I mean, what can they really do about it? 🤷‍♀️

The reason I haven’t said anything to our neighbours is because they are lovely and I don’t want to upset them, but the barking is getting to me.

AIBU? Or would this annoy anyone else?

Sorry guys, when I say “What can they really do about it?” I meant “What can they really do about the barking?”

If you don't tell your neighbour that their dog is constantly barking when they are not there, how will they ever know?

Perhaps the dog has separation anxiety. The least you can do (and for the benefit of the dog) is talk to them about it so they can get some advice. The dog sounds very upset, let alone the disruption to you, which I understand can be annoying.

That would drive me insane.
I’d speak to them - maybe they don’t realise how bad it is.

They can talk to their vet, get training advice, and advice of dealing with separation anxiety. Maybe get a dog crate to leave the dog in so it feels more secure?

Yes this would annoy me

Ah sorry! I should have mentioned, the man tends to be home a lot as he works from home too. So they’re aware of the barking

Having come out the other end of years of issues with neighbours who have finally moved, I would say be careful.

People always say 'talk to your neighbours' but in my experience it doesn't matter how nicely you do this they will take offence and even possibly start to behave in a way to purposely piss you off.

If the man can hear his own dog then he doesn't give a shit.

I would record the noise and seek advice from the council and keep it all anonymous from the neighbour (presuming you have other neighbours too)

Five years ago I would take the 'be kind' and 'talk to them' approach but no way now. Not after everything we've been through. Just tread very carefully. The most reasonable and 'nice' people can turn into ogres when they are offended.

Unfortunately a lot of dog owners seem to believe that you can't stop dogs barking every time anyone walks past the house, (or a bird flys past the window) and some fuss the dog and reinforce the barking if it's because someone is at the door...

My parents are like this - they have always had dogs and have always looked after them well, cleaned up after them etc. and managed to get them relatively well trained in terms of recall etc. but they've always had an absolute wall up about training them not to bark at people or animals outside the window and absolutely refuse to believe it's possible.

I agree @PorridgewithQuark. We had to train our dogs not to react to the constant barks and crying of the neighbour's dogs. I always thought it must be like us being able to hear a human baby cry and not be able to do anything about it. My dogs used to look depressed and have been a lot happier since they moved.

My neighbour WFH but goes out every evening and the dog barks constantly, and I mean constantly. It just doesn't breathe. It must have such high anxiety. I did approach them about it and they said he just barks at the cat but the cat died months ago and its still doing it. I try and have the Alexa on in the evening loud enough to drown out the barking but we can still hear it. We've been here 12 years and its been ongoing. The only saving grace is that the dog must be old now so it won't go on forever but they have spoken about getting a bigger dog when he goes! FML!

I think it also depends what breed it is, some breeds naturally bark more than others. There maybe not much your neighbours can do about it.
IME the council (in my area at least) will only intervene with a neighbours dog barking if it is incessant- but that would mean barking for hours non-stop rather than the 5 -10 minutes per hour that you say you are experiencing.

Nothing but sympathy from me. My neighbours dogs bark a good chunk of the day in the garden. They know full well they do it and even encourage my dog to bark. Does my blooming head in. They "told off" DH the other night because he told our dog to be quiet and they thought he was talking to theirs. Childish plonker.

Could be my dog tbh if it's any consolation it is so so deeply fucking annoying as an owner of a dog like this too. Some days I feel like tearing my hair out with it.

The only thing you can do is politely mention it to your neighbour and hope for the best.
It is very annoying.
We have two neighbours.
One whose dog barks whenever we are in the garden- not exactly relaxing- however when they realise we are out there they do stop him but sometimes that takes ages if they are inside the house. Our other neighbour seems to shut its dog in a small outside yard and it literally whimpers and cries. Again if I say something then bring it in and pretend they hadn't noticed but they definitely know- sometimes a friend of theirs brings there dog round and shut it in the yard too and then they both whimper fgs!
Fortunately I can't hear either dog in my house, it's bad enough in the garden, so.you have my sympathies.
If mentioning it doesnt acheive anything I might be tempted to play loud music to drown out dog( and impact neighbour! )

My dog is a terrier so has an annoying bark, I get that. I can’t predict when she will bark but I do stop it immediately. If you added up the minutes of barking per day it wouldn’t even come to 5 minutes.
My neighbours sent a really nasty text message one morning because she barked once at a squirrel at 7.55am. I stopped her straight away and took her inside.
Before this the neighbours had been fine. Since this they haven’t spoken to me and ALWAYS make a comment to each other if my dog dares to make a sound when they are in the garden.
I used to feel quite upset by this and was very stressed but then I realised that I do everything I possibly can to make sure they aren’t disturbed. I don’t let her out in the garden in the morning, I get up and take both dogs straight out for a walk so that they can have a wee (I look a sight but hey)
I don’t let her bark and bark. It annoys me so why would I allow it! I’ve spoken to my other neighbours and they don’t have an issue at all. I think I’ve been very accommodating.
So what I would say is go and have a friendly chat with your neighbour. If mine had come to talk to me (I am very approachable) things might be different. They might not be aware of how annoying it is to others and may well try to reduce the problem.

I’d say that the owners can do plenty to reduce their dog barking and if not then the dog is simply not suitable for living in a an area with close neighbours.
I have the same problem day in day out barking for 10 minutes and more while they stand out the back having a fag, while they are in the house, while they sleep but oh no not me because it bloody well wake s me up every night and morning. I got told to fuck off when I suggested that the dog barking in the garden at 10 at night was unreasonable.

I used to like dogs but now I’m verging on a strong dislike for all dogs and their self indulgent owners.
Dont get me started on dogs off the lead anywhere except an enclosed exercise area.

I have a very barkey breed but he's never left to bark. He knows not too as well because as soon as he does any fun stops and he's back in the house.

Stop moaning could be so much worse loud music etc Maybe you do things that they don’t like either 5 minutes an hour is not so bad as constant children noise for e ample.

They can train their dog to be less reactive to the things that are causing it to bark! Some breeds are naturally more vocal or territorial than others but most can be trained to ignore and get desensitised to things that would otherwise trigger barking. For example our dog never barks when the door goes because we are very mindful of how we respond to the door and would have distracted him and rewarded quiet behaviour. Their dog might be a rescue in which case those behaviours might be harder to manage but not impossible with enough commitment. I'd speak to them nicely and say you feel awful even bringing it up but since you wfh you really notice the noise and you'd appreciate anything they can do to try to reduce it. Explain you know dogs bark being an owner yourself and ask if there's anything you can do that would help (eg if you're in your back garden and their dog barks through the fence they might need you to completely ignore the dog as part of that training. ) ultimately its their responsibility and I know I'd rather have a neighbour come to me nicely for a genuine chat than an anonymous complaint.

I know I'd rather have a neighbour come to me nicely for a genuine chat than an anonymous complaint.

But @Cw112 that's because you are a reasonable person! If someone tried to talk to you about it nicely I'm sure you wouldn't then cold shoulder the neighbours, start playing loud music late at night, shut the dog in the garden so it can mindlessly bark all day long and ensure your dog barks every morning at 5am?! That's what 'nicely' complaining gets you with the wrong people.

The OP has already said the neighbour WFH so they don't sound too reasonable to me as I'm sure they can hear the dog.

I think some posters on here are confusing dogs barking 'at' something (which is usually short lived and not so annoying) compared to the constant barking bored or anxious dogs make.

PoseyFlump "she barks on average every hour for five to ten minutes " is what the op says. The dog does sound as though it's barking at people/ cats/ wildlife outside the window and not out of anxiety - bored and anxious barking goes on and on until the animal gives up and goes to sleep out of exhaustion, not just for five minutes.

Loads of owners just complacently accept the barking at things outside the window as "what dogs do" and tell themselves that there's nothing to be done. They even accidentally reinforce the behaviour by talking to and fussing the dog when it barks, unintentionally making the dog think its being praised for a desired behaviour. Owners doing that might be nice and apologetic, they live their dogs in a sentimental, rather selfish way and won't be shutting them outside to wind the neighbour up, but they're also likely to be fairly useless at addressing the antisocial behaviour.

@PorridgewithQuark I'm not sure I agree with the OPs neighbour falling into that category. There's no way my dogs would be barking ten minutes out of every sixty, especially if I was home. I love my dogs but they have rules to follow, just like kids do. In fact they feel more secure with rules and routine. But because of 5 years of hell we went through I don't automatically believe talking to neighbours will get the result you want. And sometimes what you initially interpret as lacking in ownership skills is actually 'don't give a shit' attitude. MN is full of threads of neighbours nicely complaining only to find themselves in a worse situation.

And the OP does say the dog is also barking all the time in the garden. Our old neighbours dogs did this. They were bored and trying to entice other dogs into a bark off. Which usually worked and then it would go on forever.