Lost my temper with neighbour's dog

[IronTusk]

For a number of months my neighbour's dog is outside from 7:30pm to around 10:00pm (or later, sometimes) about 4 - 5 times a week and it regularly barks, howls, yelps throughout the evening. My living room / dining area is open plan leading out the the back and I live in a small development of terraced houses, so the space is quite tight. When the dog is being noisy it's almost like it's in my back garden.

This has been driving me increasingly mad and last night I just lost it, went out the back and yelled at the dog to shut up twice before slamming the back door. I had tried knocking on the door twice beforehand but there was no answer.

I feel a bit ashamed of myself this morning and I've knocked again this morning to try and apologise but emphasise that this is causing me some annoyance. The couple have three young children and the husband is often away leaving the wife with the children to look after but is it unreasonable to expect not to be consistently disturbed by a dog?

Report it to the council's environmental health department as noise nuisance.

Poor dog is being treated appallingly.

Your anger is misdirected, the poor dog is being treated terribly! It’s the owners you should be angry with.

It’s not the poor dog’s fault. Why is it being locked out? I’d never lock my dog outside, if I did it would do the same. They need to bring it in, it’s clearly not an outdoor dog

The RSPCA won't do anything if the dog is being fed and watered and generally looked after which it clearly is.

I don't think it is being generally looked after though, is it? It's being kept "alive" but it's hardly being well looked after.
RSPCA (rightly IMO) threatened a neighbour of ours with taking her cat into a shelter after she refused to let it into the house anymore. Poor thing was outside in all weathers.

But this dog isn't outside all the time.

Op you say you don’t think the dog is ever taken out for a walk?

always baffled by those who seem to keep such close tabs on their neighbours. Do you never go out and constantly station yourself at your front window?

i walk my dogs at 5.45am every day. And then a quick blast after dinner around 8.30pm. We are very quiet. Doubt anyone knows.

i don't get the RSPCAs attitude, tbh. From what i read on here, a family with working parents and children doesn't have a hope in hell of getting a dog from a shelter, hence so many "puppy farms".

So why do they leave dogs in conditions that they wouldn't let them go into in the first place?

In your shoes, OP, i wouldn't feel bad. I would keep going round there at obviously awkward times for them until they get rid of the dog. It doesn't deserve having to live like that.

The ddog's owner treats it much worse than being shouted at. I doubt it took it personally tbh. For a good few months every Saturday I was woken up by 2 people chatting right outside my bedroom window.. For 40 mins a ddog they had barked constantly.. One day I snapped (no fart) and told them to shut that bloody ddog up. Worked. They haven't been back! Not a boast as such but my ndn often comments he never hears my 4 ddogs. Being a decent owner they have been trained to stfu!

So, you thought you’d yell at a mistreated dog?

Perhaps next time, in your anger, go to the HUMANS in charge of the dog and ask them to let the poor thing in.

The weather has been miserable too.Poor dog

YABU to even consider going round to apologise. They are the ones who should be apologising to you.

Strategically though, going round to apologise and explaining you were at the very end of your tether might hit home to the neighbours how antisocial they’ve been.

You’re not being unreasonable to expect an evening without incessant dog barking however you were unreasonable to shout at the dog.

It’s a dog, it’s doesn’t know it’s being annoying. I’d have directed my frustrations at the owner(s) who should be bringing a dog inside when it’s barking like that. It’s not the dogs fault they haven’t trained it properly.

We have a dog if and he barks then inside he comes, because my neighbour’s right to peace trumps ours - because we are the ones who decided to get the dog, they didn’t!!