The be angry at neighbour complaint

[leopardsponge]

I have been contacted by the council because one of my neighbours has complained about my dog barking. I don't know which neighbour, but I have a strong feeling who.

My dog goes outside first thing (around 7am) to pee and then is out during the day at various times. The garden backs into a footpath so people do pass and yes he does bark but he's a dog, that's what dogs do.

At least complain to me?

That needs reporting as that is not how it works

This has got to be a windup! You don't want to accompany your dog to the garden because it's raining?! Do you even own a dog? If you do, how on earth did you toilet train them if you didn't go out with them when it's raining? If you don't want to pay for a trainer, here's what to do. You go out with your dog when it's in the garden. When it barks, you immediately bring it back inside. When you're outside and it doesn't bark, reward it. Increase the time between rewards so it's gradually spending more time outside without barking. FFS, it's not rocket science, do you not know anything about training? How have you managed so far just with daily life with a dog? If you can't be bothered, re-home the dog.

They told me this when I called but they said dogs bark babies cry that has to be accepted it’s the constant that’s not acceptable as soon as they said this I was relieved because my dogs DO NOT bark constantly. I’d kill em myself 😂😂

You don't sound like a good dog owner.
I don't own a dog, but I have a pretty good idea that 'say to him stop' is not going to work. Indeed you have found this out.
So, now what are you going to do? Your barking dog is annoying your neighbours.

Generally with dogs it’s if it’s more that so many barks in a certain time frame that constitutes constant.

So if you dog is barking for a solid 5 minutes that’s every half hour/hour that’s going to be classed as constant. If it barks twice at 10am, again for three times at 1pm and such it’s fine. Even if annoying to your neighbour.

You really do need to either get professional dog training, or stop letting him out in the garden and just take him for walks instead. If he's barking enough for neighbours to complain to the council, and you don't do anything about it, you could end up with a noise nuisance court case against you, and large fines.
If you rent, this could lead to issues with your landlord too.

If you get a dog you know they’re going to be expensive

sadlt animals are expensive. Yes the vets are. Yes the trainers are. But you take on an animal knowing this.

I live next door to a dog! The barking is horrendous! We go out our back garden..it barks. We go out to our car at front of house it barks!. We stay in and it barks next door so loudly we have to turn the tv up. We go to bed and it is still barking so we cant get to sleep..it bloody constantly barks! I hate dog owners that cant control their fucking barking dogs!

I bloody hate lazy dog owners who can't be bothered to train for reason like "it's raining". They give everyone else who actually put
the effort into having a well behaved dog a bad name. See also owners of small dogs who think it's acceptable to let their dogs bark and snarl at others, just because they're small.

Have you considered complaining to the council?

He doesn't understand English

Yes ! Constantly! It doesn't do any good!

Bloody hell that council need reporting you need to take it further

I had the same. My dogs only bark briefly when someone comes to the door. The rest of the time they wouldn't dare as they're with me and I'm autistic with hearing sensitivity. I'd kill them myself if they were barking constantly.

My neighbours were nuts and wanted to live in absolute silence. They complained about DH leaving for work at 6.00am as it's anti social to start a car before 7.00am. They even complained about DH shovelling snow too loudly.

Had no issue installing a suround sound system in their living room though. They weren't bothered by their tv being so loud and booming that I had to bluetack the ornaments on my mantlepiece down to stop them bouncing off every time the neighbour watched a film.

Dogs don't have to bark, try training them! It's not appropriate to allow barking when people walk past

Maybe its because I'm in Scotland?

You can get free advice on how to desensitize/counter condition your dog to such sounds/sights, using effective training methods, from qualified professionals, if you join the Facebook group Dog Training Advice and Support. Theres lots of reading material on there that will help too, in the files.

If you put in the effort, you can fix this in a matter of weeks.

YABVU

You are disturbing several neighbours and don't seem to care? Your dog, your problem to fix.

I took matters in to my own hands several years ago by recording the dog barking and playing it back at full volume on repeat while i was away for the weekend. Funnily enough that sorted it and the dog wasn't left to bark after that.

You don’t need a dog trainer. You need to commit a bit of time and a bag of high value treats.

Don’t let him go outside without being supervised - and bring him inside immediately he barks.

then train him to ‘speak’ on command and then ‘quiet’. Unless he is a total bumblelab he’ll get it in a couple of days.

you can google ‘train my dog to stop barking’ and there are a million blogs that explain how to do this.

once he is reliably able to ‘quiet’ on command you can let him outside and offer the command ‘quiet’ if he barks. If he is quiet he can stay. If he is not, he must come inside. Repeat ad infinitum. He’ll get there.

Do you know what I do so my dog doesn't cause a nuisance to my lovely neighbours? Get up every damn day at 6am to walk him. The morning dog walk is my job unless I'm working early then my OH does it. Yes it's a pain in the arse but owning pets is. They very rarely just slot in.
I would be driven demented i was woken up earlier than I needed to be every day by your dog barking. Especially on a weekend! Stop letting the dog out in the garden at 7am and figure out a way to get it straight out on a walk even if it's a quick fly around the block. At the very least on a Saturday and Sunday.

Does the dog bark because it sees people walking past? Could you get a solid fence so he doesn't see them? And grow a thick hedge.

It is frightening and intimidating to walk past wildly barking dogs. You need to do more to prevent this.

So a behaviourist is expensive we paid about £300 for four sessions but she was amazing. Dog trainer is anything from about £50 per hour. But make sure it's not a dominant/punishment style trainer if you do decide to get one.

Basically to stop your dog barking you need to take him in the garden on the lead, Have high quality treats (such as chopped up chicken) when dog hears a noise give a command such as 'stop' or 'sit' and give him a treat . Try to prolong this until the distraction has gone. Basically the aim is to make him forget about the threat and reward non reactiveness. Over time you can get to the point where he no longer needs the lead but you still need to do the treat. The aim being eventually to phase out the treats and have a non reactive dog.

Also while you are doing the training try to let him out at more sociable times.

My friend had a noise complaint due to dog barking while they were at work. The main issue was when it was happening. As it was between 8-6 they were not bothered.

And why shouldn't they raise a formal complaint? Clearly it's annoying and unfair for them to put up with your barking dog all the time. You clearly can't control it.