To report my neighbour's dog without speaking to them first?

[Applescruffle]

My neighbours bring their dog outside on a lead every single morning at 6:15am without fail. Even weekend and bank holidays. It barks from the minute they open their door, as they walk down their drive, undo their gates, walk down the street, bark bark bark bark. Every morning I hear it and then hear it fade away as they walk down the street. This is usually how I am woken up and how my day starts. Sometimes it's earlier, the other day it was 5:55am.
In addition to this, they bring it out the front on a lead at several intervals throughout the day, and quite often though the night too. It's never not barking when it's out. Recent examples are 1:30am, 4:10am, and 2:15am. It's so loud, it echos around the street. At these times, they often don't even walk it, they just stand at the end of their drive with it.
It pulls and pulls at the lead while barking, almost dragging them along the street. It seems to very clearly have no training whatsoever. They did have another dog (I posted about that one here too) but they couldn't handle it as it was too aggressive so they got rid of it and we all had a few months of peace thinking it was over, now they have this one and it's just as bad so clearly the issue is them.
Anyway, after the 1:30am incident our children have asked us to do something about it as it's waking them up and affecting their concentration at school. I was ready to go round and speak to them but my husband stopped me and said I should just report them to the council instead so they won't know who it is and can't cause any problems for us.
So I have submitted a full report to the local council, with dates, times and recordings.
I feel really guilty though because surely the neighbourly thing to do would have been to speak to them but maybe my husband is right and also surely anyone who is fine with letting their dog make all that racket in their front garden in the early hours of the morning is not a reasonable person and so is not going to respond reasonably?

It's not about him being a wimp. It's a legitimate concern as there is a way that they could cause serious problems for us if they chose to, which I won't be sharing here.

Wow. What strange people.

I doubt talking to them would do anything. They have clearly demonstrated they do not care about, or are completly unaware of, other people.
Hopefully an instruction or a threat from the local authority will do the trick.

You did the right thing OP

You would be wasting you time talking to people like that. You've done the right thing.

I hate dogs barking with a passion so I think you're absolutely right to report them. Clearly they're not training the dog properly.

Some dog owners are utterly irresponsible - letting them sit on chairs in restaurants, not clearing up their poo etc etc It drives me nuts.

It's a really awful yapping bark too, but an extremely loud yap. The video I have of it is almost three minutes long. I can hardly bear to listen to it.
That's how I start my day, every single day.

Is there a chance that the reason the dog is on a lead ,is so that it doesn't bark at the fence ?
Or perhaps the dog is temporarily ill and needs the toilet a lot.
It would be hard to train a reactive dog not to bark ,so perhaps they are trying to keep it out of their garden . As to reduce its impact on you?

They are not next door.

I'd call the rspca to check on it too.

Train the dog. The behaviour described is an untrained, unstimulated, stressed dog. The dog needs proper training and activity (not just exercise) or a new home that will provide this.

My advice would change slightly depending on some more background info. Firstly, NBU to report to council without a conversation if you think that that a conversation could escalate into a confrontation and cause more trouble.
You mentioned that it could cause serious problems for you personally, so that leads me to suspect that there’s more of a background to this.
My question is, are they home owners, or do they also rent? If they rent, then contact their landlord, or preferably the agent they rent through, or the council if they rent through them.

i think the council would suggest you speak to them first

ask them if they could muzzle their dog at antisocial hours

Are you joking?

My friends dog barks when it first goes out for a walk. They muzzle it until they are around the corner. Easy stop control.

My neighbours dog barks when they let it out. Front garden to roam free, no lead, right under my window while is pees on my tree! I've not said anything as I think they do it as I have cats that go in their garden (with a littler tray mind)

I would of gone outside and said its 1.30am wtf are you playing at, you're waking the whole street up this is not acceptable

Well they could be a responsible owner and train the dog so it doesn't bark constantly, or if they can't be bothered to do that then maybe not be selfish and walk it at sociable hours 🤦‍♀️🙄

That must be so annoying! My dog barks in the garden so isnt allowed out unsupervised and is trained to go back inside as soon as she is told so one bark and she is back inside. Most dogs don’t need to be let out in the night unless they have a medical condition so your neighbours are definitely unreasonable!

my neighbour recently got a new dog and takes it out at 6:45 everyday, the dog is quiet but she speaks to it the entire time in a really loud baby voice which wakes me up every morning, I can’t understand why people have such little respect for others around them, if I’m out early I will always make an effort to be quiet!

This has got to be winner of the dumbest reply for this thread surely?? 😂😂😂

And you sound like the complete opposite of a buttercup 🤦‍♀️ did you swap brains with your dog before you replied?

Best way to let them know how much they're disturbing you is to appear outside in the night in your PJs (preferably with a very sleepy child in tow) and ask them not to keep waking your whole household up during the night. My DH may have done this when we were on holiday one year, worked a treat

We have this.... Not a pest to anyone.. Absolutely does not bark...
Howled twice in her 10 years.. In the woods with other huskies... My mh is actually shot due to barking at 6am.Been going on for years.. Man in a public place and council can't act. We are actually moving soon.
Dr has given me sleeping pills and ones for the palpitations I get from the stress. People who allow ddogs to bark affecting others are utter cunts. Pure and simple...

Just straight up report them. If you talk to them and someone else reports them then they will just think it was you which is what happened to us.

I would be shouting out the window! Shut your dog up it's the middle of the night!
As a one off fair enough but all the bloody time isn't on.

It wouldn’t prevent the dog from barking unfortunately.

Suspect they are 'walking' the dog at night to avoid other dogs/people as they cannot control it otherwise. They have one dog they have had to get rid off for aggression, maybe this one is showing similar traits?

But absolutely report them!