How much barking is excessive?

[User06489]

Hello,

I live in a terrace and my neighbour has recently adopted a 6 month old puppy they have got from a charity bringing over Romanian dogs.
The dog yaps a lot - very much a reactive dog, I.e if we go in our garden and he's in there he barks and growls, barks if you take your bins out, shut your door etc.
However the barking is not prolonged for hours, it's short bursts of barking but a lot. If I counted the single barks as well I would say he probably barks around 50 times a day, with some barks happening in short succession and then other hours it's quiet.

I spoke to the other adjoining neighbour to see if it was bothering them and they said it is to the extent they had contacted our neighbour to see if she was leaving the dog on its own, and our neighbour confirmed she had started leaving him for short intervals.

I don't want to go to the council, but since I have an ally, if this is too much I will mention to the neighbour. She brought it up with me before saying she is training him, but so far there has been no difference.

Wrong, I have reported two neighbours for dog daytime barking, both were sent a warning.

If the puppy is properly trained as time goes on it should learn quickly but it depends on the owners . Sadly some owners seem to think its OK to let their dog bark . It's all down to training . I would keep an eye on the training or it will get worse believe me I've had real issues with 2 sets of neighbours . If the barking starts to affect you then it's time to tell them . Best wishes

What breed is it, OP (or what does it look like)? Some dogs are barky wee shites (e.g. sausage dogs) and no amount of training will completely eradicate it, although it can be improved.

Sounds like your neighbour doesn't know what she's doing and needs a dog behaviourist/trainer to help - you could ask around for recommendations and present them to her, along with your noise complaints.

People are more likely to change their behaviour if it's made easier for them - no, it's not your job to look around for dog trainers, but it increases the chances she'll actually change.

I think you need to give it some time, the dog has been brought to another country, put with strangers, is still a puppy and is settling. It'll take at least 3 months to settle down. If it's still barking a lot after that then you need to have a conversation with your ndn.

We've not had a ndn for 3 years and when they moved in our dogs were quite noisy. Thankfully our new ndn was fine and said to 'give it time'. We did and now our dogs barely make a noise when they see or hear the neighbours. But it did take a few months for them to get used to it.

The rule of 3 applies to rescue dogs

3 days to decompress
3 weeks to learn your routine
3 months to truly feel at home

Barking dogs drive me fucking insane. There are lots of dogs round us, one next door and one 2 doors down, plus more obviously, but rarely hear any barking at all thankfully. So clearly it can be done and barking incessantly doesn’t come with the territory.

Sympathies. Our next door neighbours’ dog barks if I go anywhere near their side of my garden, including outside the back door.
They’re in, they just let it outside and it barks all the time. From the tone of the ineffectual “telling off” it gets occasionally they sound as fed up with it as i am, but it’s still their dog to sort out….

My dogs will bark briefly when somebody knocks at the door. Or if somebody comes in the back gate. Maude 15 -30 seconds? But if you time how many barks are in that then it's quite easy to reach 100 barks/yaps in just the morning despite it being confined to specific and very brief interludes. My pug can squeeze in 20 yaps in the time it takes my rotty to huff out 3.

You should go and live in a detached house miles away from people then. Otherwise accept that people and their animals make noise and get on with your life with some loop ear plugs and white noise in the baritone

@WitchyBits maybe it is you who should go and live miles away from anyone so then your yappy dogs can make as much antisocial and nuisance noise as they like, since you can't be arsed to train them

@User06489

My dogs are absolutely welcome to bark when there is somebody at my door or in my garden and I would never be so silly as to expect my neighbours to value my wish for silence over their right to go ahead and live their lives as they wish. They are not breaking any rules by having dogs that bark to alert to a visitor or the mail etc. I can imagine you hate bbqs and children playing in their own gardens too. Unless they are silent of course. How very uncouth of the local plebs to ruin your wish for quiet. Hope very dare they 😂🙄

Just a dog, doing its job.

She doesn’t need to. She can just phone the council and they will warn the owner….

Totally agree!!

www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/dogs/training

The dog does need training, are they taking it to dog training lessons? We have a very woofy breed (Samoyed) and we're trained her to not bark for early morning wee in the garden as many people are sleeping still. She woofs at the door which we don't mind (detached house), but guests coming in were still working on ... she's soooo excitable! It usually takes the person to not interact til she's quiet but this is dependent on the person who often wants to fuss her lol 😂
She is an assistance dog in training too (nearly there!) and when she has her 'uniform' on she's a dream so it can be done - just takes time and effort so
Maybe talk to them - Dogs Trust do training and it's not that expensive from memory

We should swap and you come and live next to my neighbours whose dog goes barking nuts when their muzak blasts at full volume across the gardens 10am to 10pm. You'll love each other.

Having said that, the award for prize knob is free for you to claim, as even their lot have stopped the music and the dog from barking (a bonus) since I complained.

Another neighbour parked their car streets away when it had a faulty alarm, as I couldn't sleep after my night shifts.

It's pretty rough here with half-way houses, HMOs, problem tenants, language barriers and anti-social behaviour. Could be worse, I could be living next to an entitled-arse Mumsnetter... 🤷

It's a rescue...from Romania. The dog is bound to be incredibly stressed and exhibit all sorts of behavioural issues. It's very different to having a 'woofy breed' tbh.

It can take years for dogs to recover from awful experiences as puppies. OP's neighbour is not going to be able to turn this around quickly - particularly if she needs to leave the puppy every now and then (it likely has severe SA given it's past).

Love all these lazy dog owners who have come along to defend 😄

And no, dogs don’t just bark and the rest of us should just tolerate it. Badly trained dogs bark because their owners have done sod all to put the work in with them in the first place and too many owners know that they can get away with murder because nobody wants to complain to the Council and have to declare it when moving.