Neighbour's dog barking

[User019876]

Hello, neighbour has adopted a six-month old rescue dog from Romania. It's three months on and I'm concerned the barking is becoming a real problem. Have kept a diary today what do people think? It's likely to carry on like this until 10pm. Don't want to put in a formal complaint but am I reasonable to start contacting the neighbour to better train their dog?

08:02 - one bark
08:31 - two barks
08:34 - one bark
08:36 - five barks
08:53 - four barks
08:57 - one bark
09:10 - sixteen barks
12:34 - four barks
13:30 - twenty-eight barks
13:54 - four barks
14:52 - nineteen barks
16:25 - two barks
16:26 - five barks
16:32 - two barks
16:34 - three barks
16:35 - two barks
16:37 - one bark
16:39 - one bark
16:43 - two barks
16:46 - two barks
16:47 - one bark
16:52 - two barks
16:54 - twelve barks
16:59 - one bark
18:14 - nine barks
18:15 - six barks
18:17 - one bark
18:18 - five barks
18:53 - one bark
18:54 - five barks
19:04 - eleven barks
19:06 - twenty-three barks
19:11 - fifty-three barks
19:13 - 100+ barks until 19:17
19:19 - 50+ barks until 19:22
19:33 - two barks
19:47 - three barks
19:49 - one bark
20:00 - three barks

Have you literally just sat counting individual barks and clock watching all day?

Have you done anything else today apart from tally up 400+ barks? If it’s bothering you, speak to your neighbour, but obsessively tallying up barks (I can’t imagine sitting there counting 53 individual barks) makes it sound like you need to get out more.

It would have taken less effort to speak to the neighbour than it would to have wasted a whole day counting barks

That’s a lot though. Speak up now before it gets worse

Should have mentioned me and the other neighbour on the other side agreed to keep a diary all this week and intend to go round together on Sunday. Neighbour already spoke to dog owner and she just shrugged and said well dogs bark.
Lucky I can multi-task so did this whilst working from home 🤠

I think perhaps you're the one who's barking 😂.

Alll joking aside it sounds bloody annoying, hopefully they can do something about it!

So you used 45 mins of your employer’s time to count barks?

@WetBandits 100%! my employer has taken far more of my free time than I care to consider, including evenings, weekends and annual leave time. But that's for another thread 😂

You are barking mad, counting dog barks lol

Well yes, sounds like poor time management and lack of boundaries so a whole other thread indeed 🙂

Dogs barking continuously is annoying, everyone knows that, just speak to your neighbour and stop counting barks.

Yeah it sucks ☹️ but the diary is kept in case things need to escalate to environmental health (worst case scenario)

In the spirit of the post OP, you are definitely not being unreasonable to approach the owner, and the fact that her other neighbour feels the same way, says there's a real problem here. Go and talk to her, and see what she says, but if she's not prepared to take action, be prepared to move house, as people who don't care to stop dogs barking, are not the sort to give two hoots about how much it's driving you crazy, so the chances of you getting them to stop it, are pretty slim I'm afraid.

A diary is a good idea, individual barks is really OTT

Thank you appreciate your reply. I think you are right 😔

The hour between 7pm-8pm is an unreasonable amount of barking for you to have to listen to, as is 28 barks at 1.30pm. A good dog owner should be reasonably trying to get the dog not to have fits of barking. But I'm not sure the point in recording a singular bark? I'm actually quite impressed that the dog has the ability to bark just once! My dog is more the woof-woof-woof kind!

@MissingKitty how would you capture it, change it to the time and put 2 seconds? Not capture individual barks? I need to capture everything. Some people would say individual barks are not a problem it's just hours of consistent barking that matters

@Singlemumtoadog If I don't capture the individual barks it looks like hardly any barking and there wouldn't be really any problem to address

It's really hard to see how your neighbour would address one bark. Periods of ongoing barking yes are unreasonable and could be addressed but one bark it's hard to figure out what she is actually supposed to do about the one off times.

My dog barks. I wish he wouldn't and I am paranoid about being reported. I try to minimise it as much as I can but I cannot eliminate a one off bark. Even if my 'quiet' command was 100% effective (which unfortunately it really isn't) he'd have to bark once for me to know to tell him to be quiet IYSWIM.

I keep mine away from the front door and windows to stop him barking at passersby, leave the radio on low to reduce him reacting to noises outside/ next door and I do not let him out in the garden in the early morning or late at night. I have never left him for long periods barking and he doesn't have separation anxiety so he doesn't do that anyway but he is territorial and he alert barks and demand barks and he barks when he is eg excited to go out and those are hard to completely eliminate.

i don’t think anyone is going to take some of this seriously, sorry. One bark? Two barks? Oh come on. Even the more sustained barking is for two short periods of just a few minutes.

What would you like to happen next?

(Dog barking is annoying... but they don't come with an off switch or a mute button. Training takes time. What can you or your neighbour actually do for you?)

I think keeping a record was a smart idea. You can then actually see whether it's an issue or not. To me it looks like excessive barking from the dog.

Do you know why the dog is barking all day?

@User019876 what do you think your neighbour should do?? the dog is fed and watered and has shelter during the day and night so nothing illegal. try going into the office instead of wfh and writing down rubbish information about your neighbours dog! remember, the dog is romanian so it wont even understand what she is saying!!! 😆

Thank you so much. But seems like mixed response on whether this could be considered excessive or not.

hello, I think she should train the dog