Just don't know how to tackle this neighbours dog

[Huffleruff]

We moved into our house last year. It's my childhood home, we were left it when my parents passed.
The neighbours are lovely people, they've known me all my life and they seem so glad to have us living in the street, they offer help, send us little gifts/cards etc.

But their dog is driving us crackers. It's a spaniel. It barks INCESSANTLY when they leave the house. Sometimes it's hours and hours of constant barking.

Today, they went out at 7:55 and haven't yet returned and the dog is still barking. As soon as they get back, he'll stop.
I actually feel bad for it, it must have separation issues or be bored and to be honest I very rarely see it being taken for a walk or out in the garden. When it is outside, they supervise it very closely and as soon as it's done, they take it back in immediately.
They have a grandchild who is petrified of it, I don't think it's a nasty dog, just a bit of a boisterous one. And when she visits it gets locked in one room and barks and barks and barks. Also if they go outside to do jobs, gardening etc, it's the same, barking solidly until they go back in.

What I mean is, they must know it's happeningif they can hear it when they're gardening. So what do I do? I really wouldn't want to alienate them, people often don't like to face a criticism do they and might be very defensive. But my gosh, I'm so over this constant noise.

This isn't okay for the dog, let alone for you. I think you do need to raise it with them and explain how distressed the dog is, and that you aren't a) comfortable with the distress it's experiencing b) happy with the noise disturbance. They need to make different life arrangements to accommodate the dogs needs, or buy in dog daycare or similar. I'm a dog owner and wouldn't dream of subjecting my neighbours to this. They might want to go down the route of a behaviourist as it does sound like the dog has some issues if it can't be shut in a room for an hour when a grandchild visits without losing the plot.

If the dog barks constantly when they are not there, then they are not there to know this. They may be aware it barks when they leave but may think it settles after a short while. The dog probably stops as they approach, so they don't hear it barking on their return, other than in excitement. Just tell them straight, but politely, that the dog barks constantly when they are out and that they may not be aware. You can hear it, and it bothers you, but you understand that if no one has mentioned it before, they may not be aware.

If they care, they will try and do something; if they don't do anything, then they don't care enough about the dog or your relationship, so keep that in mind when deciding your next move!

You have my sympathy. My previous neighbour had two large dogs which barked SO loudly!

I would broach it with them. I would rather know if my dog was barking incessantly when I leave so i could do something about it. Thankfully I know all he does is sleep because we have a camera!

I reckon the neighbours already knows that their dog barks incessantly when they aren't there. It also does it when it's put in a separate room during their grandchild's visits.

They may not realise it barks when they are not home, they may think it’s only when they’re home and frustrated about not being able to join in with what they are doing.
I would rather know if my dog barked continuously when left, so I would raise it by saying that you’ve noticed the dog is barking when left alone and it doesn’t settle until they are home, that you’re only mentioning it as you know how much they love it and would want to know if it was unhappy.
If they then continue to let it happen you know that they were aware all along and don’t care.

Report to the council. Every day until they take you seriously.. They will give you a form to document the noise.. Utter twats who let their ddogs suffer like this. Mentally well ddogs don't do this...

I think raise it with than. Your dog sounds distressed when you out. Is he/ she ok?

I think you need to raise it with them first.

We've got a dog, who is generally well behaved but prone to the zoomies once or twice a day (to non dog owners, this means 5-10 mins going mad once or twice a day). One occasion was when we let her out first thing, about 7-7.30. We honestly didn't realise it was upsetting our neighbour until he told us. Being the reasonable people we are, we changed it to one of us taking her out for a toilet walk or letting her have a zoomie at 9 ish which he was OK with.

MN hates dogs and dog owners with a passion...but most of us are actually reasonable people! If we're kind to animals we're generally kind to people too.

The same thing happened to me when I inherited my Mum's house - the only difference was that I hadn't grown up there and wasn't as close to the neighbours as you obviously are.
The barking was constant, 8am to 4pm, an absolute nightmare, and if we went into our garden the dog would keep launching itself at the dividing fence and snarling at us until we went back inside.
The neighbours knew what was going on - the dog was there for security because the DH works away a lot.
We didn't do anything for 6 months because we didn't want to cause a rift, but in the end we couldn't stand it any longer. We figured a rift was better than going insane and feeling like we were living in a prison.
DH and I spoke to them and luckily they were wiling to do something about it, so I would suggest you do that first, especially as you get on with them so well.
We were very polite and friendly and offered to pay for any re-training (which they declined). They asked us to message them whenever the dog was a problem. Several dozen (very polite) texts later, they got the message.
The wife is now a bit snippy with us but her DH is really friendly, so all good in the end. If they hadn't been willing to do anything, our next step was reporting it to the council.
Good luck. People who don't have to live next door to this sort of nightmare don't realise the impact it can have on your well-being.

Our neighbours dog did this, we told them. They had no idea as they were out. It stopped. Most dog owners are nice people and don’t want their dog upset, even those who are indifferent to the neighbours.

Tell them, they probably don't realise as they are not there! Ours howled when we went out
our neighbours told us and we bought a acamera that has a facility to inform us when he barks or howls, we can speak to him through the camera and it dispenses treats , no more howling.

Let them know, and don't say 'dog barks a bit', let them know exactly how long the dog barks for and what thats like, ie 'bark bark bark.. pause to listen for a response... bark bark bark...' repeat.. rather than a few woofs as they leave or in response to someone knocking on the door.

Tell them there are trainers who specialise in addressing separation related problems, this is typically done via online support sessions as there is no actual point visiting the owners home (as the problem occurs when no one is there, and no instant fix can be achieved merely by showing them a few desensitization exercise that can be explained via zoom/messenger) - addressing separation anxiety is likely to take months, not days, and it requires that the dog is not left to experience the anxiety, as each time this happens any prior work is undone!

Why do you think it's ok to leave a dog alone when you know it'll get distressed?
Additionally distressing your neighbours?

I'd gently tell them that their dog has started sounding distressed when they're out. They might be (naively/conveniently) telling themselves it's only barking when they put it in another room because it knows they're nearby. (My parents' dog barked outside and the neighbours told them so they had to act on it when I presume they should've guessed he might have been the case.)

If the neighbours don't do anything, then complain to the council. If you've framed it as the barking as recent, they are more likely to assume it could be another neighbour who's complained direct to the council.

Our neighbours, now thankfully moved, have a very barky spaniel. I think owners of barky dogs become somehow immune to the barking. Neighbours reported the barking to the dog warden. The neighbours had a visit from the warden about once a year but they always denied it was their dog.

You could try the dog warden, or report to the RSPCA anonymously. You have ny sympathy. I have an almost silent poodle, I would never get a spaniel.