Barking dogs - what’s reasonable?

[Newmeagain]

I live in a terrace house and neighbours have always been pretty quiet. But one side recently got a dog. It was quiet as a puppy but now has a really loud bark. I know dogs bark and sometimes there is not much to be done about it.

But recently it’s been barking late at night (11 pm, midnight, 1 am) and early in the morning (6.30 am). It’s sustained loud barking for 5 to 10 minutes. I am completely shattered as it wakes me up even if I wear ear plugs.

is this normal for a dog?

Wasn't normal in our house - my dog would bark at environmental changes, like a knock on the door, or a dog walking by the window, but otherwise didn't bark. I'm wondering what's setting it off at 1am. Maybe they're shutting it away and it isn't happy.

Not normal for my dog, he’d only be barking at midnight if there was someone trying to get into our house!

If you check your council website they will have a section around noise control and what is reportable and with dogs it'll tell you what they view as anti social for a dog barking. Barking late in the night will be classed as anti social noise

No, it's not usual.
We have two dogs who start to whinge when it begins to get light (note to self: sort out blackout blind for kitchen) but the neighbours can't hear them.
They also bark briefly (WOOF WOOF woof! Wuff! Wuff!) when let out for their first wee at about 6.30/7 weekdays and a bit later at weekends.

Other than that, they only bark when someone come to the house (they don't bother with the postman, or anyone very familiar to them) or if there is wildlife in the garden.

That is fairly normal barking. Sustained barking at antisocial hours needs either a chat to the neighbour, or a call to environmental health.

My dog will bark late at night if she sees a fox or cat through the window. Pulling down the blinds solves this.

This actually isn’t the case, it still has to be prolonged. 5-10 minutes will not meet the threshold, regardless of what time it is. We had a battle with the council over this years ago and the bottom line was that it has to be basically non stop.

That's unusual I'd say. Because most dogs will be asleep in the night.

Is the dog outside when it's barking? If so I would wonder if it is having some health issues and needing to go out at unusual hours. It would then likely be barking at stuff outside.

If inside, I don't know, something must be going on in the house. Could it be something in the next house along, waking the dog?

The quickest way to find out is probably ask the neighbour.

Thank you all. I am going to wait a little while and if it does not improve I will speak to the neighbour.

what is upsetting is that if it was my dog I would have already messaged/spoken to my neighbours to apologise…

No, that's not normal, and even if it was 'normal' behaviour it is still unacceptable.

Nope, not normal. My dad’s dogs may bark once or twice when they go out for a pee in the morning, but that’s it. There’s no way he would let them bark continuously for 5-10 minutes. He stands there whilst they pee and brings them straight in.

Sounds like our neighbours and their lockdown puppy, who was let out and left to bark at ridiculous times. That was until they did it at 2:30am and woke me up. I went out and tore strips off them, much to the amusement of some of our other neighbours who broke out with a round of applause! Turned out everyone was sick of it. Never happened again.

Dogs do bark, its normal for a dog to bark if startled, lonely, bored...

It isn't normal for a dog to bark if all their needs are being met, and they've been trained to ignore various noises etc, if they feel secure and safe, except perhaps in play/excitement...

I find a lot of people still believe they should shut a dog away at night and ignore any crying/barking, which then means the neighbours need to put up with it too. It isn't necessary, thats total bollocks, but some folk really like to cling to the old fashioned methods (or just know no better and see no reason to seek out more up to date information).

Speak to your neighbour, as if they are aware it is an issue and want to resolve it, then they can be pointed in the right direction for help (suggest FB group Dog Training Advice and Support - there are several groups of the same name but the one you want has a HUGE following, 100's of thousands - its free and contains a ton of modern, effective training resources, and its run by trainers/behaviourist/vets).

If they aren't aware/don't care... then keep a diary of the noise and make a complaint.

Local authorities consider prolonged barking/howling (so more than a couple of minutes really) between 11pm and 7 or 8am to be a nuisance - they're less likely to respond if the issue is random single barks or a couple of barks then silence for hours, even if those barks are in the middle of the night.

Some go through a bit of a stage for a few weeks. How long has it been going on for?

It’s probably something the dog hears that’s sets them off. 5-10 mins is nothing, although a pisser when you’re bringing woken up. When the barking goes on for hours is the time to report it. The council will (after you’ve filled in many noise diaries) give you a machine where you press the button every time the dog barks. If the dog continues to bark the dog will be taken from them …. If it gets any worse, I mean like barks for an hour at least, I’d have a word with the neighbours first.

Every few months something (I suspect deer) will make my dog bark in the night, but it's only a couple of barks before I tell him enough and to be quiet. If he doesn't shut up when I tell him (if the deer is really exciting!), I get up to settle him. I don't think he's ever barked, night or day, for 5-10 mins.

Now I’m paranoid you might be my neighbour. Our house backs onto woods and the noise of the foxes and other animals sets our dog off sometimes when she goes out for a wee. We get her in as quick as we can when she starts though as I’m always conscious of disturbing neighbours.

I have very well behaved dogs but at 2am last night there was an orgy of fox fucking outside, like proper 3 or 4 females screeching
my dogs went NUTSO and woke me up
I got them quiet in a minute but all the other dogs in the neighbourhood were going crazy

so it could be a fox orgy?

And the only other time (at 3am last year) I literally couldn’t calm them, they refused to stop barking so I opened the bedroom door and they all ran downstairs

somrone trying to break in !

and when I say I couldn’t calm them it was appreciably different, they weren’t even looking at me and they flew to the front door

I went outside and I heard people running up the street away (and my gate banged)

My dogs are dickheads bless them, but I have the blinds down and put classical music on for them to drown out the neighbourhood noises that set them off. I’m paranoid someone one report them to the council, but even they would only bark for 30seconds - a minute before they settled down again. I’d go and knock, maybe take some treats or something if you don’t want it to come across as hostile in the first instance.

They need to get it trained to stop being so reactive. Not fair on you at all

Good dogs!!!

I have to say I don’t tell mine off for barking if someone sets them off at night. I like pep skulking around at night to know where the big dogs live 😀

We have pugs, I like to pull the door too when delivery men knock so they hear the scary barking but can’t see that they would just lick them to death 😂

I think it also depends on the breed, some breeds are more prone to barking than others, and some have louder barks than others.
I have a dog and all of the houses around me also have dogs and they all seem to react to various things. I find it comforting to hear the neighbours dogs bark because I think they are all protecting our properties.
But it must be very hard if you find the sound irritating.

Clever dogs! An old neighbours dogs barked at burglars but because they're always so barky no-one realised there was anything untoward til the next morning...

I wouldn’t be able to settle knowing a dog is distressed like that. I would knock on and speak to them and voice it as you wanted to check everything was ok as you were concerned for the dog rather than being annoyed at the noise.

No, that's not normal. Let your neighbours know that they need to have their dog trained - there is specialist training for over-reactive dogs.