Neighbours dog woke me up - got told it's my fault for having my windows open??

[Sophiehoney]

My neighbours are a retired couple with a very barky dog.
They walk it around our street several times a day, the last walk is around midnight, presumably before they go to bed.
It's very barky and barks all the time on walks, at what? God knows. But I hear it most nights.

Last night it took me ages to fall asleep due to the heat. At 12:15am, just as I was managing to drift off, right in that comfortable place between sleep and awake, it starts right outside my house - BARK BARK BARK BARK. So fucking loud!

I was hot, tired and really pissed off at being jerked awake and I got out of bed, stormed across the room and slammed the windows shut.

I was so annoyed and so hot that it took me until 2am to fall asleep again, and it was a terible sleep in this heat. I get up at 6am and have a full day of work ahead of me.

At 8:15 this morning, as I was leaving with the kids, neighbour comes out of his house with barky-arse dog, barking as usual and I asked him, as politely as I could if he could please do something about the noise at night because it's disturbing us.

He gave a little chuckle and said "well, keep your windows shut, then you won't have to slam them closed" and started to walk away.

I was gobsmacked for a second but then called after him "I shouldn't have to - it was 31° last night, you need to train your dog!" And he just waved a dismissive hand and walked off.

Did I have a right to complain?!

It's a shame really isn't it that he knew he might bump into you and that was his approach. I bet if he'd come over and apologised for his dog disturbing you and assured you he'd try and keep the dog quiet, you'd be happier to put up with some noise.

I wouldn't be happy but I'd be more tolerant and understanding. At least for a reasonable amount of time 😄

Now that was witty. 🤣

Slight detail... Hope you don't mind op. It may help some people..
So I reported ndn. He was sent a letter which included 2 A4 sheets about caring for your ddog and the management of it's behaviour.. ie barking.. Now the council sent me a copy.

Which I will be photocopying at my earliest convenience and sending it with stamp to the fucker down the street. Who's big huge barky fucker was at it from 6.30 until gone 11pm.. Throwing itself at the fence at passers by...
If they think a neighbour is onto them they may gag it /sell it /give it away. I don't care which option they choose tbh..
*obviously not gagged literally..
Must be something similar to download and print off online?

I’ve had this on Sunday and Monday. Big dog put out in back garden barking non stop from about 11pm each night. Not really that warm here but it was humid. Gave up and shut the bedroom windows at 1.30am and 1am. Windows closed last night as it was ok with them shut!

This isn't fair. I have a dog and admittedly he doesn't bark, but if he did I would not be allowing him to bark at night outside someone's window. I would be training him!
My neighbour implied similar the other week - her brat was shouting Nannyyyyyyyyyyyyy at 6:15 on a work day, and I was furious. I am tempted to do the same right when I know it's bedtime but I would disturb the other nicer neighbours.

I agree with everything else you've complained about, but that's a ridiculous assumption. I'm often up until midnight and I get up at 5am. I rarely have naps in the day time. Don't assume unless you actually know!

@ssd these are the ones. I have mine for over a year now and they are so useful. Always take them on holiday as well in case of late night noise.
https://www.loopearplugs.com/products/quiet?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_id=19583483163&utm_campaign=&utm_content=176130129578&utm_term=loop%20quiet&gadid=733401039585&cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=19583483163&cq_con=176130129578&cq_term=loop%20quiet&cq_med=&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_plt=gp&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19583483163&gbraid=0AAAAACj0PVy7dXFlTRjVfpj1Se5QR6bWq&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIju_zv_-djgMVGppQBh2YRRgXEAAYASAAEgJORPD_BwE&country=GB

I’ve got these, and to be honest I’m a bit disappointed in them. The help a bit but I don’t find them noticeably better than Quies foam ones.

Some Dog owners think more of their dog than some humans!

I’m can’t use earplugs at all as I have 24/7 extremely loud tinnitus in both ears so putting anything in my ears makes it sound louder ( the tinnitus that is). And I’m moderately deaf in both ears in the midranges unfortunately not the lower ranges which is what this dogs barking would be in😢

Obviously anyone walking their dog and letting them bark at midnight is a total cunt. YANBU

I apologise for the assumptions about napping during the day.
I was just frustrated that because he is retired, he can nap during the day if he wants to so he doesn't need to worry about a lack of sleep at night, so thinks he can wake up the whole street who are working or going to school, including my son who a few weeks ago was in the middle of his GCSEs.
I am so exhausted from the lack of sleep these past few nights due to both the heat and my inconsiderate neighbours that I am almost falling asleep at my desk. I am tempted to ask to go home.
So while I shouldn't have made such assumptions, it came from a place of anger and frustration.

UPDATE: I decided to call the council and complain. They told me I am not the only one and several other neighbours have also complained. They sent me diary sheets to fill in but I was able to use my ring doorbell footage to backdate them three weeks so I didn't need to fill them in and wait all that time for them to do something. Yippee. I sincerely hope they do something.

Does anyone have any experience of what councils will do?

If I lived near people and had my windows open I think that I would wear earplugs. I struggle with noise when we are away as we don’t hear a sound where we are (apart from birds). This would really annoy me.

uneducated dogs.

😂 How do you know about this dogs level of education? He could have an MA.

That's great. Hopefully they can wipe the chuckle from his face!

Maybe that's why he's barking so much.
He's boasting about his qualifications.

He wasn’t sharp witted. He was arrogant, dismissive and selfish. Strange you think that’s such a heroic thing. Maybe a fellow inconsiderate and entitled dog owner?

The very first sentence of the OP says retired couple 🤦‍♀️

How long was the dog barking for at 12.15am? I think that matters, because if it was because the dog needed to for a wee and it was barking for a minute or less, than you're being a little unreasonable. If it was barking for like 20 minutes or more with no intervention (for an example), and this is a frequent issue, then you are being reasonable.

Invest in a super soaker- every time the dog barks, take aim and soak the arsehole neighbour. He’ll eventually get the message.

poor you, OP! You have my sympathy. We have selfish arseholes like this next door. Two barking huge bastarding dogs that were never trained properly and bark incessantly insight of the house and out (we’re in terrace). We were polite, impolite, makes no bloody difference. Made our lives in our once happy home utterly miserable. I find Dog owners like this are so selfish and anti social. My friend had two barking Jack Russell’s, trained them not to bark in 3 days. So I don’t accept excuses of ‘barky dogs’ it’s just an excuse for lack of training and responsibility.

Sorry OP but I put YABU. Why?

100% the guy was wrong and barking at midnight is not okay. But your reaction was never going to solve the problem and only antagonise the situation no matter how right you were.

So you are where you are because you acted like a child.

I agree, particularly because the dog is barking while being walked. Why haven’t they trained their dog to stop that? They sound irresponsible and inconsiderate. This would really annoy me.