How much barking is too much?

[KeepLosingThings]

One neighbour has a dog that barks in the garden, 4 times a day, about 2 mins each time, between 9am and 9pm.

Bark is very loud.

Houses are detached but close together

Other neighbour has a bit of a go and says this is causing significant mental distress.

Who is being unreasonable?

Will tell you later which neighbour I am, so these are at random:

YANBU - this is an unacceptable level of noise and it was fair to complain

YABU - this is an acceptable level of neighbourhood noise

Any barking is unreasonable. Both sets of my neighbours have dogs and they both have 2 dogs each, these dogs all 4 of them do nothing but bark from the second they are let out the back door until the second they go inside.

It is relentless, it is ear piercing and it sends me into sensory overload every single time.

Every single dog can and should be trained to NEVER bark unless someone is in danger or to protect their homes.

Sounds like you are one of my neighbours. Yappy little shit turned out to the garden , left alone, barks until it’s let back in. It is generally for more than 2 minutes, but having met the family, I think they are immune to it.It is amazing how penetrating that dogs bark is.

I love dogs, I have a dog. She doesn’t get to do that.

The dog owner is being unreasonable and a bad neighbour.

Edited to add ; don’t know if you are the dog owning neighbour or just another one who is disturbed by it.

4 times a day every single day loud barking each time?

the neighbour with the dog is entirely unreasonable and I’d report them as a noise nuisance

Maybe, but nobody in authority is going to do anything about it.

2 mins is a long time of continuous barking

Two minutes four times a day wouldn’t worry me unduly.

We have yappy dog opposite which barks whenever let out, and is shut out I assume because the barking is doing their heads in indoors, so being shut out can last 20mins- 2 hours

We have big dog which lives somewhere down the street but is let out in the evening every night for about an hour, and barks loud and low every night usually between about 11pm and midnight.

We have the duo of yappy ones two doors down who yap at passersby whenever anyone goes past.

The locked out ones who live in the outhouse in the garden and bark all night long, no complaints will register there as there are rarely any people in the house to complain to.

The one next door who isn’t very barky but its owners holler its name out the back door at a million decibels whenever they want it in or out which is just as disruptive.

There is always one or the other barking.

You need to bring your dog in as soon as it starts barking, loud dog barks really go through you.

I couldn't care less about a bit of barking - it's just normal neighbour noise.

It would be different if it was constant throughout the day or night, but 8 minutes is nothing.

@KeepLosingThings

Other neighbour has a bit of a go and says this is causing significant mental distress.

Sorry but anyone who claims a dog barking a few times a day is causing them "significant mental distress" needs a hobby.

People who affect "mental distress" from ambient noise from the neighbours or whatever need either to move somewhere without neighbours or to get help with this. And they quite often turn into professional nuisance neighbours who are constantly waiting for the next minor infraction to jump onto and have a go about.

If it were round the clock it would be one thing but this is manageable.

On MN I find that one woof a day is a woof too much. Literally some people don't have a second of tolerance for a dog. My ex-neighbours used to have up to 12 dogs in their 30x30 garden any given day - they were dog walkers - and they'd bark for between 8 and 12 hours a day, only punctuated by their staff telling the dogs to shut up. They also regularly took in a dog to be looked after, shut the door then when the owner drove off, so did they - went out for the day left the dog being "dog sat" indoors alone. One day it started at 5am.

My dog was the sort to have a bark every time the postman arrived, hated the window cleaner etc., but was otherwise quiet. They complained to every neighbour who would listen about this, screamed "SHUT UP" out the window etc. So yeah I have limited sympathy for people complaining about dogs. What you describe might not be ideal, but it wouldn't bother me. But dogs (or any animal) being shut out or neglected, that would trouble me a lot.

We have a delusional and entitled neighbour who thinks their horrible yappy little dog, which does its high pitched yapping all day from sunrise to sunset, isn't annoying anyone and the rest of us are unreasonable and intolerant snowflakes when we politely ask if it could be quietened down.

I'm sure the owner will say it's just a few minutes a day but it's a lot more. It yaps at cats, at birds, if a car goes past, or just because it's an annoying little cunt who likes to yap. Today it started at 8.11am and there have been more than a dozen instances of it standing in the garden making it's stupid, annoying noise so far today.

It drives me mad.

Is it really limited to 2 minutes?

The issue is really that it’s throughout the day, it would feel like it’s constant and intrusive. Would be very annoying to live next to. Even more so if you ever feel poorly and want to rest

It’s hardly excessive.

Sounds ok to me , I wish the teenagers in the garden that backs onto ours were only noisy for 2 minutes four times a day , they make infinitely more noise than the small children next door .

I wouldn't care or consider it excessive. There's a kid near me whose parents let them have a whistle, which is extremely loud and very annoying, but they obviously make a definite effort to limit it to ten minutes a day after school which I think is very considerate of them so I cannot get worked up about it.

The people who live somewhere near and shut a dog in the garden at 11pm and leave it out there barking constantly til after midnight, on the other hand...

Two minutes is a long time to bark without being stopped by the owner. I'd expect a responsible dog owner to be out there immediately the dog barks. Whereas this is clearly an owner who doesn't bother and just waits for the dog to stop.

The neighbour objecting is reasonable, as four times a day is clearly lazy ownership.

My previous neighbour thought it was reasonable for her dog to bark for 5 mins every morning on being let out at dawn as well as a few times a day whenever anyone walked past (including mail and delivery men). She didn't realise that it was an hour or more of distressed howling every time she left. Dogs need training. Just because someone who owns a dog doesn't think it is annoying doesn't mean it doesn't annoy the hell out of everyone else. Same principle as children really.

Also is it really 2 minutes because I feel the dog owner is likely slightly bark blind so it’s likely more than 2 minutes maybe closer to 5.

Though if it really is just 2 minutes and your the owner and you know it is 2 minutes that also means your willingly letting it bark for 2 minutes straight. Which is not very neighbourly either. That’s not a woof woof post man or woof woof, ok snoopy that’s enough in now. That’s letting it bark and bark.

Significant mental distress, how absolutely ridiculous. It may well be very annoying or even maybe upsetting if you’re more delicate, but 8 minutes a day isn’t enough to warrant such melodrama.
With that being said, if the dog owner is doing literally nothing with regards to the dog barking every single time it goes outside, that is undoubtedly unreasonable behaviour. My dogs will bark here and there, they’re told to zip it and if they persist, they come back in. Even I find the sound of their barking annoying and I adore the little dipshits.

8 minutes in a day isn't unreasonable

I’d care.

Nexts doors dog barks at 6am every morning when it is let out into the garden. Just one or two barks. Those 2 barks upset me so much because I don’t need to be awake until 7am!

It barks on and off through the day and it barely bothers me at all. Dogs do bark. Mine does sometimes (not nearly as much as theirs). So for me it’s not duration but the time of day.

A couple of minutes is t the end of the world. Mine have a little Yapp and I do tell them to stop…at least I am trying with mine…dogs bark - nature!

I’m sure dog owners will say it’s fine but as a non dog owner who lives next door to similar, and the owners do nothing to stop the dog or bring it inside, it is far too much.
Find a YouTube track of a dog barking and play it for two minutes and see what you think.

You must live next door to me.