Ask next door neighbours to take their bins out before 11pm?

[Nowthatshuge]

i suspect I probably am being unreasonable but wanted peoples thoughts on whether I should make a friendly request to my neighbours..
they seem to wait until gone 11pm each week to drag their bins down the alleyway between our terraced houses. The issue is (and I think this is where I’m being unreasonable) is that it makes my dogs bark because it’s quite loud and that wakes me and my kids up.

i guess the solution would be to somehow train my dogs not to bark but I A - don’t know how and B - kind of want them to alert me to something that sounds so close to the house.
They’re not particularly barky dogs in general.
we’re on good terms, would I seem like a complete arse if I just asked them if there’s any way they could but their bins out any earlier? They have two primary aged kids so I assume they wait until they are in bed etc

Could you offer to put it out earlier for them to save them the inconvenience?

The problem is more with your dogs rather than your neighbours - I assume the noise or the bins wouldn’t wake you up if the dogs didn’t bark?

You can’t expect people to rearrange their lives because you have dogs.

I definitely would but our bins are in the back garden behind locked gates.
thanks for the suggestion though.
if it’s relevant, we live in a village so it’s generally pretty quiet, nobody is used to noise after about 9pm I don’t think 😂

That’s kind of what I thought myself tbf. I’m very surprised their two, far yappier dogs than mine, don’t wake their house up

No you can't ask them to do that . Your problem is your dogs . How about on bin night put dogs somewhere else .

Way too late. Yanbu

Also, yeah the noise of the bins could for sure wake someone up if you weren’t in a deep sleep but ultimately it’s my dog barking (only one of them actually barks thinking about it) and it lasts about 20 seconds. Think I’m just feeling a bit peeved (not with the neighbours) that I’d just dropped into a lovely sleep

How loud can a couple of bins being wheeled down an alleyway be if it wakes up your children and your dogs? Maybe they eat later and are waiting to put them out once they've tidied up for the night. Unless they are mega loud and whistling "My Old Man's a Dustman" while doing it, I can't see what they are doing wrong. They're probably rounding up the last of their rubbish before they go to bed. And it sounds like your dogs barking are waking you up and that's definitely not their problem.

Yabvu, do not say anything else youll make life awkward

Yabu

your barky dogs are your problem

In some ways I do sympathise but in your case, its your dogs waking you- not their bin noise. Could you close doors near their side so the dogs are less likely to hear them?

When renovating, we lived in a caravan which was sat along the fence line. I soon learnt that my neighbours also waited till after 11pm to do their bins. Firstly, they'd loudly tap out what I assume is their food caddy, then roll the bins along their cobbled drive way. I wear ear plugs to sleep and it woke me every week 😡

You can always ask, the worst they could say is no, surely?

I'd ask but I'd be happy to accept whatever answer they gave and not make a big deal out of it. At the end of the day it's your dogs that are barking, if the neighbours were understanding they might collaborate with you on an earlier bin run.

There are a few ways to train your dogs not to bark. We have always had big, barking, howling dogs so have taken noise reducing training very seriously. Depending on the cause of the noise, we taught them to "speak" when they were howling or barking by giving the command to speak and rewarding with a treat, and when they stopped we would say "be quiet" and reward that. We would work with a known trigger like a squeaky toy daily. Teaching be quiet is a reactive method though and it doesn't stop them from being triggered. You need to work with them during their trigger moments.

You want to sit with them while they are experiencing the trigger and teach them to go to bed when they hear the trigger and only reward them when they are laid down and quiet every time without a verbal command and just as a reaction to the noise. Bit hard when it's just once a week. Really needs to be taught regularly so they have plenty of opportunity to learn what behaviour is expected of them.

Yup, fair enough and I know that’s the case.
they are nice, generally considerate neighbours and I absolutely don’t feel entitled that they should work round me, was more putting the feelers out how people would feel if a neighbour asked about the bin wheeling timing but the general consensus is they’d be miffed so I’ll leave it, no drama

Thanks, that’s useful re the training. The dog who barks was terrible when we got her so I’ve worked hard to reduce it a lot, for instance I don’t let them bark in the garden despite other dog barking at them through the fence so they do have a pretty high tolerance before they retaliate but they know as soon I hear them bark in the garden they have to go at straight back in the house.

Then learn how. Your problem.

Personally, I'm sick of being barked at by loud hairy idiots just for having the audacity to move around and near my own property, whatever time it is.

Because of your dogs?
No.

to answer your question sorry, yeah I have no expectation from them to change around me, like you say I was thinking maybe there is no harm in politely asking but given the responses on here I think I’ll leave it as don’t want to come across as a whinger to them

The dogs are just doing their job, which is to guard the home.

You need earplugs on a bin night.

I’d ask but I’d phrase it as if I know they would be doing me an enormous favour if they’d consider accommodating me, and I’d say it was ok if they’d rather not.

They perhaps don’t even realise it's a problem and may not mind.

I don’t let my dogs bark at people moving around generally, their dogs bark at me through the fence if I step outside, I don’t have a problem with it.
it’s just the later hour and it is pretty loud tbf dragging a wheelie bin down an alleyway.
like I say, I’m don’t for a minute feel they ‘should’ do anything different, was just wondering if anyone would mind being asked if it wasn’t too inconvenient for them

This is what I was wondering 🤔 I know 100% if they thought it was waking me up they wouldn’t do it, they will be very much unaware

Do your dogs display high biddability? Will they focus on you if you have a toy or a treat or will they do tricks just for praise?

If they do, then I think it's always better to try and teach positive behaviours associated with triggers than removing them, because removing them doesn't stop the triggers.

Would your neighbours be mad if you ask if you could wheel their bin up and down while someone works with them to teach them some commands or just guides them to their bed on their leads and rewards them for paying attention to them, then laying down and making no noise? It's a weird ask but I know my neighbours would be fine if I asked them.

We start with our puppies just by using a treat in our hands to guide them to their bed, holding it in front of their nose, pulling our hand down to the ground and then pulling away from them in a line so they have to lower their elbows. The treat is released once they're laid down and stop trying to take the treat from our hands and instead just settle.

Count yourself lucky. My neighbours roll their bins up our mutual pathway at 1am after lobbing their empty bottles in the bin first.

I roll my bins out last thing too.

I have small kids. I wait until they are asleep and I've done the kitchen etc. It's the last thing I do, because that's how I choose to do it, and I don't see why I should have to change that if my neighbours had issues with their dogs, which woke them and potentially woke others up in the street as a result. I'd expect my neighbours to train their dogs better.

Also I note that it's one of your dogs waking you, not your neighbours'. That would suggest this is a "you" problem.

Thank you for taking the time to reply with this detail, I really appreciate it and will give it a go.