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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

DH is gonna flip but did I do the right thing?

31 replies

Lovemyshoes · 04/06/2009 23:44

I've made a formal complaint about the neighbours dog to the council.

I am FED up of it barking at 7 in the morning and up to 10 at night.

He is a lovely lovely dog and of a breed that needs ALOT of walking but gets exercised 4 times a month at most.

It has got so bad my dc won't even play in their own garden because of the noise and yesterday it was scaring them as he was biting through the fence and ripping shreds off to get to them, all for attention the poor thing.

The dog in question has a unique bark and when my neighbour came over to collect her son yesterday mentioned 'that bloody dog' barking all the time, so I know it's not just me.

OP posts:

paisleyleaf · 04/06/2009 23:47

YANBU
look at it that it will hopefully be kinder to the dog for the owners to be made aware of a problem

ChippingIn · 04/06/2009 23:49

I can understand your frustration.

Do they work? Could you take the dog out for a walk in the day (assuming you're a SAHM) or just let it come in the garden to play for a while? I know it's not your dog and not your responsibility - but if it makes it a bit happier....

Original poster

Lovemyshoes · 04/06/2009 23:49

thank you. I spoke to someone on the weekend who used to work with animals and from what I described she said that he sounds very stressed and unhappy.

He is such a lovely, beautiful dog and I would be happy to have him as part of our family.

OP posts:

TheCrackFox · 04/06/2009 23:51

YANBU.

Any dog, no matter what breed, needs walked 2/3 times a day. They are being cruel as well as anti-social.

Sazisi · 04/06/2009 23:53

I think I'd have called rspca instead; he sounds neglected

Original poster

Lovemyshoes · 04/06/2009 23:54

He has a Kennel, fresh water and food, but, that is it. I used to put my hand through the railings to stroke him and talk to him and the neighbours found out and blocked it off.

OP posts:

Doodle2U · 04/06/2009 23:55

YANBU and I hope that the council getting involved might prompt your neighbours to treat the dog more appropriately.

I've a suspicion though, that the Noise Brigade only get involved if the noise is between 11.00pm and 7.00am and certain decibel levels are achieved. You may have to follow up with a call to the Dog Warden or RSPCA.

hedgepig · 04/06/2009 23:55

YANBU I have the same problem my neighbour has 3 dogs (plus one more when her DP visits) and every time I go outside they bark. It drives me crazy and is one of the reasons we are looking t move. They are aa nice family but need to exercise their dogs, grrrr

MrsBonJovi · 04/06/2009 23:58

Sorry but I think RSPCA will be more use than council.

Claire2009 · 05/06/2009 00:01

The council will no doubt advise you to call Rspca, there's not a lot they can do other than ask the neighbours to sort it out because the noise levels are unreasonable.

ChippingIn · 05/06/2009 00:02

Are you sure 'the neighbours found out and blocked the hole' rather than 'the neighbours saw a hole and blocked it up'??

Could you not just knock and say that your children would love to have a dog but you don't want that much commitment - so is there any chance you could take theirs for a walk...

Nekabu · 05/06/2009 06:39

I agree with ChippingIn. They might be overjoyed to have an offer of exercise for him

Littlefish · 05/06/2009 06:55

I once phoned the RSPCA about a dog next door. The dog was a rotweiller. He was kept in a cage with a kennel inside, with fresh water and food, but never walked or even let out of the cage. The one time he was let out, he broke down the fence to the garden next door. The RSPCA said that as he had shelter, food and water, there was nothing they could do about the fact that he wasn't being walked .

MrsMellowdrummer · 05/06/2009 08:32

We had a similar problem with two boxers belonging to our neighbours. They were never walked - barked madly whenever we spent time in our garden, and on several occasions leapt the fence and behaved aggressively. My son was unable to play in the garden (aged 2) for a whole year, and they regularly caused substantial damage to our garden.

I went to the CIB for advice, and was basically told the same as Littefish - that as long as they had water and shelter outside (they did), there was no grounds for complaint. It seems there is no onus on the owner to prevent their animals escaping into a neighbour's garden, behaving aggressively and causing damage. I was truly shocked! And very relieved when the neighbours moved.

melmog · 06/06/2009 06:46

In the RSPCA's defence, as a charity they can ony work with the law and have no powers to make owners walk dogs. Things have changed recently with a new animal welfare law so it may be worth a call now to see if they can help.
It certainly used to be the case that if a dog was fit and healthy, had food, water and shelter their hands were tied though.

yanbu to call about the noise but you may find you have to keep some sort of a diary and possibly your neighbours the other side of the dog too, so they can see how bad it is and at what times.

Fingers crossed you get somewhere.

NooNoo5 · 06/06/2009 12:07

I did call the RSPCA on a neighbour (when I was a teenager at parents house). They left the dog morning until night in a small back garden. I was very upseting to listen to it. Of course, the dog barked all the time, it was bored, frustrated etc. The RSPCA made an initial visit and gave them a warning. The cruelty continued and I called again, this time, they took the dog away. The neighbours never knew it was me that complained. The RSPCA were very discreet. Subsequently, I did find out that this person had been banned from having dogs but obviously they get through the net which is worrying.

Blondeshavemorefun · 06/06/2009 14:28

agree council prob cant/wont do anything

you need to contact rspca - sounds to me that dog is left alone too much and that cruelty

CherryChoc · 06/06/2009 14:34

Yes there is a new law - the Animal Welfare Act, it came into force in 2007 and it means owners must look after their animals properly, including enough exercise etc if appropriate. The RSPCA have the power to educate the owners and if necessary take the dog away.

Littlefish · 06/06/2009 17:19

That's interesting Melmog. I didn't know their powers had changed. I called them about 4 years ago, so your comments would make sense. Thanks for clarifying.

cat64 · 06/06/2009 17:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

BalloonSlayer · 06/06/2009 18:30

If it's of any interest, my sister lives in Australia and few people there walk dogs. Most dogs live in "the yard." Sister would often have a little pack of dogs who would escape and come for a walk with her and her dog. She found it endearing, as they could escape and go for a walk by themselves whenever they wanted to, but they wanted to go with someone else, as "a pack."

She thought walking dogs was perhaps a peculiarly British thing.

Lovemyshoes, the way you talk about wanting to have the dog in your family reminds me of that old joke, as follows:

Dog barks all night keeping the man and his wife next door awake night after night.

Eventually she nags him to do something so he gets up and goes next door.

When he gets back she says "Well? Did you tell him to get rid of it."

"I did better than that" he replies. "I bought the dog off him. Now see how he feels with it barking all night in our garden."

Badoom-tish

mckenzie · 06/06/2009 18:37

You can buy a 'thing' that you put in your garden (I think it has to be within 50 ft of the dog) that emits an apparently harmless but annoying noise that only the dog can hear. The idea being that eventually and quickly the dog gets fed up with hearing this horrid noise every time it barks and so stops. It doesn't solve the 'not being walked=cruelty' issue but might give you some peace. I am a total animal lover but sometimes I feel I could shoot the dog who barks incessantly near us. Like you, I really need to shoot the owners and give the dog a good home but that ain't gonna happen while I'm married to DH!

Nancy66 · 06/06/2009 19:07

Don't blame you at all but, have to warn you, that it's unlikely the council will do anything and the RSPCA won't want to know either.

Have same ongoing problem with our neighbours- been going on for six motherfucking years now and they have three dogs! They go out to work from 7.30am until 7pm and dogs are alone all day.

Council won't act because they didn't consider the barking to be bad enough - in their words it was 'frequent but not constant' - RSPCA also could not intervene unless the dogs are left for more than 24 hours.

chegirl · 06/06/2009 21:46

I used to work for RSPCA. Highly unlikely they will do anything if the dog is fed and sheltered.

YANBU.

I am a dog owner. If my dog barked all the time it would be becasue something was wrong. Happy, occupied dogs do not bark all the time.

All dogs bark some of the time but to be constantly barking is a sign of stress.

Merrylegs · 06/06/2009 22:07

YANBU.

God I really sympathise.

Next door neighbour used to let her dog out in the garden around 6.30 am for it to bark (non stop)for an hour. Then she went to work and left it in the house all day.

When she came back she let it out and it would bark (non stop) from 6-11pm, until she took it back in.

It was never walked.

It was so stressful, and utterly depressing waiting for it to kick off.

DH used to have to go on long bike rides in the evening, it wound him up so much.

I went to talk to her about it and she said "Well the leaves from your tree are falling into my gutters."

Thank god she has moved now.

Am really surprised the council can't do anything about it.

Have you tried talking to your neighbours?

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