Barking dog

[AnnieMay100]

Sorry I wasn’t sure where to post this. My ndn have a dog that barks every night at midnight waking my children as it’s directly under their bedroom window, then again at 6am waking us once again. We usually wake at 7 so being disturbed at this time makes it hard to fall back to sleep and due to health problems I need a decent sleep every night which I never get.
It barks a lot through the day too but it doesn’t effect me the way sleepless nights do so I try to ignore it. However it does growl and bark when we go into our back garden and the owners let it.
My old neighbour the other side reported them before they moved house 6 months ago, and the owners of the dog thought it was me and knocked on my door shouting aggressively. It made me feel really intimidated so I haven’t reported them out of worry of what could happen. I’m a single mum and don’t want to have problems at my house. I can’t handle the long yappy barks it’s making me exhausted and miserable not to mention my children going to school tired. They are good friends with all other neighbours and when they assumed I was the ‘reporter’ everyone treated me differently, so I would feel very uncomfortable being in that situation again. I don’t speak to ndn at all now and feel they punish me constantly by banging/shouting knowing my children have just gone to bed.

I have finally paid off my mortgage so I don’t want to move I just want to have peace occasionally. Any advice?

You can report a barking dog, but I think it has to be persistent and over excessive decibels. It's a long winded process. If your neighbours dislike you anyway, what's the harm in reporting them? My dog growls and barks at the neighbour, he hates her because she threw a bowl of water at him when he was a pup. We've moved him to the other side of the house now when he's outside, so he can't see her, but he still barks when he hears her. I go out straight away and bring him in, it doesn't change his behaviour as he does it the same the next day, but at least I make an effort to stop it. Other than have a word with them, I'm not sure what more u can do, sorry OP. I'm woken by a dog every morning at 6am which must be a good few streets away but he's so loud I hear it without fail, so you have my sympathy!

Report to the Council /environment health. They think that you have anyway! Noise before 7 is classed as a nuisance. Some areas have change this to 8 am.

Don’t report as it doesn’t sound safe for you.

Get one of those sonar dog barking things that let out a sound only dogs can hear and maybe that will stop it making noise in the garden?

The op living without enough sleep isn't safe either. Driving tired is dangerous, do not be bullied by ndn. Keep a diary and report.

We had similar and I started looking at dog whistles. I think you could maybe train it to stop barking if you use one when it barks. I might be talking rubbish though as our neighbour stopped letting hers out after someone else complained.

... so I didn’t investigate it fully!

The op living without enough sleep isn't safe either. Driving tired is dangerous, do not be bullied by ndn. Keep a diary and report

It’s easy to underestimate the impact of bad neighbours if you’ve never really experienced it.

If it’s really unbearable the OP should move.

Neighbours can really make your life not worth living if they are so inclined and judging from OPs post it sounds like her neighbours are like that.

Thanks for the replies I will look into the sonar things - will the neighbours hear it come on as I know some dog whistles are loud (in the hope they will hear it and realise there’s a risk of being reported) I’m beyond exhausted and confused at other neighbours not being affected by the loud long barks. I don’t drive due to epilepsy so no worries there, but it does make my work day difficult and some days I dread going home. I just don’t want any conflict or confrontation, maybe they’re taking advantage of that.

Just to clarify, the dog whistles I was looking at can be heard by the dog but not humans, so they wouldn’t know it’s you.

Is there any way of blocking the sound? Like ear plugs or closing the windows on that side of the house? I’m not suggesting you should have to put up with the noise. but if you’re worried about confronting the owner, maybe look at minimising the impact.