Neighbours dogs driving me to distraction.

[Mirage]

Arghhhh.My next door neighbour but one has 2 small yappy dogs & she leaves them alone all day every day.They bark at everything & I mean everything.The poor woman who does live next door to them can't even have a shower without the noise of the water setting them off.With the weather being nicer now,people are out in their gardens & these dogs bark constantly from 7.30am til about 6pm at night.I have given up playing with dd in our garden because if they hear us,the barking starts again.

Their owner knows that they are noisy,but treats it as a huge joke.She doesn't even tell them off for barking when she is in.It isn't funny & is really getting on my nerves now.I have managed to bite my tongue & not say anything to her so far,as we are hopefully moving soon & I don't want to cause problems at this stage,but it is SO infutriating to have to listen to it all day.

Any suggestions?-the neighbours on either side are elderly ladies & too scared to say anything,so I can't really ask them to get involved.The thought of possibly still being here in summer & not being able to have the windows open or sit in the garden without hearing them is enough to make me want to cry.

It depends how far you want to take it, but I think the Council's environmental team can come and do a noise assessment - if you phone your local council they'll be able to advise. Or you could try speaking nicely to her first and tell her how upsetting it is for you - easy for me to say, I know. Good luck!

Mirage, this is dreadful. I really sympathise. Part of the reason i recently moved house in fact.
Look, lets be frank. Your sanity or the dogs. i would poison them. Someone I know did this while trying to complete an MPhil. His life was made unbearable.
First step..

Complain (nicely) to the owner

Then..

Get the council in

If all else fails..

Rat poison in a steak

I'm serious BTW

Put in an anonymous complaint. This is totally out of order and you shouldn't have to put up with it.
It's also really cruel on the dogs too!!!

Maybe the RSPCA even???

Moondog!!!! Poison the women yes but not the dogs

After all it is this woman who does not have the compassion to offer her dogs a decent home with daily human contact and a varied life!!

I have a dog who is left for a maximum of 2 hrs at a time but If she was to bark and cause a nuciance I would not leave her to continue to do so.

I would contact envoiromental health (they ahev a noise nuciance dept) they will come and put a recording device in your home to tape the noise and that is all they need to take action against this lady for allowing her dogs to bark all day!!

lol magnolia!!
(And me a hound too eh?)

contact Environmental Health at your local council. and the RSPCA. it's not the dogs' fault, annoying though it is. feel sorry for the poor things shut up all day long.

what is your neighbour like - young, old, tough...??

This really annoys me when people have pets they cannot look after

our dog barks when a car pulls up directly outside our house and i think this is reasonable. he is ten now and will never grow out of this habit but we have managed to calm it with techniques we were given by the vet.

when we moved into our new house somebody reported the barking to the dog warden. (dog is on his own one day a week) the warden had sat outside at various times and assured me it wasn't excessive, and they wouldn't be pursuing it. he did say that they will take action if it is excessive though and it sounds like what you are coping with definitely is excessive.

if you phone your local dog warden to complain that these dogs are left alone all day and causing a nuisance they will come round to check and it will all be confidential.

i had the dog warden called out three times and never found out who it was, but the dog warden was starting to get annoyed when he realised they were making the complaints up.

I can sympathise as the dog next door does this. It is getting better but she is left outside all day 5 days a week and is barking for some attention. I even felt sorry for her when it snowed and she was out there freezing. Last Summer I lost it and shouted "shut up you stupid animal for god's sake" (very polite for me )and my neighbour heard me. She knocked a few days later and asked me if the dog barked alot and I told her yes sometimes it did and it was impossible to have ds sleeping in his pushchair in the garden because of it. Anyway she is training the dog not to bark somehow?? and it is better though I don't expect a total cure as dog's bark by nature.

Thanks everyone-Friday was a particularly awful day-they barked all day non stop & I was on the verge of carrying out Moondogs' suggestion.Then,to top it all,the neighbours next door but one on the other side decided to crank up their stereo & slam every door in their house between 10.30pm-11.30pm that night.Arghhhhh!!!!

Anyway,back to the dogs,I spoke to the lady who lives next door to them & she is trying to sell her house now,but said that if the noise prevents her from finding a buyer,she will have to do something.I told her about the dogwarden & we agreed that if it carries on for much longer,we will both complain & get the dog warden out.

We have sold our house & are waiting for our buyers to sell theirs,so am reluctant to start making a fuss now,but feel better for having a plan of what to do next.We went out to see our new house yesterday & it is soooo peaceful,the only thing we could hear was birds & sheep-fantastic!

How much is considered to be nuisance barking? I have tried to find the Environment Office website to see how much is too much, but no luck, anyone has found a leaflet or some info about that? I only let my dogs out for about 30m, 3 times a day and sometimes they bark (but I always get them into the house as soon as barking starts). But just to be in the safe side, I would like to know...

Mirage - before doing anything "official" I would anonymously find out if in doing so you would then be obliged to tell the buyers about the problem. I think you are legally obliged to tell buyers about any disputes with neighbours. Hopefully though this situation will fall outside that. Best to check first though. I imagine the dog warden would know.

I really sympathise with you, we have had this problem too with our neighbour but one. Our mutual next door neighbour complained directly to her. She was quite rude to him at first and in denial, but he stood his ground and she sorted it out. It's been bad this week though as she's away on holiday and the dogs have been left to really sporadic care. Why is everyone reluctant to speak to her about it? It's so incredibly disrespectful, ignorant and cruel to the dogs. I'm sure you or your neighbours wouldn't dream of imposing on your neighbours like that. Unless she's a psycho I'd speak to her - be focused on what you want to say and don't get sidetracked.

Alternatively, as you're moving, just try not to get stressed and look forward to your new home and baby. Good luck with the buyers