Dog barking driving us mad...move or report?

[OUB1974]

We're at the end of our tether with our neighbours in our new house, which we moved into a year ago. Next door has one large dog with a very deep and loud bark. The other side of them is a household with 3 or 4 small very yappy dogs. .

Barely half an hour goes by without them barking, sometimes for hours on end. None of them seem to make an effort to stop them and they wind each other up when it's warmer and they are all in the garden. Next door leaves theirs at home alone and once it starts it doesn't stop.

DH has been round to be met with quite a defensive attitude. We have both been woken up from much needed lie ins as they start early.

He wants to move, I want to report to the council, which would make it difficult to move. What would you do?

We are in a beautiful end terrace with a large kitchen, period features, 3 double bedrooms and a 40m long garden. We love it so much and it was really difficult to find one that suited us after losing our jobs during the pandemic. We are about a minute's walk from school and we gave up parking for our dream house, which hasn't been a problem.

If we moved it would be a downsize to a smaller 3 bed semi with one tiny box room and probably a much smaller garden. I think it's too big a risk as we could end up with bad neighbours even if we moved. We can't afford a detached, but even if we did, our neighbours to the back are detached and I think they get annoyed with the incessant barking too, so it's no guarantee.

I think we need to tackle it head on. Maybe go round once or twice more (write a letter?) and then report to the council as a noise nuisance. At this point I don't care about neighbourly relations! But obviously this would stop us selling for a while at least. I don't want to leave our lovely home and disrupt our children for a second time. DH would prioritise peace over the size of the house and garden.

It is all making us very stressed. We are snappy with each other and the children and very anxious. My usually good natured husband has really been got down by it. I've got some earphones that are supposed to make it more bearable and I'm trying not to let me get it down, but it's hard.

What would you do - move or report? And have any dog owners got any insight on how they could stop winding each other up through the fence? Thank you!

I feel for you so much. We lived next door to a territorial poodle that went mental every time someone walked past its house, which was in a busy town centre, so the barking was constant, day and night, the street was narrow too, so it echoed. Not only did it bark (and jump) non stop, but set off every other dog in the area too. I was literally at my wits end, stressed and anxious had to keep going for some silence. We moved in the end for our sanity. I actually feel sorry for the dog now in retrospect, it was obviously not happy & I know its owners tried everything to calm it too.

Whatever you decide to do make sure you document EVERYTHING. Dates, times ,anything that was said by either party. Make an initial report as soon as possible so you will start a timeline

We have this with our neighbours too, it’s so irritating. If we go in our kitchen,
bathroom, lounge etc it sets it off. I swear they leave it out and it’s just bored.
We’ve pretty much decided not to bother reporting as we bought this house knowing we’re not staying here long term and don’t want to have to declare.

Same issue here. Over the road have got some sort of mutant bulldog and it's got a horrific deep bark. Every morning from 6.30am onwards until the early hours, every time it's let it out it barks incessantly .... and they just let it. The other night they came home pissed at 1am and the dog barked outside for nearly 20 minutes. I've got 2 dogs that never ever bark in the garden, but it sends them loopy. I'm just praying that one of the other NDN's report it instead tbh...........

I've recently moved too, and the dog downstairs has been barking for pretty much three hours solid tonight.

There's usually two of them, so don't know where the other one is, but have had them both going all morning when trying to WFH a few weeks back.

I can only hope the owner is saving up a deposit for a mortgage elsewhere, as I know they only rent just now.

I feel so bad for the dogs.

Buy a silent dog whistle. Every time it barks blow it till he stops. Worth a try.
whistle

I’m a dog owner and dog fan but…

the noise you describe would be too much for me. I think reporting is far better, surely then the owners would have to do something about it. It’s not as if there aren’t dog walkers, doggie daycare etc etc and owners like these make everyone’s lives a misery. I’d start making a diary of barking and then send it to both owners saying if the noise doesn’t at least become less frequent you will be reporting them. Any sensible owner would understand the issue and do something about it.

Many years ago, we were mortified to find out our Boxer would hurtle out of the dog door stand in the garden and bark for twenty minutes every time we left the property and disturb our lovely neighbour who worked shifts and who had 3 children under five. He left a polite note explaining the issue, DH went round to apologise with bottle of decent wine and a promise we would be working on it and to give us a few weeks. Took us over six weeks of positive training but our Boxer did become calmer when we left and stopped the nuisance barking….

Time to push back on the owners, why should you have the expense and upheaval of moving when the dogs are their responsibility and the noise is a nuisance ( it would make me climb the walls, I hate noise). Good luck

It's annoying and I have an anxious dog that barks when he hears a threat like a car or courier or the dreaded postman/ women. It f@cks me off no end, and upsets my young children. I can shout stop, if I'm in and he does for a few minutes then starts again. By then the dog of the block all join in, most of which are home alone and have no one to shout or sooth them.

I think mostly people have no idea what their dogs do when they are out, so some concerned neighbour approaches could help. Is the dog barking when they are home ( like mine to warn them) or when they are out ( like mine roo 😬) ?

Report to council and RSPCA. I had a neighbour who let his dog bark/whine outside 24/7. Shortly after it was reported, probably by everyone on the street tbh, it was rehomed to his sons house.

Buy a silent dog whistle. Every time it barks blow it till he stops. Worth a try.

My neighbours did this. It nearly drove my husband mad as it was silent to him.

Wasn’t silent!

I'm scared to move because I wonder if any house up for sale is because of an issue!? I mean I'd hate to be my neighbour and I've apologized to my mine one neighbour in the past about the dog and kids and me. We have a rental next door and people come and go maybe because of us, but they all have dogs too. I don't know if they are allowed but I'm not saying anything as our dog is as bad.

I'm moving because of my neighbours dogs. She never walks them, has started breeding regularly and the constant yapping is driving me crazy.

I feel for you OP. I am an animal lover but constant dog barking from irresponsible owners drives me mad.
I had one at my old house, the dog was left outside all day and just barked and barked. I don't know how it didn't drive the owners mad when it drove everyone in the street mad!

Some neighbours complained to the RSPCA who did visit but said there were no welfare concerns as the dog had food, water and shelter and seemed happy when they visited. The dog owners didn't care about anyone else around them.

It was one of the reasons I moved. When I was looking for a new house I was an anxious about noise.
I do now have neighbours with dogs but if they bark they are told to be quiet by the owners and are well trained.

I feel your pain. Someone a few houses over has a yappy dog that barks constantly when it's let out. The record was 1hr 45 mins of relentless barking and it nearly drove me demented.

Their neighbours had builders in and one day during a long barking episode I heard one of them shout "take your bloody dog inside!" - lo, the barking stopped, so they must be aware how irritating it is, but they choose to do nothing. I am renting, so it's not forever, but I want to strangle the damn thing.

They also let it out at lunchtime on sunny days, as if they're timing it to ruin people's lunch. Arseholes.

I would move. No guarantee the council will be able to help. Just be very careful where you move to!

That would piss me off.
I love dogs, but constant barking and yapping would drive me nuts too.
Id be tempted to go outside and yell outside ‘will you just shut up!’ I don’t think you’d be popular with the neighbours after that though.

I’d be eliminating all other options before you go to the council or sell as both are extreme (as going to the council makes it difficult to sell).

Keep going round to their houses every time there is unrestricted barking? Can be as nice (go round cheery with beers/wine to get them on side, or keep it formal)

keep a log of everything including any conversations with neighbours (can you record these?)

get other neighbours on side and agree collective action

get an anti-bark device (no idea if they would work)

Thank you for all of the replies. I'm sorry to hear I'm not the only one in this position. The neighbours are clearly out today and taken their dog with them, it's been bliss!

I'm very worried about my husband. He is so stressed and anxious and irritable about it all. I've never seen him like this before. The newish neighbour next door is quite loud (drilling and band practice late at night and a very loud television - we never heard the old neighbours at all). I tend to go to bed earlier and read so it doesn't bother me as much.

We are going to see how things go. When I lost my job we moved north and paid our mortgage off. We're on a low income but with no housing costs and probably low expectations of life we feel quite comfortable. However, I've just looked and we could get a small 33% mortgage. Things would be tight but it's an option we didn't realise we had.

I am going to research and get some kind of whistle, and look into soundd proofing the walls a bit. I hope dh will continue to go around (I am very bad at confrontation!). We have agreed to give it a few months and see how it goes before making any long-term decisions. All the the moving fees would wipe out our life savings and I'm really not keen, but we can't go on like this. We've agreed we won't report them unless we make a definite decision to stay, which will only happen if they all stop, which is very unlikely!

Next door's dog looks very old, someone asked upthread. But I do think the real issue is 3 dog lady and she's not likely to be dogless ever I don't think.

Its such a shame. We have just decorated upstairs and I was beginning to learn to garden. We were feeling so settled. We haven't had a full summer here yet so didn't know how bad it would be. I really can't face moving again but we'll have to see how it all goes.

Haha I really am past caring what they think of me! Our entrance is on the opposite side and we only really see them if they happen to be walking past as we leave our house.

We had lovely neighbours at our old house, including a lovely dog.

get an anti-bark device (no idea if they would work)

Judging by the yappy dog next door, no they don't. Now we get lots of yapping followed by an annoying beeping instead 😂

Another one here. Stupid people next door, three kids, both working, bought a puppy last summer. They go out and leave it and it barks, barks, barks. We are semi detached and the sound proofing is terrible. We put a polite note through the door, no change.
I've tried the silent whistle, it doesn't work so now I put a loud radio and loud music by the adjoining walls and 'forget' to turn them off when they come home. Strangely satisfactory. I'm also keeping a log to report them to the local dog warden and council. Poor old dogs, stupid, careless people.

Is there a name for a device that makes a hideous sound!? I'd use an AK47 if I could get near this dog!