Letter from council re barking dogs

[Lincolnfield]

I'm so upset I've not slept all week. We've lived in our detached bungalow for 35 years and always had two or three retrievers. Our current dogs are an old golden, 12 years old and two flatcoated retrievers one is 6 and the other 5. We are retired now so usually at home and unless we go shopping, if we go out the dogs go with us. The only time they bark is when we're putting their leads on to go out and they get really excited. The rest of the time they are really quiet.

If we're not out for the day, I take them out around 8 to 8.30, around lunchtime, 12.30 and a last 'wee' walk at 9.30.

Last week we got home to find a letter from the Council saying that one of our neighbours has reported the dogs for 'barking at various times during the day.'

I spoke to all our neighbours and everyone except one has said either they don't hear the dogs or they don't bother them. One neighbour said she is fed up of them barking at 6am and 'late at night'. Approximately every 2 months I'm up very early as I'm on a committee in London and have to leave early but it's only about every 8 weeks and they never go out after 9.30 at night. We're in bed ourselves at 10pm!

Any advice from anyone? This is honestly making us ill. I might be wearing rose coloured specs but honestly our dogs are not massive barkers and never ever bark at night.

Are there other barking dogs nearby and somebody has mistakenly said it's yours . I would start by keeping a log of every occasion of barking from your dogs time , date and length of barking also make a note of all the times you leave the dogs home alone . If the council wants to take it further they will probably ask the complainant to do a noise diary and then you will have your log to compare / refute their allegations , it will also indicate to the council that you are taking the complaint seriously . If the dogs bark more when in the garden together put them out one at a time .

Is yours the only dog that you can hear? I am always afraid people will think it's my dog barking as I can often hear another dog close by barking for a few hours most days.

I would see (hear) if someone has mistaken another dog for yours. My neighbour's dogs wake me up at 6am every - single - day. I think that's unreasonable but what you describe isnt.

Honestly please don't worry about this.

I was once reported for my dogs barking at intervals during the day, certainly more than yours but not excessively. We have large guarding breed who bark when people/postmen/delivery drivers come down the drive, that sort of thing. Nothing came of it as it couldn't be proven despite the coucil coming with some sort of recording device. They also have to be barking in anti social hours for extended periods of time for it to get serious, from the sounds of it yours are not.

Some people just love a good moan don't they

Dogs are only ever home alone for a couple of hours on Monday mornings when we go shopping and one evening each week when we go for dinner with my sister and her husband. They don't bark in the house when we've left them - we've been recording them this week and they just sleep until we come back in. They never bark in the garden because the kitchen door is always open and they wander in and out. We're often in the kitchen ourselves.

I would just ignore it if I were you.

Can you maybe get cctv with sound so you have evidence of how much (or little) they do bark.

The man who dealt with our case said it almost never becomes serious as it's too hard to prove. Turns out it wasn't even our dogs barking in the end but we did record it for ourselves just to be on the safe side!

Thanks so much for all the lovely reassurances. I suspect it's the one neighbour who says the dogs bother her and her family although I know she won't 'fess up. I was very polite when I spoke to her and asked her why if they bothered her she hadn't come and spoken to us but she just grumbled on that they wake up her daughter's boyfriend who is living with them.

She said it's when the dogs bark late at night that they get upset and when I said that they never go out after 9.30 and then they're asleep all night in the house, she said yes but her husband gets up for work at 4am.

There is a young couple across the road who have two big German shepherd dogs who are out in their garden a lot during the day and who bark a lot. I wouldn't dream of complaining and if it really bothered me I'd go and speak to them, I wouldn't just go off to the Council.

The other thing that's upsetting is that because our dogs only bark when they're going out and the Council have said the complainant has been asked to record when they bark. Then basically they will be watching and recording every time we go out which is making me feel a bit sick really.

I am keeping an accurate record of when they bark and it includes entries like 'one dog barked three times as they jumped into car at 8.20am.'

I'm just terrified that someone might try to take my dogs away. I love them so much. Typical retrievers, they are big loving dogs. My youngest flatcoated retriever was diagnosed with a serious heart problem as well just two weeks ago and is currently under the care of Nottingham University animal hospital. He's on a special diet and he's due for another appointment in December.

That together with worrying about the Council has got me at my wits end.

I appreciate everyone's kindness here. Thank you.

I had this as my neighbour conplained that my dogs barked through the day, i recorded them for a month and also had a dog trainer come to my house. The council left me alone once i did this. Told my neighbour dogs bark get over it.

Forgot to say dogs didnt bark while out at work at all, only when going for a walk and that was one or two barks.