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The doghouse

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Original poster

Noise Complaint about my dog

52 replies

sleepingdogslying · 01/12/2017 20:57

I have just received a complaint from the council about my dog barking late at night and early in the morning. I am fairly certain it is from someone whose garden backs on to mine and who has recently moved in.

The dog goes out first thing at 6am - I am making tea at that point so although she barks to be let in, it will be less than a minute. I generally go to bed at 10.30/11 midweek and again I am pottering around in the kitchen so the dog will bark a few times and be let back in - very occasionally it will be later or earlier.

I don't consider the level of barking to be unreasonable or the above times to be particularly late or early, but would be interested to know what is considered excessive noise.

OP posts:
OtterInDisgrace · 02/12/2017 04:12

I wear earplugs too but there are certain things they really don’t block out or muffle in the slightest. One of these is barking dog noise.

I really love dogs but honestly get the rage if I hear them barking Very early or late - and again, this can be heard through earplugs.

bluetongue · 02/12/2017 05:23

I love dogs but hate excessive barking ( one of the reasons I got a whippetGrin). Your dog barking at those times is completely avoidable and easy to stop.

PastaOfMuppets · 02/12/2017 05:28

But it doesn't matter what we think given that your neighbour has found it so annoying that they have formally complained - if the consensus here was that your dog sounds fine, would you just have decided to ignore your neighbour? Pretty poor, especially as this is just your version of how often the dog barks - your neighbour might hate it so much they hear barks that you take no notice of

starzig · 02/12/2017 05:47

I thought from the first line you were the dog owner out the back of me. It seems to be let out and barks between midnight and 1 then about 5-6.30 am. I have always thought it was a shift thing. Anything 10-1 Is really annoying as it Is just as you start to not off. 6am is really bad when you have had a struggle to sleep night. But I am an adult, children go to bed earlier so any barking after 7 I think is unreasonable.

Fosterdog123 · 02/12/2017 06:01

Only a minute, at 6am? I would despise you as a neighbour. How can you possibly think this is reasonable.

falange · 02/12/2017 06:05

Why can't you leave the door open whilst your dog goes out so it doesn't have to bark to be let in?

snowy1982 · 02/12/2017 06:13

Dogs bark people, it’s what they do. I could the impression from OP that dogs barking isn’t prolonged or excessive, so maybe ease up in the comments calling this lady selfish and unreasonable.

I have been on both sides of this story, I have lived in a house where nearly every house behind me had a dog, dogs that were kept outside at night and they all barked a lot. I was woken up a lot by dogs barking at all hours of the night and never once felt the need to report my neighbours.

I also have 2 dogs that are outside during the night and outside when we aren’t at home. They are generally quiet dogs but the odd time they will bark at night, but again they are dogs and dogs will bark.

I now live out in the country and I occasionally get woken by the cattle in a near by farm, but I would never complain, as they are cows and it’s what they do.

OP sounds reasonable to me.

Slartybartfast · 02/12/2017 06:28

just go out with the dog, they dont bark in company ime

TheGoodEnoughWife · 02/12/2017 06:40

We have three dogs and get up at 5.45 most mornings. When we let them out they are really good at not barking that early (two aren't really barkers anyway but one can be) however we leave the back door open and they just wander back in when 'done'.

I would say one morning in the last year one has barked that early and I was mortified, he maybe barked for 5secs before I could get hold of the treat tin to get him back in.

We always leave the back door open though when they are outside so they never bark to come back in. (Yes, house gets bloody cold!)

blueskypink · 02/12/2017 10:20

I could the impression from OP that dogs barking isn’t prolonged or excessive,

Bollocks. As lots of us have said - ANY barking at 6am is unreasonable. It doesn't need to be prolonged.

TotemIcePole · 02/12/2017 10:22

Door open.

Case closed.

TheFairyCaravan · 02/12/2017 10:30

We had people living behind us who let their dog out between 6 and 7 every morning and it would bark, probably for less than a minute, and wake me up. They always let it out before they went to bed too, regardless of what time it was, sometimes up till 2 am. It was horrendous.

I am awake 6 o 7 times a night due to pain, I know that’s nothing to do with them, so being woken early was killing me. DH asked them to do something about it umpteen times but they didn’t. We knew they were moving thank god otherwise we’d have complained about it.

thenightsky · 02/12/2017 10:32

I have a neighbour who lets a dog out to bark between 12.30 and 1am most days. Drives me up the fucking wall as its usually taken me until then to get into a decent sleep.

PositivelyPERF · 02/12/2017 19:08

Comparing cows to dogs! Don't be ridiculous.

I have eight dogs here, tonight. They're in and out all day, under my supervision, and in the morning they'll be out from 6am, again under my supervision. If that means me standing in the garden, in the rain, so be it. I do that because I am responsible for the dogs and don't believe in inflicting my choices on my neighbours.

missbattenburg · 02/12/2017 20:42

PositivelyPERF couldn't agree more. We have a Jack Russell who would run into the garden barking if she had the chance. She is likely to shut up once she's seen all the birds off but any noise at all is not fair on nearby houses - especially at bonkers hours. She is taken out on a lead first and last thing to ensure we have control and then supervised for all other garden trips (someone stood out with her) to ensure she can be shut up as soon as she starts.

Dogs barking to be let in can be taught different ways of asking - scratching at the door, pressing a low down light switch or not making any noise at all and just waiting for the door to be opened. All pretty easily done with a few mins a day.

Runninglateeveryday · 02/12/2017 20:48

Another one who leaves my door open so she does her wee then she's back in.

Mupflup · 02/12/2017 20:50

Ddog likes to get up at 6am to go out for a wee...I get up to make tea and leave the door open so she can just run back in when she's done. I'd never think of shutting the door tbh, especially when it's cold, poor little dwt doesn't want to be out there any longer then she has to! Same for last wee at night.

Ontheboardwalk · 02/12/2017 20:58

NoelNiki no you shouldn’t turn the hose on the poor dog. It’s not his fault he’s been badly trained!

You need to turn it on the OP

NoelNiki · 03/12/2017 00:35

Ontheboardwalk true that! Grin

PrimalLass · 03/12/2017 00:42

One bark at 6am is too much. So selfish.

WhatShallIDoWithMyself · 03/12/2017 00:45

Yes, dogs do bark. But the point is OP's dog isn't barking at a one off, but due to not being allowed in.

Your dogs are kept outside overnight and outside when you're not there? You sound like a former neighbour of mine. They'd swear blind their dogs didn't make a sound. Yet when they were out of the house the dogs howled for hours on end.

You think your dogs are quiet but I bet they aren't. And why keep your dogs outside?!

snowy1982 · 03/12/2017 06:21

I keep my dogs outside because they are big dogs and it is unfair to keep them locked in the house when we are away. We have a big garden and they have plenty of room to run around and play and have a covered and heated pen for when it is wet or cold. No I don’t know for definite if my dogs make noise when we are away, but we have never had one complaint (official or just a neighbour commenting to us) so I assume from that that they do not annoy the neighbours. But of course they make some noise outside all day, they are dogs after all.

And I wasn’t comparing dogs to cows, my point was wherever you live there are going to be noises that disturb you, especially when animals are involved.

WeAllHaveWings · 07/12/2017 16:11

You are being very inconsiderate both in the morning and at night.

Of your dog shouldnt be Barking at these times even once never mind daily

KinkyAfro · 07/12/2017 17:20

Snowy you leave them home alone when you go away?

snowy1982 · 07/12/2017 18:59

Kinkyafro, by away I mean when we are at work, not away over night