Dog owners, please advise me on my neighbours dogs??

[Momniscient]

I don't have a dog. My next door neighbor has two, and they bark whenever they're in the garden, seemingly just pleased to be let out the house as they also bark when they're taken for a walk every day. They bark louder and growl at the fence when I go out into my garden - from the moment I open my door if they're outside, or they aim straight for the bit of the fence I'm the other side of if I'm out already.

I've been here a couple of years now and I thought it might settle down, but it has not. The owners of my house before me had a huge dog, so I thought maybe it was a territory thing. But they've stayed the same.

Being at home more, I'm finding I'm just getting more and more irritated with the incessant barking, but I'd like to understand them a bit more instead of just hating them and the barking. It's three or four times a day, and it's just a bit much now. Owners also shout at them occasionally, and they bark in the house too.

Is there anything I can do so I'm not barked/growled/scrabbled at when I'm trying to just do some weeding?

I have always liked dogs, just never owned one - but the constant barking strikes me as odd.

Help!

Sounds like
A) Its a territory thing
B) Being 2 of them they are winding each other up.
Very unpleasant and upsetting for you. I would absolutely hate it

You can only discuss it with your neighbours , but sounds as though they are just not strict enough with them to stop this sort of behaviour.

You can report to your Local Authority but it won't help relations with the neighbours unfortunately.

You could ask your neighbours if they would provide you with some of the dogs' daily food allowance which you could then throw over the fence as soon as you come out, ideally before the barking , but i appreciate this might be tricky to get the timing. That should give the dogs something to forage for while you're in the garden. If you're going to be out there for a while, ask for their entire food for the day and chuck it over in stages, again ideally before they bark. Hopefully in time they will learn to anticipate your arrival without the barking.

Or ask your neighbours to bring their dogs in whenever they start barking.

Don't give them food without the owners permission because you don't know if what you give them will upset their stomachs - they'd be out there even more if they have the shits.