Hi all. Could use some advice. This may turn into a long one, for which I apologise! Thank you if you make it through to the end.
We live in an end of terrace house and have a 3 year old small dog. We get on very well with all of our nearest neighbours. However, over 2 years ago when our dog was a puppy we received a letter through the door regarding her barking. It was one of those forms you can download from the Council website to alert your neighbours to a disturbance. There were several inaccuracies on the form - for instance, the complainant stated that the dog barked all day, when actually she attends daycare every weekday and would not actually be in the house at this time. We also had a few sweary shouts when the dog was in the garden around this time which I'd assume were linked.
We were mortified to get this complaint. We engaged a dog trainer who helped us enormously. We stopped playing fetch with the dog in the garden. I personally visited all of my neighbours in close proximity to check if they heard anything during the hours when the dog was in the house. All confirmed they could hear her occasionally when she was in the garden but that the noise wasn't 'excessive'. Our next door neighbour (with whom we share a wall) stated that she couldn't hear the dog at all when she and our dogs were in their respective houses. The neighbourhood consensus was that our dog was being confused with several other dogs on the street and was the one assumed to be making all of the noise because she was the most visible, due to her habit of sitting at the window which fronts onto the street.
Fast forward 2 and a bit years and we've had no further complaints. We assumed the measures we had taken had worked. We still bring the dog in from the garden the moment she barks etc.
Yesterday I was out for a walk a few streets away with the dog and my dog had a bark at something. I immediately began to distracf, as taught by our trainer. A woman I'd never met walked past, stopped and proceeded to scream at me about my 'fucking nightmare dog'. She informed me she lived on my street and kept repeated 'that fucking dog is a nightmare, you need to fucking sort her out'. She told me i was a 'fucking horrible woman'. When I say screamed, I'm not kidding. She really went for it for a good few minutes whilst I stood there stammering.
When I got a word in, I invited her to pop round for a cup of tea so we could chat about it. I'm not a 'my dog is perfect' type. If the dog is being a nuisance I want to know details so I can stop it. She continued to shout, saying she didn't 'want to fucking talk'. She then stormed off, so I'm none the wiser.
I went home at this point as I was quite shaken and a bit teary. As I rounded the corner into my street, I saw this lady entering a house 7 doors down from my own on my terrace. I checked again with my NDN, who again insisted that she barely heard my dog these days.
I reported the verbal abuse to the police, asking that they didn't make contact but keep it on record in case it escalates. I now don't know what to do. I absolutely do not want to be 'that neighbour'.
My dog, as I said, is out of the house on weekdays. On evenings, she probably barks once or twice at our window when she sees a cat or another dog. This goes on for about 10-15 seconds typically. You can hear this if you are standing directly outside out house but not if inside a car or another house (again, neighbour confirms this). On weekends, this us probably around 5 or 6 times a day.
When she barks in the garden she is brought back inside. This happens 2-3 times a week, I'd say. The average time from first bark to being back inside the house is usually one minute.
I guess my question is whether or not this is excessive. I feel dreadful. I'm sure that when she barks in the garden she's very audible. I'm not sure if it would be possible to hear her from inside 7 houses away, when she barks inside our own house - I'm leaninb towards not given that our neighbour with the shared wall insists that she never hears her.
I just don't know what to do and I'm devastated that I was verbally abused in the street. I think I'm doing everything right, as per our trainer. But I'm petrified this will escalate.