Dog barking complaint - be gentle I’m upset

[Nugg]

Looking for advice as well as letting it out. I received an anonymous letter from a neighbour posted through the Royal mail that basically said my dog barks too much at antisocial hours is left alone outside on its own for too long and I don’t walk enough

None of this is true. I hate barking dogs and the minute she starts I’m out there but there has been the very occasional time where for example I’m on a teams meeting and the back door is open and something has spooked her that she will bark for longer.

I literally say “quietly” which I’ve trained her to realise means do not bark in the garden as I opened the back door, I say “enough” in a very strong voice, which also stops her immediately should she start.

There are triggers to make her bark constantly because we’ve only lived here for a few months. She’s still getting used to the noises and the people outside.- She literally never barked at my old house unless a cat came in the garden or something like that which is to be expected.

So say my neighbour and her son are out and the little boy starts going woof woof talking to my dog she will bark back but I pick her up and we say hello however if her husband walks up and down the garden repeatedly near the fence and doesn’t interact it really frightens her I guess so she’s barking and I bring her in.

I sat and cried when I got the letter because I’m a really really responsible dog owner, my dog is even a therapy pet. If I ever have to work in the office, I have a wonderful dog sitter that either walk her or take her for the day. She doesn’t bark in the house ever and I can check this to make sure she hasn’t started, which I have because I have a camera.

I’m a very quiet responsible neighbour and dog owner and this has really upset me that they didn’t feel they could just knock on the door because I would’ve obviously have apologised for any upset and been even more attentive to her barking if that’s even possible because I really can’t stand barking dogs.

i’ve read the Battersea dogs home training guide on barking and none of it really applies to her. She doesn’t even bark at the front door.

I’ve only told a few people who all know me and my dog well and they have said it’s ridiculous and I should ignore it, But it’s actually made me frightened to let the dog in the garden for example after work yesterday I let her out she ran down the garden did two small woofs I said enough that was it but in that time one of the neighbours shouted shut up at the top of their voice.

I feel quite bullied that one of my neighbours is spying on me every move because they’ve got it all wrong they obviously don’t see when I take my dog out because a lot of the time I put her in the car and take her somewhere for a really good run. People laugh about how pampered my pet is because she is literally spoiled within an inch of her life.

Do those dog Barking colours work, are they unkind? I don’t know anything about it because it’s literally not been an issue but I don’t wanna be an annoying neighbour and it’s really upset me as I said.

It’s really upsetting to get an anonymous note. It makes you feel as though someone is watching and silently judging you - it’s not nice. We used to have a neighbour who acted like an unofficial parking warden. If anyone broke one of the unspoken rules, they’d get a nasty note left on the windscreen. It’s just a cowardly way of dealing with a problem.

There’s an old saying ‘chew the meat, spit out the bones’. In other words if there’s even a smidge of truth in it, then you can take action to fix it. But as for the rest, just discard it as the rantings of a not very nice person.

My neighbour has a little dog that’s well-behaved most of the time but if we do any gardening, the dog races up and down the length of the fence yapping and growling. The neighbour is lovely and I think she sees it as cute as though the dog is ‘protecting’ them. They never seem to call the dog in so I now tend to put earphones in and listen to music.

I’m not massively bothered by it but I can see how others would find it disturbs their peace, especially if they’re not a ‘dog person’. Sometimes we can be oblivious as to how our noises or the behaviour of our pets upsets others. That doesn’t mean you’re not a responsible dog owner, just that you might not notice things the way a non dog owner might.

In short, only cowardly people leave anonymous notes over petty things like this. Try and shrug it off if you can.

We are moving house soon, one reason being to get away from a neighbour’s dog who they allow to bark in the garden. I have dogs, mine do not bark outside. It drives me insane - children playing, people chatting, normal family noises all great but bloody barking I just struggle with and some owners seem to be deaf to it.

I would say if there is someone putting young children to bed a dog barking in the garden at 9 in the evening could be really annoying and considered antisocial.

I have a neighbour who works shifts and lets their dog out then I presume goes for a shower or whatever. The dog barks for ages wanting to come back in.

its not every day but it’s often at the weekend when I’d like a lie in. And I think 7.30 comes into the ‘having a lie in’ territory, whereas 9pm comes into the ‘children in bed’ territory. And some people might like a lie-in on weekdays.

what I’m trying to say is that I think maybe your expectations of what constitutes antisocial hours in terms of dogs barking is wrong. After 7.30 and never after 9pm isn’t on. Any dog barking in a garden is a pain, but 7.30am is very early for some people

This.

You can’t let your dog out unsupervised if it barks. You literally have to go back to almost puppy training times and go out there with them and then shut them back in again when you’re done.

You don't need a collar, just stop leaving the door open so that the dog can go in and out whenever it likes.

When it's going out first thing or in the evening make sure it is on a lead and ideally take it for a walk. How many times a day are you walking it? Don't use open access to the garden as an alternative to actually walking it. If she is still barking at triggers after a few months then those behaviours are getting more and more ingrained, not the opposite. This isn't behaviour that will stop itself though.

Barking dogs are really annoying but this doesn't sound that bad really, barking twice is fine - barking while you're on a 20 minute call though is not.

It seems like an easy fix Op. Just keep door shut until you can be outside with your dog.
Don’t get worked up over the posts you’ll get on here though. Mowing the lawn at 7am, kids screaming in the garden for 4 hours a day, music til the small hours - all fine but god forbid a dog barks a couple of times.

Our dog has started barking when she goes outside. I either stay by the door and ca her in straight away or go out with her. If the kids let her out or the back door is open and we aren’t outside she will bark at different noises. I am aware of it and know it’s a pain so we try as much as we can. It annoys me so I’d imagine it annoys some neighbours also. But life is such that you can’t stop it 100% but it does mean you have to try otherwise it’s not fair on the neighbourhood. An anon letter is awful. If they can’t have a quiet chat, then it’s reflects on them really.

Would you like it if she barked during your teams call? I suspect you are oblivious to the impact on others. Barking dogs are really irritating even if short lived. My neighbours let their dog in the garden unsupervised. She barks. They shout. Repeat.

Don't let the dog out unsupervised. Job done.

Anonymous letters are horrid But there is a reason for them. Your neighbour didn't want the tears and defence that you're giving now (could be worse...could be an aggressive response from some) Just resolve it and move on.

Please don't get a shock collar. I work at home. Dogs are inside unless they need to go out which is rare. They were walked for an hour and home by 7.20am. Ì can then work without interruption until the postman arrives... luckily I'm detached because one is an utter pia barking at them. If my neighbour could hear the dog would be in a place they could not see the postman arrive. It really is about avoiding the situation which is the issue. Dogs do not need to be unsupervised ever anywhere

As someone living near yapping dogs, please take notice of the letter.

It is unbearable listening to a constant yap yap yap.

Our neighbours also leave their doors open so the dog has free reign and it barks at everything. We cannot enjoy our garden as it's all we hear. When it starts we don't know if it's going to be 2 minutes or 2 hours and we're immediately on edge.

I love dogs, but this one makes me so angry.

Please. Control your dog!

One of the reasons we ended up moving house was new neighbours with a stupid little yappy dog that they never shut up. YABVU. Every single time we went out in our garden the dog ran up and down along the fence yapping its head off until we went indoors. It got to the point that we literally couldn't use our garden anymore. I would have reported them to the council but once we decided to move instead we couldn't do that.

We previously had neighbours who basically just had a very low tolerance for other people and were under the impression that they shouldn't be able to hear any noise at all or be impacted by other people in any way. Complaints included our visitors very occasionally parking outside our house (not theirs - ours!) where the neighbours wanted to park (they couldn't park on their own drive because there was a derelict caravan on it), an apple (just one) falling into their garden from our tree and our dogs looking (just looking, not even barking) at theirs through the fence.

Naturally they complained about our dog barking. He was a bit of a barker if someone came to the front door but we stopped him within seconds and he was brought in from the garden as soon as he started barking. We ended up reporting ourselves to the council because we wanted an objective view on whether it was a problem. They said that it very much wasn't.

I think you need to try and be honest with yourself about how much your dog is barking, make sure that you're doing as much as is reasonable to keep it to a minimum, but otherwise try and not let this letter affect you. I really feel for you because I know how miserable it can be to have intolerant neighbours - I've had genuinely noisy ones too and they're both very difficult to live with.

What training did your dog undergo in order toqualify as a therapy dog?

If you work upstairs you need to keep the door to the garden shut until you can physically go out with your dog, preferably on a lead.

Barking collars work but they are an aversive form of training.
Basically the movement of the dogs throat triggers the collar to let off a puff of air/ citronella/ something the dog will dislike. It may stop him barking but it’s no way to treat a loved animal.

We have neighbours who let their yappy little dog out and it barks constantly, ramping up the noise when I got outside with my own , near silent, lab. It is so very annoying. Please just get in the habit of supervising your dog, or arrange to have your dog sitter/ walker take him out.

He may be your therapy dog, but he’s clearly causing distress to others.

Why can't the dog be with you while you are working?

I was woken up this morning at 7.30 by my neighbours dog barking in the garden, as I am most mornings. Its really fcking annoying. 7.30 is early and I wouldnt have to wake up today until 8.30. Being wokem up suddenly by frantic barking is unpleasant.

I haven't formally complained to neighbour or council as its a relatively new puppy so I'm hoping they will train it better. For someone to make the effort to write a complaint note, your dog is really disturbing them.

Well clearly it is barking (you even describe it as "barking constantly").

Someone sent an anonymous letter. Then a neighbour shouted "shut up". Im guessing they are different neighbours because why would you go to the effort of posting an anonymous letter but then be willing to confront you about it? So it seems at least 2 neighbours have an issue.

Sometimes dog owners just don't realise how much their dog barks or how loud they are. If your dog barks every time it's in the garden (even if it stops when you eventually tell it to), that is really, really going to piss off your neighbours.

Your friends and family don't have to live next to your dog so won't know the real situation.

I don't have a dog so no advice but it is clearly being louder than you realise.

(I know I've called your dog "it", that's just because I've missed if you've said s/he and if I go back to check, I'll lose my post).

People who let their dogs yap and bark and disturb their neighbours are a scourge. If that's you and it clearly is, do something about it.

I can understand that its upsetting.
I think that you should remember that any dickhead can send a letter, and plenty of people are weird about dogs.
It sounds to me like the male neighbour is trying to provoke your dog to bark, just so he can complain when it does. Either that or he thinks that you shouldn't have a dog that acts like a dog.
Your dogs barking doesn't sound excessive. Youre allowed to have a dog and live your life. It sounds like you bring her in when she barks and shes on the whole a great dog.
Whoever sent the letter is going to have to learn to live with it.

Id consider sending a kind letter to them. Send a nice picture of the dog for the child and tell them about her job as a therapy dog and who she helps.
Tell them about what they can do to reassure the dog if she is being too barky or shouty, and say about how she always stops if they greet her over the fence and say hello, or how you tell her 'enough' to stop.

Id say that you know not everyone is used to dogs, but that you do everything you can to keep any nuisance to anyone else as minimal as possible and apologise if sometimes they still hear her, and that you are trying to get her it used to all the new noises and that shes already getting better.

You need to stop leaving the door open and stop letting her out unless you’re out there with her - it’s not difficult.

It doesn't sound to me like your dog is being a nuisance. My neighbours' dogs certainly bark more than that. I would complain only if a dog was left alone and barking in distress; I'd never complain that it barked odd times because it had seen a butterfly or whatever. I don't have dogs but surely barking is just their talking isn't it? You can't stop cattle mooing or sheep baaing in the fields. It's unreasonable to expect a dog to never express itself in a bark.
If your neighbour wanted to take action, they'd have to record the noise and prove to the council that it's a nuisance. It doesn't sound like this would be successful. For peace of mind you could always ring the council and ask them what would be classes as a nuisance and what would be normal sounds of having a pet.

So long as you're sure that your dog doesn't not bark to the degree this person states, don't worry about it. There are always 1 or 2 neighbours like this. The one that will complain to the local council about your extension, the one that moans when you park on the road they live on etc.. Some people are not suited to living in close proximity to others.

If your dog was barking constantly, you can be sure that someone would have put a post up on the local Facebook group about it with other neighbours agreeing and suggested someone call the dog warden etc..

Lots of people don’t use Facebook - it’s a bit odd to assume that it’s not a problem unless it’s on there.

OP’s posts are very contradictory - she starts saying her dog never barks, then it’s only occasionally, then there are triggers that mean it barks constantly