Neighbour's dog - Bit of a rant and bit of advice required

I'm useless and don't have any advice but just wanted to bump your post up and say to you you aren't being unreasonable at all. It would drive me mad too.

Our neighbours have got an Alsatian which barks a lot especially when my cats sit in our bedroom window and it really annoys me as my neighbours have actually told me that my cats 'wind their dog up'....

My cats are indoor and should be allowed to look through their windows without being yelled at by a dog but hey. I have never said anything to them about the barking though.

I hate any kind of confrontation, so I would probably drop a note through the door letting them know, but keeping it anonymous! Failing that, is it environmental health who deal with noise? It might be worth contacting your local council for advice.

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Yea Environmental Health may be able to help with this one. If you make a complaint you can ask to remain anonymous but obviously they are going to have an idea it was one of the neighbours who complained.

I like the idea of an anonymous letter. You could try that first and if not contact Environmental Health.

Not sure how helpful this will be as I never faced the problem in the UK, however we had something similar over here in NZ.

We phoned the council and found them really helpful: Our call was kept anonymous form the family, although the council did tell us that other people in the area had made similar complaints. Noise control did several street visits to get an independent measure of the barking, then the dog warden visited to assess the care of the dogs and whether there was a specific cause in their environment for the barking. The family was then given support in terms of free dog training from the RSPCA and a time-frame in which the barking had to stop before the dogs would be removed. The council kept us informed all the way through, and happily the training worked the dogs quietened down and so we were all happy.

At the very least I know the council in the UK has a responsibility for environmental health and that includes noise control, and the RSPCA may be able to give you welfare advice. There must be a reason the dog barks so much and it is usually distress of one form or another, and it doesn't sound like they are in the best environment if the owners don't even pick up after them. (Not saying they are being abused, just that there could be room for improvement in their care and the RSPCA could advise on this.)

I literally coul have written this post! The dog next door to us barks all day long when they go out to work. I sometimes work from home so I notice it. On weekends of they go out it is the same. Last Saturday night they went out and it was constant for about 5 hours. It's a distress bark too which I find upsetting. I think it's an older dog which I might add a hardly see walked. I love dogs and like you grew up with them but it's not normal for a dog to bark all day long.

I can't really put a note through as they would know it was from us as we are the only houses attached down the road. It never barks when in the garden but we can hear it if we are in our garden and it's inside.

Someone suggest saying to the woman if I see her in the morning getting in here car or something that is her dog ok as it was barking all day. But I don't want to start anything as I think she will be a bit funny as she's not an easy person to talk to. It's a hard one so I do feel for you. It does start to drive you insane and question is the dog a actually ok!?!

I think if it is affecting your life this much (and I can understand why it is!) you need to complain. Personally I wouldn't bother with letters etc I would just go to Environmental Health. If you do it anonymously they may suspect you but wouldn't definitely know it was you so I would just go for it.

My neighbour used to have dogs (they have moved out now). They only had one at a time but once they got rid of one they got a new one in. Each time they would leave the dog outside in the cold etc all day all night. The dogs would whimper and bark to be let in. I ended up reporting them to the RSPCA per dog for the treatment they were enduring. Shortly after each complaint with the RSPCA the dogs disappeared. I always did it anonymously. I would rather have reported the poor welfare then let anything happen to the dogs. I know its a slightly different situation, but if I were you I would try the anon note, then maybe step it up if things don't change after a couple of weeks.

I haven't ever had an issue with dogs but I have used environmental health for noisy neighbours before and remained anonymous and it worked really well. They come and talk to you then do an independent assessment of the issue and then contact the people involved.

I did feel like a bit of a coward doing it but I was living on my own at the time and didn't feel comfortable confronting them personally. By all accounts the noise stopped immediately and although I had visions of some kind of come back etc, actually environmental health said the neighbours were pretty embarrassed that it had got the point where they had been called in. They seemed oblivious to the noise they were creating.

In your case the owners may not realise the dog is barking. Environmental health take noise issues quite seriously as they realise the impact that it can have. I wasn't once made to feel like I was being unreasonable even though there was a part of me that thought I should just put up with it. I tried earplugs etc but that didn't work.

Thank you all so much for your replies.

I think that what I'll do it leave a note as I do think they're not aware of it and then if nothing happens (although I don't know what they'll be able to do if they're all out at work all day) then I'll call environmental health. I really do think the dogs are distressed and it's not normal to have barking for hours on end.

Glad that I'm not the only one who wants to just put a little note through the door!

Late to this - but I think you're absolutely right to leave them a letter, particularly if you think they aren't aware. Write it from a friendly neighbour point of view, let them know that it's distressing to you to hear the dogs so upset and you wondered if they were aware that the dogs fret so much during the day?