Barking Dogs

[Kahuna]

5.30 Saturday morning,woken by the dog over the back fence at 2.30 which barked for the rest of the night. Happens regularly. The thing is a nuisance barker day and night. The owner is in denial. I have spoken to him on numerous occasions (the most recent about 10 minutes ago) and all he will do is blame cats,rats,neighbours kids,possums,and the prick over the back fence (me).
His explanation to me this morning consisted of "It's not my fault".
When I explain that it is not the cats,rats,kids and possums barking that leads the POTBF to bang on the fence and yell abuse predawn,I am met with silence (from him not the dog,it still barks with him attending to it). Apparently it is "highly strung" according to him.According to me it will most definitely be highly strung (up) if I get the chance.

I know I can go to the Council,which I have not done as I would of preferred to sort it out between us but I have had a gutfull. Only consolation I have at present is that I can hear the owner sitting on his back step doing his best to calm his dog down. At least he has missed out on a sleep in too.

[Footy Chick]

Happened to me once - a dog left on it's own outside night after night and it barked CONSTANTLY. I ended up reporting it to the council and all they did was make me keep a diary for every time the dog barked

Owners were never home and the one time I did happen to catch them they were less than pleasant.

I think most councils now hire citronella collars. Not sure of the cost but they're a sure fire fix..perhaps mention it to him?

[Kahuna]

I have mentioned the Citronella collars to the owner on several occasions all I get back is "cats,rats,kids,highly strung etc". He does nothing to change the dogs behaviour.
It is not only night time but anytime anyone is in our backyard
We had a robust discussion over the fence on New Years Eve last year. It eventually calmed down to a rational level and we agreed to each take steps to try to overcome the problem. On my side it was to remove all fruit from my backyard,to discourage the rats and possums and try to engage the dog when it barks. His side was to have it trained and for him to be more responsive to stop nuisance barking.
All it meant was a summer without fruit.
Nothing has changed.
He ignores the barking and will only respond when I pound on the fence.

[Psyber]

Dogs are pack animals and need company. They shouldn't be left alone.
People should have at least two, or keep the one they have inside with the family as they are his pack.

We had problems when we moved from a rural area to the city - one of the two dogs was older and a working breed and wanted to round up everything he heard nearby.
In the end we had to have him put down as he was driving the neighbours and us bananas and we couldn't find him a rural home.
We got the puppy a kitten as a companion and let them both sleep inside together.

[Phantom Gossiper]

Dogs are pack animals and need company. They shouldn't be left alone.
People should have at least two, or keep the one they have inside with the family as they are his pack.

And my wolf pack... it grew by one. So there... there were two of us in the wolf pack...

[fisho mcspaz]

We had a barking dog next door at our old house. I used to bark back at it (only after a few hours, when my temper would be worn down) and when the neighbour called it inside, I would imitate him because he used to yell so loud he sounded like he was trying to push out a turd simultaneously. After a little while of that, the dog stopped barking at night because they let it inside. It was a bit awkward whenever I saw the neighbours out on the street, but life can't all be roses!

Conclusion: If you are louder than their dog, they will do something about the dog if only to get rid of you.

[Phantom Gossiper]

We had a barking dog next door at our old house. I used to bark back at it (only after a few hours, when my temper would be worn down) and when the neighbour called it inside, I would imitate him because he used to yell so loud he sounded like he was trying to push out a turd simultaneously. After a little while of that, the dog stopped barking at night because they let it inside. It was a bit awkward whenever I saw the neighbours out on the street, but life can't all be roses!

Conclusion: If you are louder than their dog, they will do something about the dog if only to get rid of you.

that could be one of the strangest yet most enjoyable stories i have heard in a long time!

[dedja]

We have a 2 year old dog, who whilst generally well behaved, can react to other dogs yapping in the neighbourhood.

At his worst, we would bark for only a few mins and we would try to sort him out fairly quickly. The neighbour's dogs (2 in particular) would bark for hours and their owners seemingly not giving a rats.

Because we live in an area with a few cul-de-sacs and the other dogs are quite a few houses away, it's not easy to pin down where those dogs are.

Anyway, we didn't think our dog was any real issue but we were concerned that he would go off every now and again, even if it was only a few mins.

So we put some effort into stopping the behaviour and he basically doesn't bark at all now. As soon as he starts we call out to him and he goes straight to his mat.

How the other owners can get away with doing nothing is beyond me ... even more perplexing is how their direct next door neighbours put up with it.

The best course of action is to try to meet with the owners so that they're aware of the issue ... even better to do it as a group with your neighbours if you can without turning it into a posse!. Failing that go to the council.

[Farmy]

My dog barks when it sees prey or when she thinks there is an intruder, but we can stop her barking pretty quickly by telling her to stop barking, which we do as its barking shits me to tears.

People shouldn't yell at dogs, just like talking loudly to a foreigner, being louder doesn't make them understand you. In fact it makes it harder for them to understand you.

Never hit a dog either. Any way in these sorts of situations it is NOT the dogs fault, it is merely doing what it was raised to do, it is solely the owners fault. Citronella collars are fantastic, unless your dog is smart and works out that it can bark alot very quickly and empty the collar, like my dog, but then she doesn't bark too much anyway.

[Kahuna]

... even more perplexing is how their direct next door neighbours put up with it.

The best course of action is to try to meet with the owners so that they're aware of the issue

The owner has told me the bloke next door to him has never even heard his dog.I think he makes it up as he goes along.
I intend to suss out the other 4 households that are his direct neighbours and get opinions from them first hand.
I have done similar to you Fisho with the barking although under the terms of our previous "Truce", I agreed to stop.Same as I have not banged the fence again till this morning.
Problem is the bloke doesn't understand when I do me cruet and shout/bark/bang on the fence I am trying to send a message to HIM not his poxy dog.
Thanks for the input everyone,will report on any further developments.

[Mickyj]

I think our next door dog finally kicked the bucket .
I should have reported it to the council but never did.My understanding from the rest of my family .Is when the last of the neighbors left for work/school it would howl non stop from early in the am until some one returned latter in the day like 5 pm.
Wasn't any better at night how they didnt hear it ( well ok they left a radio on full in their shed 1 night from 11 pm until 1am before they turned it off so they must be hard of hearing).My neighbors back door is near my bedroom window .On cold nights I could hear the thing howl and scratch the door either all night or for hours on end.And when a large car ie falcon or commodore would drive up into either their or our drive .The dog would go off thinking its owners are home.

Why do people do this ?

[Strawb]

beats me but my dog I hardly hear her bark.

[Psyber]

For a while in the 1970s my first wife and I had 4 Dalmatians in a suburban backyard as we bred and showed them.
We were puzzled that one neighbour said they barked incessantly as we were not aware of it, so I asked the neighbour on the other side.
He said they never heard them - and he wasn't the type to just say what I wanted to hear.

It later turned out the complaning neighbours' early teenage step-son was aware his new step-father wasn't fond of dogs, and used to lean out his bedroom window and bark at the dogs to stir them up when he was upset with him.
When the kid also started throwing broken glass into our backyard we decided it was time to move on to a small acreage.
We didn't want to be tools in the fight he was running with his step-father.

[Booney]

I have two Beagles, a boy about to turn 5 and a girl about to turn 2. When they play the female vocalises quite a bit, she yaps and yelps, but only when they play/wrestle. It drives me nuts and I have spent considerable time trying to get them to stop but one reason we have two of them is to entertain each other. I have investigated collars ( citronella / electric ) but both would only really activate when they play and she yelps and as I dont want to stop them from playing this would be counter productive and they would avoid each other.

I have spoken to several neighbours about it and none of them complained ( not to me anyway ) and I explained what was happening, even showed one neighbour through my house and out into the yard to demonstrate what is happening, he found it funny and said he ( although he has a dog ) no idea what I could do about it.

Now they dont do this all day, at about 8am they have about 45 minutes of it and at around 7pm they go again, just after dinner and before they nestle down for bed. During the winter months I am sure they do this to warm up before bunking down for the night.

[Rik E Boy]

Kahuna.

If you go to the Council they will get you to fill out a form (surprise surprise) which is like a 'barking diary'. You fill out the instances and the duration of the barking. In two states that I am aware of regulatory animal control require this document which they present as evidence of a complaint.

If the owner does not take reasonable steps to reduce the barking they can be fined and possible legal action can be the ultimate step. Good luck mate, hate barking dogs.

regards,

REB

[Johno6]

my gfs neigbours behind her house has a dog that barks non frickin stop at night
wakes us up early every morning...
i love dogs so i wanna shoot its owners not the dog

[nuggety goodness]

This is half the reason I love my Akita!

He hardly makes a noise unless someone a little sketchy walks past, funny how he picks them.

He's also a little racist too, just barks a little at dark people. Got an African mate and when Yogi's out the front, he'll bark when Francis arrives but he shuts up pretty quickly and lets him in the yard and lets him pat him etc... dunno what it is...

Even when other dogs are over the road (our house faces a park) he just stands on his back legs to look over the fence at them. There's been a few times where this one Staffy has seen him and bolted over the road to our fence and barked at him full on, he just whinges like he wants to play...

Little dogs always go off, i hate that Yap Yap Yap Yap.... grrr.....

[TEX07]

We had an issue at our old place where our neighbours had this dog that barked all the time, they never walked it and really did nothing to fix it. Mrs Tex was home all day at this point as we had just had our second child and it was doing her head in, we really didnt have the best relationship with them so she went in and saw the TTG council. They sent them a letter right away. The funny part was after the letter our neighbour and his wife saw my wife out at the gym and decided to bail her up and confront her about it, possibly thinking that she would be the easy target to try and bully, WRONG. Should have picked me I am deffinately the easy target, they asked her if she had a problem with thier dog, she said yep, but really more with you and what you are doing to fix it. they both backed right down and the dog was kept inside all the time, not a real fix but wasnt our problem. We sold that house earlier this year and I met with the new owners on the day of the move, one works nights and sleeps during the day, looks like he would really let them know about it if the dog kept him awake! In our situation we may have been able to try and let them know we had issue with the dog but previuous encounters with them said the council was the only way to go. I think they also contact all surrounding houses to check that there is actually an issue before they contact the owners, just to stop petty nuisance complaints.

[Browny25]

Dogs are pack animals and need company. They shouldn't be left alone.
People should have at least two, or keep the one they have inside with the family as they are his pack.

And my wolf pack... it grew by one. So there... there were two of us in the wolf pack...

[Strawb]

Buy a supersoaker and fill it with ice cold water when the dog barks spray it. It will soon shut up