Barking dogs....Aargh!

[hot wire]

Gosh, I love this outlet for my new pet pieve. I live in a rural area, I know that. But man, If I hear that darn dog bark again......well, I will envoke my own censership here, I'll just go nutts! Help. I was up two nites in a row from 2-3 am. That darn dog a 300' feet away won't shut up. I'm afraid to mention it to the owners, we've only lived here 10 months or so. I guess I'm suppossed to get used to it....I CAN'T!! There has to be a solution. I think the owners are like 80 years old. Honestly. The dog is some kind of herder type. The highest pich...... You can't block it out.

Do those elctronic anti-dog barking devices work?

I wonder what the Wa. County animal people would do?

I am truely open to suggestions... (I am considered out of city limits too)

Tom

[StickFish]

Doesn't matter how long you have been there, you have a right to enjoy your property. Talk to your neighbors let them know - maybe they can't hear and or it doesn't bother them.

[Abalone]

I have lived through this before.

It's difficult to get help from the county.

This is what worked for me. I owned a log splitter. It had a Loud 5 hp. motor. When the dogs barked I would fire up the log splitter. I was hoping the neighbors would complain.
Why ? you ask ? So I could tell them that I run the log splitter so I can't hear the dogs. But they never asked.
They figured it out on their own.

I don't understand people that get a dog and just leave it.

Dogs bark for many reasons. Most of the time it's because they aren't being cared for, they are bored or what ever.

When I hear a dog off in the distance barking non stop I just figure there's another idiot living over there.

Teaching a dog not to bark is the easiest thing in the world to do.

Good luck.... Remember... Don't blame the dog...

[slinkey]

I agree with this. I have been down this road before as well. I had a neighbor who use to go away for the weekend and leave the dog alone in the backyard. That dog would bark to the point of sounding "horse".

I own a dog (Lab) myself and I nipped the barking thing when she was a young pup. Dogs ussually bark for long periods of time because they are stressed. You need to address this with your neighbor. If you don't want to speak with them directly write a letter and leave it for them. Be freindly but direct, and let them know that if it continues you'll have no alternative but to contact the county. You may find that they're sleeping through it and are completely unaware. Good Luck

Craig

[aye fsh]

I sure feel your pain on this one. I just resolved (hopefully) a problem with my next door neighbors and their dogs.

I have a bunch of college guys renting the place next door. About a year ago one of them decided to get a dog, a German Shepard. This dog would be in the back yard and bark non stop. Psychotic would be my best description of the animal, NOT to be trusted under any circumstances. They tried a shock collar and the dog would still bark. Finally a muzzle was the answer to at least muffle the noise. Everything was tolerable at this point

About four or five months ago they got another Shepard pup and one of the guys drags home a pitbull (OH GREAT!). I am out of state taking care of my father during a very dire time for about three months recently and my wife tells me about how the new dog is eating it's way through the fence to get to our girls (two yellow labs). I give her instructions on how to create a buffer between our dogs and the fence and with the help of our son they get it set up. She also talks to the guys next door, who are nice guys and all, and let them know that what's going on is not cool and they need to get control of their dogs before I get home.

So I get home a few weeks ago and what the boys did was drive some t-posts in the ground and hang some of that orange plastic constuction barrier material on the posts. Lasted about a week, pitbull tore it to shreds.

Last week I go out to barbeque something and as soon as I open the door the friggin dogs are barking at me ( their's, not mine ). I look over to see a pitbull hanging about a third of the way throught the cedar fence through a hole it had chewed through. I slap a piece of plywood over the hole cussing up a storm and pitching a fit. One of the boys must've heard the commotion and sheepishly called the dogs in the house. I decide not to confont the fellas in my current state of ire and wait until the next day.

So the next day when I see all the guys' cars are there I go over to have a chat with them about the dogs. What I get initially is a whole lot of attitude, which does not go over very well with me at all. I am speaking with the owner of the pitbull and his take is "hey, I can't help it if my dog barks, we got a bark collar and how am I supposed to keep it from the fence and hey, I tried but the dog just chewed up the fence, and hey pitbulls have a bad rap, mine would never hurt a fly", and you get the idea. I explain to him exactly what my stance on the situation is.
1. First and foremost and do not doubt me on this, If that pitbull gets into my yard and I feel the least bit threatened for myself, my family or my pets (we have the 2 dogs and a one-eyed kitty),right wrong or indifferent, I will kill that dog.
2. Part of responsible dog ownership is control of said dog. You need to keep that animal from reaching that fence and causing more damage or becoming a threat to someones safety. (We have a wetlands area behind our property that people walk their dogs along sometimes and there's been several altercations through the fence, the pitbull owners attitude was "hey, they don't have to walk there if they don't like it!"-wrong attitude in my book.)
3. Your dog has destroyed the fence that I built and paid for, you will replace all the boards that are damaged.
4. If you don't like the way this is going then the alternative is to call the police, dog control (the dogs are not licensed with the city) and the property management company they are renting from and see what happens, but the current situation is not acceptable.

Having at this point his undivided attention I then go on to explain how I am not just there to point out a problem and leave, I am also there to help solve the problem. I offer to assist him in making a proper containment area for the dogs with some galvanized hog panels that I have our dog run constructed from. We set up a time for last weekend to set up the run and in about an hour and a half, voila!, problem solved.

I believe in trying to solve neighbor problems by dealing directly with the neighbor first and then involvement of the authorities second. I have been on the flip side with an abused Dalmation we had at one time. He was barking up a storm while we were gone to work and the neighbors just went ahead and called the cops on us before even saying anything to us, we had no idea there was even a problem until the officer came out and cited us! We also had an instance once where we left town for a couple of days and left it so the dogs could go in and out of their run at night and one of them was unhappy and barked. Rather than say something to us one of our neighbors calls and left a super snotty message on our answering machine, of course not identifying herself. I know who it was and I went around to all my neighbors EXCEPT her and apologized profusely and gave out a chunk of fish to try to make amends. We of course now have a different program to deal with that situation. I also think that having a solution in hand when first confronting the problem helped a bunch in my situation.

I wish you the best of luck on solving one of the worst neighbor relation problems I can think of.

[Abalone]

A bad neighbor can be hell on Earth...

I always thought it would be a good idea to interview the neighbors when shopping for a house. You never know what lurks behind those walls..

[Tacklebuster]

I know your pain, all too well.
I posted something a while back about my neighbors dogs using my yard as a bathroom multiple times daily and the owners not doing anything about it. I took over a hundred pics, filed numerous complaints with dog control and the local police. The guys were cited but they keep pushing their court date away so it hasn't cost them anything, yet. A week or so ago one of his three dogs was in my yard so I opened my back gate and let him walk in my backyard. I closed the gate and called dog control and demanded some action. The cops came and picked up the dog which bought the owners more fines and the only way he can pick up his dog will be if he shells out about 350 bucks for fines.

One dog down, two more to go. Call the cops and dog control. The owners of the dog can be cited 100 dollars for what you are describing. Talk to the owners and be stern. If you just sit and take it, it will only get worse.

[gimmeumpqua]

Go to your local sporting goods store and get some concentrated skunk scent used for masking your own scent while predator hunting. Squirt dog. Pretty soon, the neighbors will get rid of their skunk killer all on their own.

Kurt

[ry]

chris good one!!

i've been over this before. it works, so try it!! go down and get an air horn, the one that has the red horn part that will screw off. they sell in the sporting goods dept. in the boating section, they are usually white.

take the horn part off, just unscrew it. when the mutt starts barking stick your arm out the window and hit the horn. it will make a loud shreeking sound, it's horrible. the dog will shut up for a few seconds, and when he lets out the very next bark hit the horn again, one long and one short burst of noise.

now this may wake up the neighbors but it may not. if thier barking dog does not wake them then this may not either. besides if you have to be up because of thier dog then they should be up because of your horn.

[salmon whisperer]

I had a very similar situation and I tried to talk to the owners... = ATTITUDE... and I was less than politely told to deal with it. So, I did. here is what I suggest (it was extremely effective) tell your other neighbors that you need some patience and understanding for a couple of days.

purchase a sound activated switch like this one
http://electronickits.com/kit/complete/elec/ck1607.htm

then purchase a couple of relays and a timer and wire them to a couple of extension cords. Now, get out a couple of VERY LARGE strobe lights (I suppose large construction-site halogen lights would also work) and aim them directly at their house towards a window (it helps if you can aim the stobes at the neighboor's bedroom window). Set the timer for a very short duration (30 sec)

bark, bark = FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH for 30 sec!!!!! no bark = no flash.

The stobe is effective... especially at 3am on a work night.
If you can get another neighbor to do the same, it is even more effective.

(I suppose an air horn would be effective as well, although it would require more patience & understanding from other neighboors)

[Chrome Bumper]

Have you tried foam earplugs? Some day you may want to become freinds with your neighbors.

[Abalone]

The main stadegy is to find a way to make it the dog owners problem.

By making noise or being a nuisance you make them the ones that are complaining. I have used this stradegy more then once and it works. The guy next door has a canon. The police wouldn't come out. So I started blowing off M80 and bigger. Much bigger. Usually the same time the canon was being used.

It worked. The other neighbors finally had enough.

This guy had a six inch pipe he would fill with Acetalyne and Oxygen and it was pointed right at my house.

Not anymore.

[boater]

throw it a sandwich with about an inch of peanut butter on it, it will spend the rest of the night trying to clean it out of its mouth.

[Snakebite]

Just after my new neighbors moved in, just up my driveway, one day we left the big dog at home to visit relatives for the day. When we got back I found a note on the door from my new neighbors that Kato had barked non stop when we were gone, and I needed to do something about it. The jerk didn't have the guts to talk to me in person, so I blew it off. It turns out that the same day other neighbors were logging their property, and I discovered later that Kato hated the sound of chainsaws (part spotted owl?), and that was what triggered his barking. He ended up doing this when we were home and I finally keyed in on the connection. Well Gee, The neighbors went to Mexico for two weeks recently and left their two dogs home, outside, and they pretty much barked the whole time. One night I went outside during the tirade while they were going nuts (yip yip yip, Woof Woof, Yip Yip Yip...etc)and let loose a .44 mag. Blackhawk round. That worked for the rest of the evening. On the other hand, I forgot my headphones and was probably deaf for the rest of the night. Golldangit, two days day before the neighbors got home, the big dog broke through the fence and now we have the neighbors dogs running around, including on the bay road, which has some pretty fast traffic. Well, I thought, so be it, and maybe they "wouldn't come home". They did anyway, I put them in their backyard, boarded up the fence, and wrote on the piece of plywood I used, the date and time I did so. You would think that they would have asked me what happened...? NOT! I had to tell the idiots what happened. So, what am I to think? are they going to assume that I will take care of their problem when they're gone just 'cause I care about the poor animals? Yeah, I'm venting, but I care about my animals and others welfare as much as how they may bother neighbors. I have "detained" several dogs since we moved here that were running loose, and returned them to their owners after, in several cases, spending considerable time finding their owners, which is not easy to do at times. Please put your phone number on a tag on your dogs coller (DOH!). Rant done!

Have a great evening.
Snakebite

[Accraholic]

Illegal suggestion removed.

[salmon whisperer]

Illegal suggestion removed.

I'm not sure what it was you suggested, and I can't say that I would advocate anything illegal... but, being on the noisy end of this before, I would understand how reason turns into frustration into despair into rage over time.

[Tulelicious]

I have had a problem with my dogs barking with Im gone at work. hey get bored and bark at squirrels or any thing else that moves in the back yard. Now I dont tie them up they have full run of the house and yard and still would bark. I had a neighbor leave a note but since I didnt know who it was because they wanted to stay discrete I was unable to as them if the taticts I was taking worked. I suggest talking to them, they may not be aware that its a problem for you. I ended up using the shock collars. They seem to work I guess since I havent gotten any more notes. To me it was real frustrating not being able to ask the person who has the problem with my barking dog if I have indeed solved the problem. Talk to them.

[Jonah's Revenge]

HewesFisher
I would suggest first talking to the guy. The first part about being a "good neighbor" is trying to work things out.
This just happened to a friend of mine;
My friend comes home one day to find a deputy talking to his wife. The deputy explained that a neighbor filed a complaint about his dog barking and they will get a fine if he comes out again.
Now, my friend never knew his dog was barking while they were gone. When they were home, he didn't bark. He stayed in the back yard as usual while they were home or not.
To shorten this up, we think the dog started this up recently due to his other dog passing away. This is the first time his current dog has been alone without a companion. He has fixed the problem and the dog doesn't bark anymore. (You gotta love electricity)

Now the thing that irritated him was that his neighbor never told him what was going on. They are definately not going to be good neighbors now.

Was the neighbor spineless? (maybe)
Is he a jerk? (sounds like it)
Did he waste the deputies time by not talking to him
first? (Yes)
Should he have told my friend first? (absolutely!)

Not all dog owners will cop an attitude. If one of my neighbors mentioned a barking problem with my dogs, I would make every attempt to fix it. I wouldn't lash out at them.

Now if your neighbor cops an attitude, getting the police involved sure can speed up his compliance.

[k9jeff]

This might be a shocker. But knock on your neighbors door and introduce yourself. Advise him of the problem and I am sure they will assist you in addressing it. I advised my neighbor of the problem and he put the dog in at night. It was cured and he never batted at eye at me.
Since then we have helped each other in our yards, we talk regularly and he's going springer fishing with me in a couple of weeks. Its called being a neighbor. Dont worry about offending him/her, just talk to them about it.

[hot wire]

Thank you all for the suggestions.
(Sorry for the people that gave illeagle ones.....)

The owners of the dog are in their 80's. I was right. They were not concerned about their barking austrailian Shepard either. They told me that I was living outside of the city and what's the complaining about. I asked them if they were aware that their dog is not suppossed to bark for more than 5 minutes in any given 15 minute period? That's the Washington County ordinance anyway. He laughed! Anyway, the man told me that the dog barks at coyotes.
I called the animal control person yesterday morning. Gave her their name and address and description of the dog too. The animal control person will be out there to check the "welfare" of the dog. If it looks bad, they'll either take the dog-warn the owner, or at least give them a citation. ($250 bucks @ most) I hope this gets EVERYONE more sleep.

I'll let you know how it goes....so much for trying to be "nice". At least I know that I tried. If they take the dog or they can't pay the fine, then I guess that's the way it has to be.

For those of you that say this seems a bit unfair, you would'nt say that if YOU were constantly hearing the dog bark ALL NITE!!!


Tom