Dog Barking

[MOBY36]

Apologies if this is the wrong forum for this topic however I would be most grateful if I could have some thought on the following issue.

My next door neighbours acquired a young dog a number of months ago. The dog is regularly left on its own within the house and barks until the owners return. I'm not a specialist but would imagine it down to separation anxiety. I believe the owners are aware of this issue as the dog barks when they are loading the car as it must know its about to left alone again. The dog is never walked and its life would seem to be the inside of the house and small back garden.

I would approach the owners but he has been physically aggressive towards me when I approached him about a previous noise issue which a number of other residents had commented on. This previous issue has now stopped but I am now faced with this dog barking issue. The house is privately rented and the landlord showed very little interest in the original noise issue so I don't feel as I would benefit from approaching either landlord or tenant. Just to add, the property is end terraced so I am the only person experiencing the barking.

I believe the only option open to me is to approach the council. I really don't want to do this. I've read the process relating to this kind of issue on their web-site however, I would be really keen to hear from anybody who has been through this process. Do they back their words up with tangible actions? I really do not want to start an official process when their may be little chance of a positive outcome and I'm then left with a problem that gets worse and a house I can't sell due to having to declare the official complaint.

 

[Parrotperson]

I haven’t but believe they like a diary of the instances of noise.

Plus what about the RSPCA? I’m not a great fan but this is the sort of cruelty they should look into.

 

[babymare]

My advice is to start with keep a diary of the barking. Time starts and time ends. Dates etc. if can take recording of barking even better. Once have a couple of weeks showing consistent barking approach council. They will take it seriously (ours did ?) and will initially approach owner telling them there has been a complaint etc. it worked for us ?. Yes we have some barking but all dogs bark but it’s not now for hours on end. We went to council but were asked to keep diary so you can prepare your “evidence” before going to them.

 

[windswoo]

I was going to suggest speak to the neighbour, but then read the rest of your post.
We were the ones with the noisy dogs (rescue dogs) and we tried everything to sort it, but our one neighbour was awful.
He was rude to my mum when she was round looking after them, but the worst part was it was his banging and crashing that was setting the dogs off all the time. His garden his right, but then our garden our right (though we didn't leave them in the garden)
Eventually the dogs did get better - Covid from the dog's point of view was great as OH got to work from home and any day he did have to go to the office his parents would have them. Then one of the neighbour's sons had a dog and now they are completely different - we actually can talk to each other.
I'm sorry that you are going through this it is horrible to fall out with neighbours - can you speak to the other person?

 

[AdorableAlice]

Noise issues form a massive part of the work EHO's do and the bulk of it is dogs. I work alongside EHO's and they spend forever on dog work.

If you contact them they will initially ask you to maintain a log of the noise and will provide you with the forms. They will then have the forms back from you and if the noise is excessive and prolonged they will offer you noise monitoring equipment to enable recording to take place.

The legislation can be found here Statutory nuisances: how councils deal with complaints - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Noise abatement orders are used but from what I have seen they are largely ignored and local authorities are unwilling to use public funds to go through the court process.

If you are going on the market anytime soon I would be very wary of starting a neighbour complaint as you do have to declare it.

 

[MOBY36]

Noise issues form a massive part of the work EHO's do and the bulk of it is dogs. I work alongside EHO's and they spend forever on dog work.

If you contact them they will initially ask you to maintain a log of the noise and will provide you with the forms. They will then have the forms back from you and if the noise is excessive and prolonged they will offer you noise monitoring equipment to enable recording to take place.

The legislation can be found here Statutory nuisances: how councils deal with complaints - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Noise abatement orders are used but from what I have seen they are largely ignored and local authorities are unwilling to use public funds to go through the court process.

If you are going on the market anytime soon I would be very wary of starting a neighbour complaint as you do have to declare it.

many thanks for your comments.
I’m a little bit alarmed about your comments regarding noise abatement orders are largely ignored. However, I think I’m committed to this process now as I did give my name and address when I initially spoke to the council therefore I assume I would be obligated to declare this should I put my house on the market.

I believe the length of the barking would be enough for the council to act (generally at least 50 continuous mins per day) however, I’m not sure what the threshold is for volume. It’s a medium size dog so it’s not a really ‘throaty’ bark but definitely more than a yap. I don’t really want the council to come round and maybe say that I could drown the noise out by turning the to up. Do you have any experience of what the volume threshold is?