help needed fast!!

Shavings

Shavings

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OK so here is the situation
we have a 9 year old German Shepard bitch who is slowly losing her hearing and she is the vocal dog in are house, we also have a English springer but he never barks ( not even sure he knows how to)
i work 10 til 5 Monday til Friday
my mum works Monday to Friday on 4 hour shifts a day
but this week and this week only she is away on holiday so its just me with the dogs in the house.
a month ago are neighbour behind came round the house and companied about are German Shepard barking (he was not friendly about it and my mum rung me at work in tears)
he has just rung the house phone to which I asked and said she barked for an hour today wile I was at work and said that if I don't shut her up he will take her away, he also says all he needs is signatures from neighbours to say they are sick of it to and the police will take her away and put down.
i am very upset about this as we have had her for many years and love her dearly, my mum cant have children , so she adopted me and has the dogs, i am leaving home soon and don't want any thing to happen to her or the dogs.
can any one please help me!!
Ps we tried a bark collar ignores it!!
another ps can he really have her taken of her and put to sleep if she is healthy and well and only barks for max of an hour or so ?
 
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He's talking rubbish!! Ignore him!

Not about your dog barking, that may well be true. But he has to complain to the council about that, not the police and it's a long long process for them to take action and it would not result in them immediately coming round and certainly not having your dog PTS.

Is it that she needs a comfort break in the day? could you come home at lunchtime this week and let her out? Do you give her lots of chews etc to keep her amused?
 
we have hundreds of chews and toys, i often fall down the steps over them we have so many!! we also have a dog door put in so they go out on there own free will what would the council do if he companied? I really don't want to lose her she is a very big part of are lives :(
 
He could complain to the council, but he can't just demand that the police take your dog away and kill her, not unless the Isle of Man is VERY different from the rest of the UK. Not even if he gets all the neighbours to sign. As far as I know, the police don't do things just because some jumped up little Hitler does a petition. So I would tell him to jog on, and keep a record of all threats etc by him as the police may well have an interest in his behaviour.

However you do need to address the barking - for her sake as it may show that she's getting stressed. If her hearing is going, she might be more sensitive to noises that she can still hear. A radio left on, or the TV, might help as it will mask external sounds. Also try leaving her with good long-lasting chews to distract her, like frozen stuffed Kongs. She may be better in a more enclosed space, possibly even a crate, and you may find a DAP collar, spray or infuser to be of assistance. I would also make sure to take her for a good walk before you leave her so she is tired.
 
my mum lives next door to a dog that is left to bark .(not saying thats what you are doing)
when we looked into complaining about it we discovered that you have to keep a diary for at least 6 months before the dog warden will get involved, to my knowledge its nothing to do with the police. could you get someone to sit with her for sometime while you are out. is the dog indoors?
 
both dogs go for a 30 min walk in morning and an hour free run with tennis balls being thrown at night, when i finish work, i don't know any one to sit with her as every one works to, i am going to try the radio on tomorrow and hope for the best, i don't like the guy at the back he has always been rather rude with us about every thing, like when are bushes at the back were growing in to his garden he became rather aggressive so we offered to cut them but he wouldn't allow access to his garden for us to cut them i feel like i cant win with him but i don't want to lose are dog as she my baby, sounds sad i know, but after having to sell my horse in April she and the other dog get my full time (apart from work)
thank you every one for the advice i am going to try every thing!!
what really upsets me is this is my home we have been here for over 13-14 years now and he has only been there 2 years !
 
I'm not sure what the laws are on IoM, over here the environmental health would have to monitor the noise for quite some time before any enforcement action could be taken, and that would not involve the police taking your dog away and pts. If she has recently become more noisy I suspect it has a lot to do with her loss of hearing, GSDs are very reactive to noise, and she may well be more so now, or even barking "just in case" as she can't hear properly. I think you need to try and keep her inside, with a radio on as background noise, a DAP diffuser is also a good idea. She should be fine without access to the garden for the 4 hours she is normally left, is there any chance you could get back to let her out whilst your mum is away.
It might be worth going to see as many of your other neighbours as possible, saying that this chap has complained and you are really upset about it, apologising to them if she has bothered them, and telling them you are going to do everything in your power to keep her quiet. You may find they will tell you her barking is not a problem to them, but even if it is you are pre empting things a bit by speaking to them before they too complain and hopefully they will appreciate you are trying to solve things.
 
You may find that your moaning neighbour is winding her up to 'prove his point' if she has free access to the garden.

I had a similar problem a few years ago. Now I'm the first to admit that my dogs will bark on occasion, not incessantly and usually for a reason ie someone coming past the front door to the back gate or another dog starting a bark off locally.

He did complain to the council and I got a visit. He was keeping a noise diary - none of the other neighbours would back him when he tried to drum up support for his complaint. He also claimed that my Rott had bitten his (adult) son but after questioning it turned out that his son had leant over the 6ft fence and waggled his fingers at the dog...however he didn't take into account that puppies get bigger and 9 month old dogs can jump much higher than 3 month pups:rolleyes:, there wasn't even a mark on his hand 3 hours later when I was been threatened with police, PTS etc. Now if old JRT could have reached he would have been missing entire fingers.

The council was keeping me updated and giving me time and dates of 'serious disturbances' and a couple of those times I was certain that the dogs were out with me but couldn't prove that without going to silly lengths of getting signed statements from people who were with us at those times. The council were also talking to him (they called it mediation, I called it $h!t stirring tbh) and so he knew that I disputed some of his diary and I suppose he didn't know if I could prove they were out and he was also told that there needed to be a bit more than my word/his word as I had made it very clear that I would go to court to keep my dogs if I had to and wouldn't just roll over and rehome them.

Anyway, (talk about a novel, sorry OP) I set up a camera in the porch with sound and picture - a cheapy CCTV job set up by a friend - and he was caught red handed more than once running a stick along and banging the fence to set the dogs off. TBH the sound was more important than the picture as I could only video on my property, no body elses. The day he came along the back path to bang the gate (dogs went mental if anyone went past that but I didn't mind that as no one had any good reason to walk up there) and as he left saw the camera - well, I wish I had framed that as a still. :D Council wasn't impressed by his behaviour and I believe he got a severe telling off about wasting resources etc. He had only lived there a few months but as I told one stroppy neighbour who tried to tell me where I or visitors were allowed park on the road when I moved in that time served only counts for prisons and pensions nothing else.

Finally:o IME

Try keeping the dogs inside while you are out.
Talk to the rest of the neighbours to see if there is a problem
Noise problems are dealt with by the council NOT the police
He doesn't have the power to demand that you do ANYTHING.
The noise would have to be excessive (that definition is very hard to quantify though) to have action taken if the noise is between 7am - 11pm.

On the other hand please be aware that there is very little more irritating than a barking dog and it can really set peoples teeth on edge which isn't very fair or neighbourly so if you can avoid all out war - do so.
 
He is talking crap and he is being a blatant bully:mad: your dog barked for 1 hours (not a regular occourrance) for crying out loud!!! he can do bugger all in regard to this (he cannot take her away, nor will the police give 2 tosses about it and it takes more than a round of signatures for the council to react, they would need to come to the house and listen from outside and she needs to bark a certain amount of time and between certain hours to become a nuisance.
If your dog barked day i and out (fair enough)
Can you take her with you and secure her in the car for this week? or could you leave her somewhere her barks would be more muffled or do something more to not let her see you leave (where does she sleep at night) or does she sleep with you/your mam?
She obs has seperation anxiety so as suggested this needs to be tackled and if you could as suggested create a smaller area to work on getting her to settle in her own company or a crate it would be ideal, also a DAP diffuser.
You wont sort it this week, so you may need to make arrangements to take her or try a different set up.
 
thank you every one for the helpful replies :)
it is not often that she barks it is normally once every 2 weeks for maybe an hour or less so its not day after day problem
i have been to see the police this evening and they are coming to visit both me and the dogs on Thursday evening, they are more concerned for me at the moment as they feel he is being very aggressive which he is, they have also given me a special number if he continues over the next couple of days which takes me straight through to a blue light response
will let you know how i get on!!
and thank you all so very much !! made me feel a lot better at a very upsetting time :)
 
I haven't read through every reply, and it may have been mentioned, but I always find that if I leave dogs alone, in the house, and for any length of time, then I'll leave the wireless, or the telly on. It's strange how calming they find the sound of the human voice.

Try it, you may find that it helps.

Alec.
 
I know SibbyStar in R/l and thought I would add these dogs are not locked up all day, they do have access to the back garden at all times via a dog flap.
Unfortunately I moved off the IOM otherwise I would be there telling him to jog on! She spoke to her retired neighbour about the dogs and he confirmed what she said, they do not bark for hours at a time. Its the odd time when the postman comes or the paper is delivered.

I have told her not to deal with him without a witness present and if he persists, to persue him for verbal assault because he is a plain bully! I have also put her in contact with a solicitor to send him a letter if he persists as he has been on her case since he moved in 18months ago!

And the IOM laws are the same with regards to taking the dogs. Nobody else has complained, they are healthy, well fed, access to the outdoors and water. The dogs won't be taken, this man is just a bully issuing idle threats!
 
When the police come, talk to them about harassment (two counts or more is an arrestable offence). Try not to talk to the neighbour alone. Tell him that you have taken police advice re his threatening behaviour. Try not to get angry with him or to get into a row. Log times he makes his stupid threats and record exactly what he says.
 
cinammontoast said:
and record exactly what he says.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately there are privacy laws on the Isle of Man so you can't record what he says but he has left a message on her answering machine that she will let the police hear.

I feel powerless because I am not there to help her, I am across the water from her :(

I have mentioned harassment and verbal assault to her so hopefully she will get a result with the police. I can't stand bullies! :mad:
 
Damnation said:
Unfortunately there are privacy laws on the Isle of Man so you can't record what he says but he has left a message on her answering machine that she will let the police hear.

I feel powerless because I am not there to help her, I am across the water from her :(

I have mentioned harassment and verbal assault to her so hopefully she will get a result with the police. I can't stand bullies! :mad:
Click to expand...

By record, I meant in a log, not literally on a recording device.

If he's left her a message, she should block him or change her number.
 
Damnation said:
I know SibbyStar in R/l and thought I would add these dogs are not locked up all day, they do have access to the back garden at all times via a dog flap.
Unfortunately I moved off the IOM otherwise I would be there telling him to jog on! She spoke to her retired neighbour about the dogs and he confirmed what she said, they do not bark for hours at a time. Its the odd time when the postman comes or the paper is delivered.

I have told her not to deal with him without a witness present and if he persists, to persue him for verbal assault because he is a plain bully! I have also put her in contact with a solicitor to send him a letter if he persists as he has been on her case since he moved in 18months ago!

And the IOM laws are the same with regards to taking the dogs.
Nobody else
has complained, they are healthy, well fed, access to the outdoors and water. The dogs won't be taken, this man is just a bully issuing idle threats!
Click to expand...

Completely agree! I would also make a complaint to my local police station alleging harrassment by him. Keep a diary of every altercation with him and do not speak to him inperson or otherwise without a witness present. Good luck, the man sounds like he's one of those who has got nothing better in life to do than to make other peoples lives difficult. Ar5ehole numero uno.
 
That's option sounds the best so far!
Finding this very hard to cop with and a little bit of emotional mess as I love my dogs very much and don't want to lose her, it's even got to the point now were I am awaking up in the night to check they are still with us :(
 
Thanks cavecanem it's just been very over welming and hard to take, she is 9 now and live with use since 2008 and before that lived with my mums boyfriend, he moved in with us that's how she came to live with us and I just cant bare to be with out/lose her, I know one day I will but I don't want that day to be due to some rude neighbour!
 
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