Amaretto
Well-Known Member
I am stressed! I have received a letter from my local council to say that my neighbour will take me to court for a sum of £5K, with a further fine of £500 for every time my dog barks and disturbs her thereafter, if disturbances do not reduce over the next 6 months.
A while back, she complained about his barking via text. Lots of bad language, not nice. He barks when her baby is crying at night, and I had tried to prevent this from happening by locking him at the other side of the house, so he was less likely to hear the baby and respond. I tried to understand her point of view, because she is a single Mum, and a crying baby at night must be stressful, and made worse if my dog barks as a result. After this, my dog did not bark much - the move the the hallway at night seemed to sort it. She sent me a text following this to thank me, and apologised for her baby continually waking me.
Anyhow, I'm pretty peeved following receipt of this letter. My neighbour had made no attempt to speak to me in person, just this letter out of the blue. The thing is, my dog doesn't bark that much anyway! There are seven dogs living on my small cul-de-sac, who all bark at different points in the day, some excessively - though none of the other neighbours have received a letter. I spoke with my other neighbours to confirm this, and all of them said they were shocked as they had never heard Dylan barking, and one even admitted that she was worried she would get a complaint off one of the neighbours for the amount of barking her German Shepherd does.
Dylan will bark when someone is near the vicinity of the house, for example when the postman arrives, or when the window cleaner is working, ie for jusifiable reasons, as he is guarding my property. I see this as expected behaviour, as long as it doesn't carry on for too much longer after the event.
Secondly, I do not usually have Dylan at home all the time. He stays at my Dad's house from Friday morning, until Monday morning - effectively 3 whole days. He often stays at my Dad's for a week at a time when he is on leave from work, the latest one being the last week in May. (He is really my Dad's dog, but I look after him during the week, as my Dad works away). When I am at work during the week, I take him to my Dad's house after I have walked him before work, and my Dad's neighbour takes him out twice a day with his Jack Russell. Then I pick him up and he comes to the yard with me in the evening. My neighbour often stays at her parent's house, so adding the scenarios together, she is rarely in a position to be disturbed by my dog.
The council have told me they are fitting monitoring equipment, which worries me because there are so many other dogs in the vicinity, how can they be sure if it is my dog barking? I have e-mailed them to express my concern and explained that Dylan is not always at my house, that he sleeps at the other side of the house at night etc etc.
My neighbour is a very angry person and not easy to speak with, therefore I have not attempted to speak to her face to face, as I really don't think she would take on board what I am saying. She is bipolar, so I never know what state of mind she is likely to be in. I am extremely upset she has made efforts to report something which could impact me greatly, and is factually incorrect. She had sent a diary to the council, documenting cases where she had been disturbed. When I spoke to the council on receipt of the letter, they went through it with me, and there were instances when Dylan was at my Dad's, so how could he have disturbed her!!!
Sorry for the rambling post...what would you do? :-(
A while back, she complained about his barking via text. Lots of bad language, not nice. He barks when her baby is crying at night, and I had tried to prevent this from happening by locking him at the other side of the house, so he was less likely to hear the baby and respond. I tried to understand her point of view, because she is a single Mum, and a crying baby at night must be stressful, and made worse if my dog barks as a result. After this, my dog did not bark much - the move the the hallway at night seemed to sort it. She sent me a text following this to thank me, and apologised for her baby continually waking me.
Anyhow, I'm pretty peeved following receipt of this letter. My neighbour had made no attempt to speak to me in person, just this letter out of the blue. The thing is, my dog doesn't bark that much anyway! There are seven dogs living on my small cul-de-sac, who all bark at different points in the day, some excessively - though none of the other neighbours have received a letter. I spoke with my other neighbours to confirm this, and all of them said they were shocked as they had never heard Dylan barking, and one even admitted that she was worried she would get a complaint off one of the neighbours for the amount of barking her German Shepherd does.
Dylan will bark when someone is near the vicinity of the house, for example when the postman arrives, or when the window cleaner is working, ie for jusifiable reasons, as he is guarding my property. I see this as expected behaviour, as long as it doesn't carry on for too much longer after the event.
Secondly, I do not usually have Dylan at home all the time. He stays at my Dad's house from Friday morning, until Monday morning - effectively 3 whole days. He often stays at my Dad's for a week at a time when he is on leave from work, the latest one being the last week in May. (He is really my Dad's dog, but I look after him during the week, as my Dad works away). When I am at work during the week, I take him to my Dad's house after I have walked him before work, and my Dad's neighbour takes him out twice a day with his Jack Russell. Then I pick him up and he comes to the yard with me in the evening. My neighbour often stays at her parent's house, so adding the scenarios together, she is rarely in a position to be disturbed by my dog.
The council have told me they are fitting monitoring equipment, which worries me because there are so many other dogs in the vicinity, how can they be sure if it is my dog barking? I have e-mailed them to express my concern and explained that Dylan is not always at my house, that he sleeps at the other side of the house at night etc etc.
My neighbour is a very angry person and not easy to speak with, therefore I have not attempted to speak to her face to face, as I really don't think she would take on board what I am saying. She is bipolar, so I never know what state of mind she is likely to be in. I am extremely upset she has made efforts to report something which could impact me greatly, and is factually incorrect. She had sent a diary to the council, documenting cases where she had been disturbed. When I spoke to the council on receipt of the letter, they went through it with me, and there were instances when Dylan was at my Dad's, so how could he have disturbed her!!!
Sorry for the rambling post...what would you do? :-(
Im suprised your council even drew up that letter, they should have told her to "wake up" firstly it's harder than you think to actually have anything done about barking dogs, it takes literally years to get it to court, I would welcome the equiptment, it will prove your dogs barks minimally and only when disturbed "which dog do" funnily enough
dont stress just yet, as suggested radio and having him at the other end of the house may help for now or extra time at your dads whilst the equiptment is in
Its also the family who another neighbour has heard deliberately winding both mine and other dogs up. Wee fe**ers. 
. She barked non stop when outside so we tried a citrus collar, it shut her up for a bit then barking was as bad as ever. We discovered she was shutting her eyes and barking and sneezing alternately.