Welfare issues

[Jericho]

Please excuse me - this is the first time I have ever ventured in here as I only have horses and no dogs (not for want of trying, OH has put his foot down!). Anyway I Wanted to ask for some advice. The situation is that towards the end of last year a local farmer moved his Farm manager in next door to us (rented property belonging to farmer). They promptly built 6 kennels at the bottom of their garden and moved in 9 dogs mostly springers and retriever types. Him and his wife are out most of each day so the dogs are in their kennels (from what I can see there are 1 or 2 in each kennel which has an indoor bit and a small outdoor run no bigger than say 8 ft by 4 ft each). He takes them out for a 15min walk in the morning and in the evening. I also think they go out hunting / shooting etc at the weekend.

The dogs seem fairly well fed but they bark constantly - at every sound and movement from our garden and land, from us opening a kitchen door to me poo picking the horses field. We have had to invest in hundreds of pounds of stock fencing to stop his dogs charging through our horses and chasing our chickens when they are out for the miniscule 30 mins freedom they get a day and we have had to move our bedroom to the front of the house so that we are not woken at 6am every morning by their barking.

Unfortunately the farmer nor the farm manager (the owner of the dogs) isnt very approachable and when I went round and politely asked him to keep the dogs out of our field in case they injured the horses/chickens etc he said I was seeing things and that the dogs are going in to eat the poo and thats not his problem.

We did ask the councils advice but it is a long and drawn out process to make an issue about constant barking and could jeapordise the sale of our house in the future.

I was hoping that some one may have experienced something like this from either side of the fence and if there is anything we can do to minimise the barking, or indeed if there is a welfare issue (dogs kept confined in 23 1/2 hrs a day outside).

Any advice appreciated....... with many thanks

 

[CorvusCorax]

Hmm, in terms of the kennelling, it is a tricky one, if they have food, water shelter and exercise (however little we deem it, 30 mins is better than nothing I suppose) and they look well, then there is not a lot the welfare bodies can do.
Sadly *some* competition, show, trial people do kennel dogs for the majority of the time, and it makes me very sad, I know of a 'middleman/dealer' type in Europe who some people send their dogs to for training or buy from and I will never forget someone describing him - 'X is lovely, but the dogs never get out'.
Whether one agrees with it or not, some people think that when the dogs are out, they are out to work or show and that is it.

The noise issue - you have already put up with a hell of a lot! - you can claim a dog certainly isn't having it's basic needs fulfilled if it is so stressed and bored as to bark all day - do they bark constantly or only as a reaction?

There have been successful prosecutions in the past for noise pollution from dogs here and the law should be on your side.
Is it really that protracted a process for a council employee to come out and record the decibel level?

Also, if the dogs venture onto your land and you have livestock, aren't you entitled to shoot them? Not that you would but farmers are aware of that law more than anyone and I wouldn't be above leashing a shot in the air oopsies.
Can you put signs up claiming your horses might kick/injure/kill a dog? (Or borrow a bolshy stallion....)

The only way to minimise barking in any dog is training, occupying it, tiring it out, none of which this guy is doing, obviously. There are devices, collars, noise emmitters etc but that will mask the issue, not address it.