Dog Barking: Neighbour or Warden?

The Sweeper

Guys

Looking for some opinions here.

I'm living out in rural Australia for 18 months now. Our property is an acre, the guys on the right of us are 1.5 acres, the left are similar - so we've got a lot of space, in otherwords. I actually live with my mother in law, but we're moving out into our own place when our house is built, which - as per my sig - isn't that long now.

About 2-3 months ago, new neighbours moved in to the right of us. They started off with a little, young, skinny dog, looked all the world like a jackal. They couldn't keep him inside, and one day he got into our chicken run and bundled up one of the chooks. He'd been running through our property and onto our left neighbour's property too. The eldest son, who doesn't live there full time, came and got the dog after the chicken incident, and our left neighbour went in to complain to the right-hand neighbour, because our left-hand neighbour keeps birds (chickens, pheasant, guinea fowl, peacock, partridge) and wasn't too pleased about this uncontrolled dog.

Cue: little skinny jackal dog disappears. Haven't seen it since.

The right-hand neighbours have a lot of people around socially - my mother-in-law tried to introduce herself when they moved in, but they were pretty short with her, so it's fair to say that after stilted introductions and the chicken incident, we don't have a great relationship with them.

Since the jackal-type pup, we've seen them with a husky-type pup (came and went same day, could be a friend's dog), and a brindle staffie pup (that was there last weekend, dunno if it still is there). These dogs might belong to one of the friends/relatives they have around, but it's all a bit odd.

About two weeks ago, two large retrievers have also appeared. One old, long-haired dog, one young, very blonde lab. The lab is a beautiful looking dog in his prime, and there's no question he's in good condition.

HOWEVER.

Every single night since the lab-retriever dogs arrived, the young lab has started barking at night. It's getting worse and worse, and for the last five nights in a row he's started at 3am and continued until first light, which is around 5.30-6am.

He could be barking at anything. There's a lot of wildlife around here - possums and kangaroos being very common. However, I think they just leave him outside at night with the run of their property, I'm not sure where his bed is, but it's still cold at night, and in my experience a cold dog at night is an awake dog.

There are a number of problems with this. First, we can't figure out why the neighbours aren't going out to the lab when he's barking. Surely he's waking them up too? He's even woken up our left neighbours and chances are he's waking up the people to the right of the dog-property.

Second, what do we do about it? It can't go on - we're exhausted. I moved to the couch in the living room at the other end of the house at four this morning and I could still hear him. However we have a crap relationship with these people already. My husband wants to go around there this evening and talk to them about it, but if a row ensues, we're moving out in six weeks and leaving my mother in law on her own to deal with these neighbours.

I could let my left-hand neighbour deal with this, because he's a copper, but they've already been around over the jackal-type-pup and their birds and we need to figure out a better way than just sending him out first all the time.

Do you think we should try tackling this ourselves first, or just go straight to the dog warden about these folks?

cbond

I have the same problem so Im thinking of buying a anti barking device.

http://www.ultimatebarkcontrol.com/ds_pro.htm

carwash_2006

I don't know how successful that anti barking device is likely to be. I know some of these things the dogs - or whatever animal it's supposed to deter - get used to them after a few weeks. It would be great if this one is different, let us know how you get on if you go ahead with it.

Re the OP's situation, I know I would probably go the chicken route and let the other neighbor sort it out. You wouldn't want to leave your mother-in-law with potentially more hostile neighbors to deal with. Hope it can be dealt with for you soon.

DonkeyStyle \o/

I could let my left-hand neighbour deal with this, because he's a copper, but they've already been around over the jackal-type-pup and their birds and we need to figure out a better way than just sending him out first all the time.

You could go over together... if both neighbours are complaining about the barking, it'll be pretty hard to deny there's a problem that needs fixing.
Maybe they're just heavy sleepers or something.

cbond wrote: »

I have the same problem so Im thinking of buying a anti barking device.

Please, for the love of God don't... I was driven absolutely insane by a device like that for months as every few seconds it'd sweep down into a frequency I could hear, and the fking thing was sounding non-stop 24/7.
It's worse than the barking dogs by far... my chest tightens just thinking about it.

Sigma Force

Perhaps get some advice from your local SPCA over there

Jumpy

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote: »

You could go over together... if both neighbours are complaining about the barking, it'll be pretty hard to deny there's a problem that needs fixing.
Maybe they're just heavy sleepers or something.

Please, for the love of God don't... I was driven absolutely insane by a device like that for months as every few seconds it'd sweep down into a frequency I could hear, and the fking thing was sounding non-stop 24/7.
It's worse than the barking dogs by far... my chest tightens just thinking about it.

That sounds more like a mosquito device.

The Sweeper

Spoke to local council's animal control department and explained all, as above. Asked them what THEY thought we should do. They said that, in light of the mom-in-law on her own in a few weeks thing, that they'd call out to the neighbours and just have a chat with them about noise control on their dogs at night. They took my mobile number and said the warden would give me a shout and let me know how they got on.

(The laws in Aus are very, very similar to the laws in the UK and Ireland. Some tweaks, but essentially they're based on same judicial systems.)

Warden didn't call me yesterday, but as I'm 10 hours ahead of ye, I can tell ye I was woken up at 4.45 this morning (mother in law woke up at 4.30) and the dog went on until 5.30am.

We've been told to keep a barking dog diary that outlines when it starts every night, so I've started just putting the wake-up time on the calendar. If I got back to sleep properly I'd consider putting a 'barking ends' time on there too, but as it stands, he barks in bursts, so every time I think I'm getting back to sleep, he wakes me up again.

Beth

Thats a rotten situation you're in.
I'm glad the warden is/was taking it seriously enough to go and call. Sleep deprivation is not an enjoyable way to go about one's life!

The law here states

Excessive barking is the cause of a lot of complaints and if you find that you are being disturbed by a dog's barking, that is considered excessive by standard means, you can make a complaint to the District Court under Noise Regulations. Before making your formal complaint to the District Court, you must first inform the dog owner of your intentions by completing a form under the Control of Dogs Act 1986 which are available from your local authority.

Is there similar where you are, where you actually have to inform the owner before the dog warden will take it more seriously and actually ring you back about the situation if he says he will?

That barking diary isnt a bad idea at all, especially as the lack of sleep can affect so many parts of a persons life (late for work, missing appointments, sleeping in, too tired to drive etc)

The Sweeper

Section 32.2 of our Domestic (Feral and Nuisance) Animals Act states:

2) A dog or cat is to be regarded as a nuisance for the purposes of this
section-

(a) if it injures or endangers the health of any person; or

(b) if it creates a noise, by barking or otherwise, which persistently
occurs or continues to such a degree or extent that it unreasonably
interferes with the peace, comfort or convenience of any person in any
other premises.

The dog barking diary needs to be kept for two weeks. It needs to note the time, date, weather conditions and reason for the dog's barking, as well as its effect on you.

What I don't want to happen, frankly, is that we have to go down that route at all. Barking dog diaries are designed for people who live in close proximity, because they and the procedures that follow on from them require co-signatories in the shape of other neighbours, and supporting evidence from other neighbours that are bothered by the dog.

The suggested example is:

11/02/05 3:00 pm 3:02 pm 4 barks Nobody in street
11/02/05 3:10 pm 3:13 pm 8 barks Man walking dog
11/02/05 3:18 pm 3:18 pm 2 barks Nobody in street
11/02/05 3:28 pm 3:30 pm 16+ barks Children in street
11/02/05 3:33 pm 3:33 pm 3 barks Nobody in street
11/02/05 3:45 pm 3:47 pm 6 barks Plane passing over
11/02/05 3:52 pm 3:52 pm 2 barks Nobody in street
11/02/05 3:58 pm 4:03 pm 16+ barks Cat on fence
11/02/05 5:22 pm 5:24 pm 10+ barks Neighbour returned home

Which means I actually won't get any sleep at all because I'll be up from 3am to first light with me pencil and me torch.

Our left-hand neighbour's bedroom is 300 metres away from the barking property, so while they can hear the dog, closing their bedroom window creates enough of a noise barrier that it won't wake them if they're asleep already. (Yes, we sleep with all doors and windows closed.)

The risk now is that it just becomes an emotive issue. I now believe my neighbours are a bunch of ignorant pricks, and I'm tired enough during the day to be tearful and snappish with people. Is my assessment of them unfair? Possibly. Who knows, perhaps they sleep with earplugs in because one of them has snored for years. I don't know. I don't care. I just want them to keep their dog quiet at night. I couldn't care less what it does during the day. The ambient noise of a household during the day -dishwashers, washing machines, the telly, the radio, cars on the road outside - that's enough so his barking, while still audible, fades into the background. None of that applies in the middle of the night.