New Neighbour's Being Unreasonable :(

[Lisa_Louise]

We had new neighbours move in to the rented house next door last Thursday and they seemed ok, until Sunday..... they brought their little black and white dogs home. Although they are cute and I know it's not their fault but I feel I have to do something. This is the situation:

The black dog as far as I can gather is the one making all the noise, as soon as it's let out into the garden it's yap, yap, yap, yap, yap..... until it goes back inside. I thought ok so it's during the day it might be bearable.

Sunday evening she lets the dog out at 11pm and of course comes the yap yap yap yap yap. My daughter gets woken up who is 10 and struggles to get back to sleep. We all go to sleep and I was awoken at 3am by the blinking dog yapping again outside. I wasn't happy but it must have stopped and I must have gone back to sleep. anyway 6am I was woken again by the dog yap yap yapping outside :(

This has been the same every night. I know they haven't been there long but come on, is this going to happen EVERY night now?

I got my rental agreement out last night and read through it about noise. And it said that tenants must not make any noise that can be heard outside of the home after 11pm and not before 8am. Are all tenancy agreements the same? is this the law? She must be breaking the law by disturbing her neighbours at those hours?

[Nini74]

joko, i'd be furious if one of my neighbours wrote to me about an issue, i really would be offended. i'd much rather they mentioned something in passing and i would take all steps possible to deal with any problem complained of.


Dotty, I can't agree with you here I'm afraid - a dog should always have access to drinking water. You can't withhold water from them at night to ensure they won't need to go out. i always empty and re-fill my dogs water just before i go to bed - i let him out the back in case he needs a pee (he doesn't bark whilst out there), comes in, has a little drink of water and then settles down for bed. Dogs can dehydrate easily and must always have water available.

[Mamyalynne]

I too would be seething if a letter was pushed through however polite.

I really do not see that my advice earlier is difficult at all, I speak from experience.

[dotty.]

how do you read :
they are probably letting it have too much water during the evening for one thing.

as

'withhold water '?

[NOX]

Because 'letting a dog have too much water' etc clearly means that the other approach means NOT letting it have as much water as it likes, ie witholding it.
I too leave water down at all times for my animals and agree completely that water should never be rationed or witheld.

[joko]

why would you be offended by a polite letter?

whats wrong with that?

so you would prefer someone - a stranger - just turned up on your doorstep and moaned at you? or worse, had a proper go at you?

you would be happy with that? something that could escalate into a row?


i did say the best thing would be to mention it casually in passing - but thats assuming you see the person often in the street - you could be waiting a good while trying to orchestrate a 'casual meeting'.

not sure why some people seem to have an irrational issue with people writing notes and letters, seeming to view them as insulting, regardless of the actual content - it makes no sense ... its a perfectly normal and acceptable way to communicate

[AlwaysConfused]

Get talking to your new neighbours whilst they are in their garden. Hopefully they will let one of the dogs out. Fondly stroke the dog whilst saying 'so YOU'RE the little booger that woke me up last night!'. Might give them a hint

[bunkmoreland]

i have to say,i think these people are establishing themselves as very selfish neighbours.they must know the dog barking is waking people at that time of the morning,but,they obviously do not care. if they really cared about their dogs,they would take them for walks like dogs love and need,but they obviously cant be bothered to do that either. they may not be nasty people though,so the first chance you get to see them at the front of the house just be natural and say hello! Play it from there by your intuition!

[janbee]

Lisa, if you don't like to approach your neighbours directly, there is a product you can buy. It's called Schnug Bark Control Stop. It costs about a tenner or thereabouts and it's a gadget that you can place anywhere in your home, maybe next to your back door, or even in your garden?, It sends out totally harmless and painless signals which stop a dog barking within 25 feet I think. Check it out online. I'm sure you're not the only neighbour being bothered by the noise. Maybe someone else will also complain to them. I wish you luck. It's no fun having noisy neighbours.

[woofgang]

bunk, how do you know that they don't walk the dogs? All we are told is that the neighbours are new and that the dogs bark in the garden at unsociable hours. I don't think it matters particularly whether the approach is by note or visit so long as it is friendly and non judgemental. personally I would prefer to be approached face to face and I think that its easier to control the conversation that way.

[Lisa_Louise]

I should have said initially, we aren't planning to live here longer than September (at the latest) so we aren't really that fussed if they are pally with us or not in all honesty. But whilst we are here we don't wish to be woken up by the yappy dog several times a night. I would rather slip them a friendly letter as we don't really see them, they both work all day and shut the dog(s) away all day. I just don't see how knocking on their door and trying to be nice about their dog yapping at unreasonable hours is going to work out without any bad feelings of some sort.

Come to think of it, if they both go to work all day and the dog(s) don't go out from morning to evening, WHERE do they go to the toilet during the day?? Surely they can do that over-night as well????!! weird.

[Lisa_Louise]

It's just getting worse!!!!! They let the dogs out 4 times last night... 9pm (when my daughter goes to bed so all she hears is yap yap yap yap for about 15-20 minutes) then 2am t hey are let out yapping and then 2.45am, yep more yaps and again at 4am. I am REALLY tired with all these broken nights. We still haven't been able to see them and I don't fancy having a chat at 2 or 4 in the morning! I will have to post a little friendly note (not that I feel like being particularly friendly) see how that goes......... I will look into getting one of those gadgets that janbee mentioned, I don't want to have to pay much though.

[ummmm]

Are you sure they are both at work all day? That's a lot of times for someone to be getting up in the night to let the dogs out and then have to get up for work in the morning.

[Lisa_Louise]

Yep, I've seen both cars go and not come back until dark. We are detached so I don't actually hear when they get back, only know when the dogs start yapping in the garden. In the note I am going to offer them to have a little chat about it if they wish.

[2sp_]

I've no helpful advice, Lisa_Louise. I can only offer my sympathy.

We had a neighbour with 3 yappy little dogs for about 9 months or so. It was torture. They just wouldn't stop. She moved in just about a month after I had my first baby and just added to the stresses of new parenthood.

We were lucky in that my FIL owns the house she was in, so after me moaning to him incessantly from day 5 of her moving in, she was kicked out. (Not just for the barking dogs, but she stopped paying rent and was generally a nightmare).

I would have done anything to get a bit of peace. I hope the gadget janbee has suggested does the trick, and you get silence/move soon!

[Mamyalynne]

The sooner you approach (in whatever way) the closer you will be to a resolution - good luck.

[woofgang]

I wouldn't bother with the gadget, they don't work :(

[Lisa_Louise]

Thanks 2sp, it does get you down doesn't it, it's like they can't/won't hear the dogs yapping away??!!

I've just looked up that gadget, and it states that it triggers by bark vibration from the dog (won't work on other dogs) so this gadget has to be attached to the dog, that's not going to happen lol !! The summer is going to be awful, I hope we are gone by then but I can't see it.

Thanks mamyalynne :) x

[2sp_]

Do you have the same landlord by any chance?

Or, you could try the local council. I'm sure that they would deal with the noise issue. The SSPCA or RSPCA could be an option too.

I think the owners just don't hear it any more, it becomes white noise to them. Our old neighbour just laughed it off when I complained and yelled at the dogs to shut up (I really was at the end of my tether by that point!). In fact she told me that her old neighbours told her that they wouldn't miss the racket from her house when she moved! Almost seemed quite proud of it.

My heart really does go out to you and your daughter.