Chastain86 Wars with The Neighbors, Part II: The Return of the Bastards

The BBQ Pit
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First of all, thanks to the people that helped me out the last time I warred with the neighbors.

The neighbors from the previous thread are now moved on, to Minnesota or some such shit. Good riddance to the people fucking up my property values, if you want my opinion, but now I’m having a problem with the neighbor right next door.

See, this neighbor is a nice enough guy, but he’s got a dog. A big-ass dog, actually. Some kind of near-pony, Airedale or some-such-shit.

A big-ass dog that unfortunately won’t shut the fuck up. Particularly when said neighbor is out carousing at 2:00am. :mad:

Bark. Bark. Bark. Fucking bark. Bark. Goddamned stupid dog.

I did what any sane person trying to get a good night’s sleep would do, call the police. Friends, I’m here to tell you the police ain’t having it. They offered to “mail out some literature to you and the neighbor about reconciling your differences regarding your neighbor’s noisy pet.” :confused:

Differences? WTF? How’s that helping now, you jackass? I declined the literature request.

I settled on taping a note to his door that read, “Dog still barking, 2:00am, cannot sleep. Please take care of this for future.”

To him, this note apparently must’ve read, “Continue doing what you’ve been doing! Good job keeping your poor dog locked up in a spare bedroom, causing him to bark incessantly, because I can’t get enough of being awake until ungodly hours listening to your almost-horse bay at the moon!”

The last time this occurred, I did something I’m less proud of, which is tape another note to his door that read, “Dog barking again, 1:00am now. Next time this happens, I’ll assume someone is breaking into your house and call the police.” No reason for him to know this won’t work.

But my question is, what can I reasonably DO about this? I have a HOA I could complain to, but what are they going to do? Do I have any recourse? I don’t really want to freak out about this, because I know dogs bark, but it’s obvious the poor thing wants to be let out of wherever it is. (It’s obviously in the house, because I’ve peered over the fence, and it’s not in the lawn.)

Would an anti-dog-barking device help me? The distance between our houses isn’t that far, but what is the typical range?
Any advice?

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There are a ton of dogs in my neighborhood, including my own. All of them bark from time to time but none of them do at late hours or for long periods of time. We have one crazy lady who hates dogs and never leaves the house. She leaves notes on all of our doors from time to time and we’ve learned to just ignore her. It’s just random. She has no clue which dog is barking at what time. All of us have had the experience of her calling and telling us to shut our dog up when it’s a totally different dog barking at the UPS guy or something.

Why do I tell you this? One day the voices in that lady’s head told her to call the cops on me. According to the animal control guy, I wasn’t even close to vioating any laws. He did explain to me what the laws were and, assuming these laws are typical, your neighbor is in the wrong. Continuous barking (like for an hour or more straight) is a violation. Lots of barking during the hours of like 10pm to 6am is too. Finally, he really needed two separate parties to make a complaint before he could cite anyone. This protects us from the crazies.

Is there another neighbor who is willing to make a complaint too? I’m not advocating a false complaing. Is there another neighbor who is also legitimately bothered by this dog?

Another option to pursue is a small claims lawsuit. Document all of the times that this happens over the course of a couple of months and take 'em to court.

Haj

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Go down to the police station and pick up the literature. Make sure they send a copy to your noisy neighbor.

Just a guess here, but I’d bet the literature mentions what your rights are, what their rights are, and what recourse you have.

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Copy/Pasted this off of the pheonix.gov website, you may already know this…

Barking dogs

Phone Number: (602)262-6466
Description: A pamphlet is provided to individuals involved in barking dog situations. The pamphlet contains behavior modification tools for eliminating the behavior and suggestions on how to discuss the issue with the dog owner.

Phone Phoenix (602) 262-6262 Extension: 118