The thread on barking dogs got me wondering. How much barking do you think is too much? In other words, how much would a neighbor’s dog have to bark for you to contact the neighbor, or authorities? Is there a point at which your complaint becomes more reasonable?
Note, I realize things are different for city/suburb as opposed to country living. So I am talking about people who live in residential areas, with homes on lots of less that an acre.
My current neighborhood has lots that are mostly 50-75’ wide, and 100-200’ deep. My immediate neighbor has a really nice dog. Maybe 3-4 times a day they let the dog in the yard for periods of 10-20 minutes. During these times, the dog will bark for the majority of time he is out. He does not seem to be barking at anything in particular that I can see – pedestrians, other dogs, etc. He listens well and will shut up if I or my wife tell him to, but he will start up again soon thereafter. I have never heard the neighbors tell him to shut up.
This never occurs outrageously early or late – say only between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Is this something I should just put up with?
I have a dog myself. She never barks for prolonged periods outside (or in!) She basically goes into the yard to shit or piss. Sometimes she just wants to hang out outside, but if she barks, we call her in immediately. Generally she prefers to be where we are. We do not need to leave her out for extended periods for “exercise” because we walk and run her regularly – during which time she does not bark. And, of course, she is usually out while we are - working, playing, or relaxing in our front and back yard – but rarely if ever barks then.
I have also had previous dogs or different breeds, none of which I allowed to stay outside barking. So IME it is possible to have a dog that does not bark excessively.
Just curious of your opinions as to what level of consideration one should reasonably extend to – and expect of – neighbors.
Well, my wife and I own a Rhodesian Ridgeback - rather he owns us - and the breed is well known to not be a barking breed…they use slight intimidation, so in our house and on our property we have no problems with barking dogs…My immediate neighbor roughly 500 yards to west of my property has a Beagle.
hmmm…must put nicely for other beagle owners…
I have never heard a howling bark so offensive in my life. I have had to physically and mentally restrain myself from letting my dog eat theirs…just kidding about the last part.
Anecdote: The neighbors keep their hound outside till 10-11 at night. It howls it’s bark at every little vermin rustling in the leaves. I have called mr. erikson and asked him to please, let his dog in or otherwise try and stop his barking. And he usually does. The Dog is getting on in years and the fequency and pitch are changing he’s becoming slightly better. As for your OP - when the dog barks incessantly for more than 20 minutes with no owner intervention is too much barking in my eyes/ears.
Maximum allowed level of barking: Zip, zero, none.
If you dog barks in the least, be pro-active (ugh, I know). Go talk to the neighbors. Let them know you are aware of the problem. Spell out to them exactly what you will do about it. Then follow up on it. Be sure that the neighbors know that you really are carrying out your plan. Intention is easy, action is what matters.
As to how I handled it: I got this from a dog training book: Take a bunch of washed out tin cans. Punch some holes in them and tie to a loop of string. When the dog barks, throw the cans at the ground under the dog. (Do not hit the dog!) They hate the noise and in a couple days learn to associate barking with “horrible noise.” From then on it’s just occasional “refresher courses.” One benefit of this technique is that when the neighbors hear barking and then clang, they get verification that you are a responsible person directly dealing with the problem.
Dogs can be significantly trained. All it requires is 100% commitment on your part. Be the Alpha Male, then everything is easy.
Exactly, I spent a solid two weeks with my pup when I got him. RR’s have the attendency to be very one-man dogs…so my wife would aid in all the training. Essentially we used target trainging…Dog does prescribed behavior he get’s a treat, dog does adverse behavior 0 reinforecment. Very effective and works very quickly.
ftg, I’m not sure I agree with you. Some very reasonable people WANT their dogs to bark on occasion – specifically, when there are strange humans or large animals entering their property. That’s a legitimate desire on a dog owner’s part, I think.
Moreover, even in many places with anti-noise ordinances, the threshhold isn’t set at zero barking: the threshholds may be defined by a decibal level, by a time of day, by an amount of time, or even by a “would annoy a reasonable person” standard (which is what our local ordinance uses, roughly speaking). if your neighbor’s dog is not exceeding legal barking limits, going to the neighbor with threats of action is very unlikely to be effective. In that case, you basically will need to rely on the neighbor’s goodwill, and will have better luck going over there with cookies than with bluster.
I think a good rule is that barking is OK until you ask the dog to stop. We’ve taught jeevpup a command (“Enough”) which means “stop barking.” It is still not 100%, mainly because we really haven’t had good opportunities to get him to bark. Instead, we have to seize the opportunities that present itself when he is barking. (Interesting note - he barks at people walking by on the street that he sees through the window, but is generally quiet towards people coming into the house). But he has the basic idea.
I think anything more than a few barks on a regular basis is too many (unless there is a legitimate reason to bark, and I don’t mean a squirrel). I’ve never had to deal with this, though, so I’m not certain when I’d first broach the subject with the neighbors or call the police. I’m currently the only dog owner in my building, but my previous doggy neighbors were both quiet (one was a German Shepherd, the other a Rottweiler).
I suspect I wouldn’t call the police unless the barking was continuous or late at night. If I were in your situation, I would talk to the neighbors if I knew them and liked them; if they gave me the creeps I might start with an anonymous note instead. 20 minutes continuous barking 3 or 4 times a day is unacceptable in my book.
My dog used to bark when I wasn’t home, due to separation anxiety and boredom, and I wish that my neighbor had told me as soon as it started happening. It would have been a lot easier to get him to stop before the behavior had been established. I felt horrible when I found out about it, and it did take a while to correct, but I was able to do it. I have a particularly barky breed (Norwegian Elkhound).
What I don’t understand is how some people can just ignore their own barking dog.
Our dogs (I have 3) aren’t usually outside unsupervised. When they are out, they don’t usually bark unless a) they see a strange dog or b) someone walks by in the street. They get much more excited about other dogs than they do about people. If I’m at home and hear them, I’ll either yell at them to shut up or bring them inside.
I don’t think ZERO barking is a reasonable expectation for dogs. Minimal barking is what I strive for with my dogs.
I have a very low tolerance for barking dogs. I have no idea how people who have dogs that bark all night live with it. I couldn’t sleep through it, even if it was my dogs who were barking.
I’d be happy if dogs could only bark out of necessity, like when a stranger walks through the neighborhood, or when there’s an emergency of some sort. My neighbors had two dogs that would bark late at night if someone walked past our homes, and we kinda liked that, because it made us feel secure and guarded. But I don’t care for dogs that bark at the slightest provocation, and I would probably complain to the owner if it persisted for more than ten-fifteen minutes.
I think when you own a pet (or have a child, for that matter) that can make a lot of noise, you’re responsible for keeping it from being a nuisance. And not a nuisance by your definitions, but by the definitions your neighbors might have. Too many pet owners expect everyone else to live with their definitions of “enough barking” and “too early/late to be barking.”
I had neighbors in a neighborhood with very small yards with 4 totally obnoxious dogs. These dogs which were in the yard day and night would bark if I walked past the windows while I was in my house. When I went out into my yard they barked incessently and actually climbed over the fence and barked and threatened me in my yard. My neighbor would not let her children out of the house alone for fear of these dogs.
We repeatedly asked the owners to control the dogs to no avail and subsequently called the police. The owner of the dogs came to my house and threatened me (a middle aged woman). When showed video tape of the dogs in my yard he said he would sue me for taking movies of his dogs without his permission :eek: The dog owners then put spotlights on our bedroom window so it was like noon in the middle of the night.
This is only true if a dog is smarter than a turnip. I don’t think there are any beagle owners who can get the damn things to be quiet. If there are, I’d love to know the secret, since short of removing their vocal cords… How long do they live, anyway? Pete’s about 13.
First of all, people walking around the neighborhood are never grounds for barking. People have a right to walk around without being harrased by dogs.
Secondly, a dog that has been completely trained to not bark for any mundane reason will still bark if there’s an intruder in the house. Since the chances of this happening are quite low, 0% is a close enough approximation.
I have met so many idiot dog owners that encourage their dogs to bark (we have one next door to us now) on the idiotic grounds that this will warn them of burglars. Umm, the dog barks 24/7, how does that work???
My old dog was an Irish Setter. Fairly high up on the antsy scale. He absolutely loved when I worked with him on any sort of training. That’s because I was the alpha male and my attention just thrilled him. (99% of dog training is really owner training.)
But I do sympathize with you Cocker Spaniel owners. A dog does have to have brains in order to be trainable.
I will say that my boss, the director of a semi-large humane society and a professional in the field for over two decades, has two beagles that Will Not Shut Up. If there was a way to train beagles not to bay, she woulda done it; as it is, she just moved to the country away from other houses.
Dogs bark. I disagree that you can train them never to bark, perhaps short of beating them into submission. However, my dogs are discouraged from barking unless there’s good reason. I live alone, in the last house on a dead-end street. Soon I’ll be moving to an even more isolated spot out in the country, with no house within visible distance from my house. Besides just being companions, my dogs (a german shepherd, a doberman and an airedale) are my protectors. So I don’t get upset if they bark at the meter reader. They don’t bark at the neighbors going into their own driveways, they don’t bark at the neighbors’ dogs (in my neighborhood most people have at least two dogs).
All neighbors owe each other a certain amount of tolerance for irritating behaviour. Maybe 3 times a year oe of my neighbors throws a party with loud country music playing outside. I don’t like country music, and I don’t like hearing music late into the night. But since it isn’t a regular occurance, I don’t make a fuss. Sometimes my other neighbor starts mowing his yard at 8:00 am on a Saturday morning, when any sane person would be asleep. I don’t complain. Because I know that there are things I do that probably irritate him. (In fact, he came over once and asked if he could trim me trees, because they were bothering him. I told him to go for it.) On the good side of having neighbors, that same neighbor blows the leaves off my driveway every time he has his leaf-blower out. The other neighbor was laid up with a back injury most of the summer and I mowed his yard for him. That’s what living in a community is about - patience and tolerance.
I find walking to the edge of my property, with my pooch, and staring the the dog helps somewhat quell the barking. My dog looks up at me and says…" Hey, we’re not all smart obedient types…I’d have a damn sore throat if I barked as long as that idiot…"
This is an interesting thread to me, as we’ve gone from having a really -non- bark-y breed (Irish Wolfhound) to a -very- bark-y breed. We had Molly the Wolfhound for nine wonderful years, and she passed away nearly a year ago. This November, we got Pogo, a Mini Pinscher, and lemme tell ya, it’s a revelation.
He’s very protective of the family, and will bark at strange cars parked outside of the apartment, at strange people coming up the stairs, and occasionally at his own reflection in the window. (Note: Never, -ever- put a mirror in front of his face. He goes insane.) He hates the vacuum and sees it as a threat, so he barks at that, too. We’re good at getting him quiet, but as I’m used to a non-bark-y dog, even a minute or two of barking is too much, IMO. The downstairs neighbours also have a dog, some kind of Husky mix, who barks more often than ours, so I don’t feel as bad as I probably could about my own dog’s barkiness.
I’d definitely say that duration and time of day/night factors in to what is “too much” barking, as well as reasons for said barking. 10 minutes in the middle of the afternoon is totally different than 10 minutes at midnight, you know? That being said, I think I’m going to invest some time in making one of those “horrible noise” shakers. I’ve got lots of experience training big dogs, but training a little dog is, pardon the expression, a whole 'nother animal, and I think I need to try a new tactic.
The people down the hall from me have some sort of dog that barks every time I pass their apartment door. I hear them shushing the dog as I go by, but it obviously doen’t seem to make a difference. I am mostly unaware of the dog otherwise.
Is it possible to train the dog so that it would be alert, but only bark if someone stopped at their apartment door?
Then again, the people in at the other end of the hall had really loud birds…
