We use a shock collar on our dog (varying degrees of intensity by remote control & we have tested all the levels on ourselves as well. 4 being mild & barely noticeable to 10 being holy shit! --in case she wanders into an extremely dangerous situations for that level) when she goes to the dog park & is encouraged by other bark hounds.
We have a herding/guard breed so she woofs at people who come to the yard & door in a low keyed manner so she rarely needs the shock collar at home. --I use it once in awhile when I leave her out on her chain for a half hour or more, to discourage digging. Gotta keep her on her toes by testing her mindful behavior randomly.
Also, in regards to obnoxious kids, fortunately we don’t have any of those here for this particular move. They’re usually a problem everywhere we end up. We move every 2-5 years for the hubby’s IT jobs --too many companies doing fine & then up & folding.
I shoot dogs on my farm when I see them. If they are feral, not a big deal but if they have collars the animal warden goes and fines their owners. We have a fence/leash law, even out here in the countryside, in farm territory. Any time more than 2 dogs get to gather they start to exhibit pack behavior and good little Fluffy who wouldn’t hurt a flea is suddenly mutilating animals and killing animals because of boredom, not hunger. Last major pack killed 2 ewes and did 100+ internal/250+ external stitches to what had been my show rambouillet Rambeau. Last wednesday the newest pack killed 4 geese, wounded mortally 3 more and one poor gander is still just hanging onto life by a thread [but seems to be healing steadily.] The pack belonged to a neighbor, and they are now paying $75 per Roman Tufted and $50 per Embden. They are very lucky the dogs didn’t get into the really rare heirloom breeding pens.
Congratulations: the Joads have moved in next door to you. They moved away from the house next door to us and I wondered where they would end up. You could try talking to them about the annoyances, but it didn’t do much good when I did it. I thought we had escaped them when we left Alaska - the broken down trailer, the blue tarps, the mountain of nonfunctional bicycles, the asshole children, all on a property worth around $1M - but they apparently followed us to Oregon. Now, I thought they moved to Florida, or at least that’s what they told us, but apparently they heard that they would be better off living next to you.
Sometimes people just live at a really high volume level and don’t understand that it’s really annoying to those around them. I’d suggest talking it over with whoever wears the pants over there.
They’re probably not likely to move, if they have school-age kids. You know, unless they’re home-schoolers. I’d say your best bet would involve approaching them and cultivating a friendship. Could be a little late for that, though, after five years.
W. C. Fields, you say? Perhaps you’d be happier in Philadelphia…
I wonder if your neighbors have any complaints about you? Judging your neighbors does not solve anything. Perhaps they do good things you dont know about. Maybe if your house was on fire one would risk their life to save you. Still want them to move?
We had neighbors that would get cute kittens and puppies for their children, and once the animals grew up and the kids lost interest they’d just let them wander then neighborhood and get killed off in traffic.
Eventually they got foreclosed on and moved away, and three young women who just graduated from college moved in. It’s a huge improvement, and not just because all three are super hot.
I have no fucks to give if my neighbours do good things I don’t know about. I only want the noisy fucks to shut the hell up. If they have complaints about me, they should either raise them, or bitch to themselves and their friends like I do about them. It’s the way of the world, yanno.
If they were on fire, I’d save them. If only to stop the screaming.
Seriously, who cares if someday in some mythical future some possible fire broke out and they might (maybe) die saving me? That’s no reason to put up with Whiny the Dog and Vroom Vroom the Car and Shrieky the Kid right now.
Go back the benevolent society, sunshine. The rest of us are busy coping with idiot neighbours.
Yeah, I feel for the animals & responsible livestock owners.
Fortunately I don’t have livestock on my property (we rent currently anyway) but my aunt’s done her fair share of killing cats, coyotes & neighbor dogs who’ve gone after her geese, chickens & goats over the last 20 years.
–As well as her fair share of finishing off her own stock when they’ve been mutilated: “Who wants/should have to pay a $100+ vet bill on an animal I bought for $6?”
She’s nursed several back to health after attacks that don’t require extensive care.
On the other side of the issue, we just got some new neighbors 5 months ago & they’re committed to keeping the property up & they’re outside every weekend working on a new, quiet project.
The renters before them were a redneck couple who did loud, stupid shit & wrecked the house. The renters before them had 2 aggressive pit mixes they let roam at large & after several complaints, they were kicked out.
I’m so counting my blessings on the current renters! (We live in a rural/suburb where it’s prefab houses all on @1 acre long plots (houses are nearly side by side though). Newish zone about 7-10 years old it looks like.)
Yeah, a fence sounds nice in theory, but it still doesn’t block loud noise & is pretty good at keeping out most loose dogs, but it’s a heck of a cost & something else to maintain or for the neighbors to wreck on their side, that eventually causes the fence to break down.
If anything, in the past it’s encouraged people to be louder, thinking that the fence will adequately block their noise.
But if we settled down on a spot permanently, heck yes! A good fence would be great just to let our own dog run freely in the yard instead of on her 120’ish tie-out.
In regards to dereg: Most of these people are selfish jerks & keep doing what they do out of spite or foolishness. I wouldn’t trust them to tie my shoe let alone be useful in a catastrophe.
Their regular, day-to-day actions speak volumes on their character & usefulness. Wishful thinking about their potential usefulness in a catastrophe doesn’t justify being a horrid neighbor the rest of the time.
We’ve got trustworthy & useful neighbors around us, so yes, I want them to get their shit, get out & go live in a NIMBY zone instead of junking up the neighborhood generally being useless tools.
I have two models which are really, really effective.
Check labels - sleazoids are copying the distinctive trait of one.
The first is the “Guardian Outdoor Bark Control” - there are two models - one is made to look like a bird house (this is the thing getting copied by junk) and one like a bird feeder.
The feeder has time controls, the bird house does not. Guardian also makes an Indoor unit, which may or may not have enough range for your purpose.
The heavy artillery is GoodLife Dog Silencer Pro - this has both AC power supply and remote clicker (added cost options). This thing is nasty - the Guardian produces noise only as long as the bark. This one has a song it plays - you trip it, you get the whole thing.
I tripped one of the Guardians within range of my cat - she distrusted me as long as I was holding it. The GoodLife does not bother her.
Cats are not rabbits, and a sound which is hateful to one species may not be to another.
Both are somewhat directional - the area behind them seems at least relatively safe.
BarkOff is junk. It appears that the transducer is the critical and expensive part - it is what actually produces the sound.
1 of those might be handy for the neighbor across the way.
He’s using an electric fence/collar system so he’s used to electronic dog control. But he got a younger dog recently that barks a bit much so those ideas might be handy for him.
(Older dog is on e-fence while the younger is on a tie-out chain.)
Yes, I do. If they don’t, a future of constant annoyance is a given. I don’t consider that a fair tradeoff for the miniscule chance that three very low probability events will happen in rapid succession: a catastrophic fire in my home, my inability to move, and their rescuing me.
I concede that they might call 911 for me, but I don’t know of any correlation between being annoying and being alert. I’d guess that whoever replaces them would have just as much chance of helping me, and a good chance of being less annoying.
usedtobe: Thanks for the info. I’m seriously considering one for the back hallway, pointed down at their door on the floor below. If it had a hand-held remote I could click as soon as the barking started, so much the better.
