Dealing with two neighbors and their barking dogs

[Anonymous]

Isn't there something you can buy and put in your yard that makes dogs stop barking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe give them some names of some dog trainers, or a Dog Whisperer DVD. The dogs need to be walked for a long time in the a.m./p.m. to help keep them quiet. There's doggie daycare as well. Maybe offer to throw in a few bucks; it would be worth it in my opinion. I had this problem when I lived in Arlington so I feel your pain! I ended up moving, as it was a rental.

OP here. When my DH went to the neighbors behind our house last night at 10 pm he asked her about training, and she blew him off saying nope, that's just the way this breed is. WTF?????

Again, I would be VERY nice, but let them know that you just can't take it anymore and from now on, you will call the police.

You're right. Ok, I need to put on my big girl pants, and dredge up my Queens upbringing, and just do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try calling animal control or the police to see if they are violating any noise ordinances.
People who let dogs behave like this likely aren't good dog owners or great themselves. The animals are barking out of boredom, but you have every right to peace and quiet in your own home.

OP here. I looked up montgomery county's noise ordinance and it says violations are anything over 63 decibels from 7 a.m. - 9 p.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. on weekends. I haven't looked into what the average dog bark decibel is but I'm guessing it's higher than that. I don't know the neighbors behind us but I know our next door neighbors and the thing that makes this tough is that they are very nice in general. Just very insensitive. I don't understand how they can't see how obnoxious they're being. I'm really hesitant to call the police because it will make for very tense relations, obviously. Ugh. This sucks. We lived in our old house for 12 years and dealt with car break ins and other stuff, but I think I'd prefer that to this!!

The relevant part of the county code here isn't the noise ordinance, it's Montgomery County Code, Sec. 5-203(a)(6): "An owner must not allow an animal to cause noise that is loud enough and persistent enough to disturb another person’s quiet enjoyment."

Call Montgomery County Police, Animal Services Division via the police non-emergency number, 301-279-8000 (or 240-314-8930 if you're in the City of Rockville).

[Anonymous]

Cal the cops for sure. You can bet if your kids were outside screaming at 4am someone would call the cops. Dog owners like this are the worst. Sorry OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try calling animal control or the police to see if they are violating any noise ordinances.
People who let dogs behave like this likely aren't good dog owners or great themselves. The animals are barking out of boredom, but you have every right to peace and quiet in your own home.

OP here. I looked up montgomery county's noise ordinance and it says violations are anything over 63 decibels from 7 a.m. - 9 p.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. on weekends. I haven't looked into what the average dog bark decibel is but I'm guessing it's higher than that. I don't know the neighbors behind us but I know our next door neighbors and the thing that makes this tough is that they are very nice in general. Just very insensitive. I don't understand how they can't see how obnoxious they're being. I'm really hesitant to call the police because it will make for very tense relations, obviously. Ugh. This sucks. We lived in our old house for 12 years and dealt with car break ins and other stuff, but I think I'd prefer that to this!!

The relevant part of the county code here isn't the noise ordinance, it's Montgomery County Code, Sec. 5-203(a)(6): "An owner must not allow an animal to cause noise that is loud enough and persistent enough to disturb another person’s quiet enjoyment."

Call Montgomery County Police, Animal Services Division via the police non-emergency number, 301-279-8000 (or 240-314-8930 if you're in the City of Rockville).

Oh my gosh, thank you!! I was looking for something along these lines but couldn't find it so I was just relying on the noise ordinance language. Thank you thank you thank you!

[Anonymous]

My solution would probably be frowned upon...

[Anonymous]

If you live in VA you can get chickens and then when the dog attacks your chickens, you can shot it. Problem solved. (Of course you might live in a HOA that bans chickens).

[Anonymous]

Call the cops - seriously. You've tried to be nice and that didn't work.

Also - you can buy an ultrasonic device that discourages the barking. I've had friends use them in apartments and it really helped. I've heard of varying degrees of success with dogs outside - depends on the dog and how close you can put the device to where the dog is. But worth a shot. Everytime the dog barks, an annoying high pitch noise is played that the dog doesn't like (humans can't hear it). Essentially it trains the dog not to bark. The neighbor will never know you have it and it's not harmful to the dog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe give them some names of some dog trainers, or a Dog Whisperer DVD. The dogs need to be walked for a long time in the a.m./p.m. to help keep them quiet. There's doggie daycare as well. Maybe offer to throw in a few bucks; it would be worth it in my opinion. I had this problem when I lived in Arlington so I feel your pain! I ended up moving, as it was a rental.

OP here. When my DH went to the neighbors behind our house last night at 10 pm he asked her about training, and she blew him off saying nope, that's just the way this breed is. WTF?????

Out of curiosity, do you know what the breed is?

[Anonymous]

Our next-door neighbors in our townhouse-style condo had two beagles who barked incessantly. They were left alone all. day. long. and it made my work from home days nearly unbearable (not to mention our evenings). It was honestly like Chinese water torture. They would also put the dogs out on their balcony (connected to ours), where the barking would echo throughout our street. We tried casually mentioning it - Hey, did you know they bark during the day? can we help? etc. but to no avail. When we finally had to complain to our HOA, who issued a warning to the owners. We eventually put our condo up for sale and were so paranoid that potential buyers would be turned off by the noise. We were lucky that we just got out of the situation, but sometimes there's no good solution.

[Anonymous]

F-ing owners. My new neighbor has one that barks too. F'ing hate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have advice, but I can commiserate with you. We're in a small condo building and the two units below us have dogs that bark incessantly. If they hear a thump, a door opening, a rustle in the hallway, the barking starts.
One woman just got ANOTHER dog too, who also barks. We were considering getting a dog, but we're so annoyed with the downstairs cacophony, we're putting it off.

OP here. Yup, we've been talking about getting a dog too. We had a dog who died two years ago, and we've been waiting to get into a bigger house and for me to start working from home before getting another dog and we were so excited because this move led to both of those things happening. But now my DH is really hesitant b/c he's worried that our new dog will make these neighbors' dogs bark even more. So frustrating!!!!!

Maybe you could offer to walk their dogs if you wanted the enjoyment of a dog? Could benefit everyone? Especially the sweet doggies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have advice, but I can commiserate with you. We're in a small condo building and the two units below us have dogs that bark incessantly. If they hear a thump, a door opening, a rustle in the hallway, the barking starts.
One woman just got ANOTHER dog too, who also barks. We were considering getting a dog, but we're so annoyed with the downstairs cacophony, we're putting it off.

OP here. Yup, we've been talking about getting a dog too. We had a dog who died two years ago, and we've been waiting to get into a bigger house and for me to start working from home before getting another dog and we were so excited because this move led to both of those things happening. But now my DH is really hesitant b/c he's worried that our new dog will make these neighbors' dogs bark even more. So frustrating!!!!!

Maybe you could offer to walk their dogs if you wanted the enjoyment of a dog? Could benefit everyone? Especially the sweet doggies.

[Anonymous]

How does the ghost of your cousin-in-law feel about this?

[Anonymous]

For $40, get this. It is worth a try!

http://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-Outdoor-Ultrasonic-Bark-Deterrent/dp/B000UZNLGA/ref=pd_sbs_petsupplies_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1SFZ7VWE0KGZGJMT36WP