Help: How can i shut up neighbours dogs barking

Have problem with dogs barking and am at my wits end......

I am surrounded in my estate by houses where there are dogs. These dogs bark constantly, morning, noon and night. I have spoken with the owners a few times and each time they are apologetic and the dogs are quiet for a day or two but then it just goes back to the way it was...

Have spoken with the guards but they say they have no power over this and all they can do is call round and speak with the owners. The said that really only thing you can do is issue court proceedings.

The residents association haven't been much help either as the commitee members are dog owners-their suggestion was talk to the people

Does anyone know if there are any products on the market that give off a sound each time the dog barks in response to the dog barking that only dog hears and that annoys the dog and stuns it stop it barking and that maybe through time it will stop barking altogether as it associated barking with this not nice feeling - maybe even like a whistle that i could blow that only it can hear that stuns it into silence ?

Get onto your local authority about noise pollution.

For example a quick google throws up this: [broken link removed]

All local councils have similar. Follow the procedure, get advice from the council and take it further.

You might have more success if you mobilise a few more disgruntled neighbours as well.

OR - get earplugs to wear at home during the day. I am plagued with alarms constantly going off and despite repeated complaints, the same people continue to offend, so rather than become so frustrated that I explode, I wear ear plugs.

I cant agree with any kind of anti barking device, its cruel - and its not the dogs fault, its the owners for leaving bored dogs in a garden all day, so punishing the dogs isnt right. If the owners cant take responsibility for their dogs causing noise pollution then chase it up through the correct channels.

I have had this problem for years and I cannot find any product on the market to work (having spent hundreds on all the machines and whistles).

You have no option but to bring neighbours to court (what a syatem we have that forces you to go down this route to sort the issue) as from my experience talking to people with dogs about this issue is a waste of time as they seem to be oblivuous to it and unless other neighbours also complain it appears its your issue.

I live in an estate where everyone goes to work during the day and the dogs bark non stop. I work from home and listen to it all day. When I complain I am told they dont and no other neighbour has an issue but they are all out at work so how would they.

The dog wardens hands are tied as they can onlky get involved if directed by the coursts which is the most insane piece of this puzzle.

Our neighbour had a noisy dog that others complained about, but tbh it never bothered us as we're in and out all day and our house usually has noisy small kids in it. In the evenings the dog had company so was quiet. So we didn't hear it then.

But I think noise pollution is a serious issue. There should be a better way to deal with it.

I'm not a dog owner, but it seems to me that leaving a dog alone all day with no company is cruelty. If that's why the dogs are barking then you might get on to an animal welfare group and see if it is indeed regarded as acceptable. If so then there is the welfare of the dogs themselves at issue, not just a noise issue.

Hi Passport1,

I am in a similar situation, and have left it go on for too long. I won't go into the details as it gets me stressed. I too called around recently and it was all very polite etc etc but will anything happen.... no, I don't think so.

I think you should just accept, like I have, that if somebody can let things get to the stage where they are causing a problem for others, then they are not the type that will bother, or are even capable of, fixing the problem.

2 weeks ago I went around and stated my case. I didn't expect them to do anything, I just wanted to have done it so nobody could say I hadn't tried. The last time I did anything was a week before that... I dropped a note in their door.... and before that it was 2 summers ago... again a note in the door. I left my contact details but nobody rang me.

I suggest you start taking records of when the annoyances happen etc

I am giving them 1 month before I take my next step. It's the only way anything will happen. I don't care what they think of me, or what they say about me locally.

Before I issue a notice that I intend to bring them to the district court, I might just pay for a solicitors letter, indicating that I am prepared to take such steps. Perhaps that will work.

Best of luck.

A dog next door can -sometimes- be silenced by an anti-barking device, but there should be minimal obstacles twixt device and dog. Basically, the device is activated when the dog barks. If there are barriers then neither the dog will properly hear the device ,nor will the device "hear" the barking. Indeed, the device can go off even when the dog is silent but a loud car passes by. Unfair on old Spot.

There are devices that constantly emit an uncomfortable sound but all this does is prevent the dog coming too close to the device . If the dog is constantly in a small garden next door , and therefore cannot escape the sound then all the device will do is drive the dog crazy -which is fine if it shuts the mutt up, but may actually cause more barking. (These devices are more effective on small children ,especially on a sunny afternoon when they're all noisily out on their bouncing castles.)

But the real problem in OP's situation is the multiplicity of dogs at varying distances. One can't silence all of them, other than by stalking the gardens at night chucking poisonous tit-bits over the fences. No device can silence, say, ten dogs over a few hundred square yards, other than a bomb.

Writing to animal welfare groups,lawyers etc may work with one dog-owner. But if there are several such owners nearby then such letters will produce few results other than OP getting beaten up by the irate dog owners.

Remember that many dog-owners regard their incessantly barking, publicly defecating, child-biting hounds with more affection than normal humans have for their children. Any criticism directed towards the brute and their (often more brutish) owners will elicit a response that may make the torturous noise of the creatures' barking seem pleasurable in comparison.

Once there is a mass of dogs in a small area then the only way to escape the canine cacophony is to escape that small area for good.