Barking dogs make me angry

[chrisinhouston]

I live in a pretty quiet wooded neighborhood out in suburbia. So it kind of gets on me when people let their dogs stay out and bark for no reason and for hours on end. We have one guy behind our house, one over who leaves his 2 dogs out sometimes for several hours. I think they are labs from the sound of their barks. They just kind of bark like they are saying, "let us in, we are sorry and we won't do it again." Eventually the barking stops.

But now my next door neighbor got a dog, an older doberman. And she lets it out and if I am outside the dog goes ape shit behind the fence and barks aggressively and runs back and forth along the fenceline. Last week I was sweeping up some pine needles off of the driveway and the dog was going bonkers. And I can hear it if I go inside and I have double glazed glass windows that keep things pretty quiet.

So the other day I kind of flipped out after being outside for a half hour or so getting my grill going to cook dinner. The dog was snapping and snarling at the fence (the fence is solid plank and 6 ft tall), it was even jumping against the fence. I finally got a lawn chair and got on it and stuck my head over the fence and proceeded to cuss the dog out. I told it to quit fucking barking at me because I live here and have a right to be out on my property. Well, the dog went really crazy and all the noise brought out my neighbor who called her dog inside.

And since then I haven't heard one peep from the dog, I don't think she got rid of it but is just being careful about leaving it out barking.

Not sure if I did wrong, I mean I do share a property line with this lady and otherwise she doesn't bother me.

[Gravdigr]

I go right to the neighbor's door. Reasonably polite. The first time.

[DanaC]

It can be really, really difficult to stop a dog barking.

I'm pretty sure Carrot must drive the neighbours mental at times. He sure as shit does my head in when he gets into a barking mood. he's getting a little more responsive to my attempts to stop the barking. But sometimes, nothing I say or do stops him.

Then again, he's indoors when that happens. He is never left outside unattended because it's a shared space and not secure.

One thing you can try with the neighbour's dog if it does it again, rather than shouting at it, which seemed to make him worse, is a squirt of water from a water pistol or water bottle. Maybe ask the neighbour about doing this first: after all, it isn't her fault that the dog is being territorial with you: dogs just do this stuff sometimes.

When I had Pilau and he used to stay out in Mum's garden with Dan, we'd tap on the window or go out to try and stop them barking. They'd get two or three chances and then we'd bring them in. No way would they be allowed to just stay out there barking for hours. Not much you can do to stop a barky dog from barking, but you can absolutely choose the location.

[Gravdigr]

It's one thing if you see/hear the owners trying to do something...It's another thing altogether when it's fairly plain they're completely oblivious, or obviously just don't give a damn.

[DanaC]

True dat.

[Sundae]

I don't feel qualified to talk about dogs barking.
I just wanted to say that the phrase, "an older doberman" rolls magnificently around the lips.

[BigV]

I think you did fine Chris.

I have a dog, Andy, and he's **not** a barky dog. I have a barky neighbor, however, and he complains to me, by name, through the windows about bringing in the dog. I'd like to give him a firehose treatment.... anyhow.

It's dog nature to bark, but it's also dog nature to obey the alpha dog, and that's the human, or should be. Every dog is the responsibility of some human, and it's up to the human to take proper actions. In your case Chris, you do share a property line and one part of that means that your side of the line doesn't have dogs barking like crazy. You were entirely within your rights to do what you did, and it appears to have worked.

I've tried Gravdigr's method (with my neighbor and with other neighbors) and it's a good one. But if it doesn't work, you might have to abandon the politeness. At Twil's place, the neighbors have a dog, a super athletic, young energetic rottweiler named Jake. Jake would make his way through the hedge, and run around in Twil's front yard driving her dog BERSERK. Now her dog is inside her house, barking like the house is on fire. Jake is loping and frolicking around the yard, being a crazy happy dog. When I yell at Jake, he flies back home. I've been to the neighbor's house, spoken politely to them, told them what happens. Jake has even leapt over Twil's low chainlink fence into her fenced back yard with our dogs--pandemonium. Just not acceptable. The neighbor was very chastened and promised not to let it happen again. Next thing I see, they're putting up a board fence, excellent. After the fence was up, Jake reappeared. Turns out, Twil's yard's so interesting, Jake would go out the gate and around three sides of the house to get back to her yard.... I spoke to them again and I haven't seen Jake taunting her dog since.

Well, that's some rambling. Point is, barking dogs make me crazy too, even if it's my dog. Letting it just go on and on, that's the owner's responsibility--deal with the owner.

[Gravdigr]

Dogs, or kids, ya can't just let 'em go the way they want, ya gotta raise 'em.

Just another reason I'm a cat man. I literally can't remember the last time I saw Slick outside my yard.

[Aliantha]

We once moved house largely because of barking dogs. I understand Chris. Unfortunately, when i confronted the neighbour i was subjected to abuse. Oh well. Some people are arseholes.