Barking Dog

[RoyGBiv]

When I first moved to Texas I was STUNNED at the lack of consideration by two of my immediate neighbors re: their dogs barking. The neighbor behind us had an old retriever that would randomly bark through the night. A big, deep, loud, bark. The neighbors to our left had two large mixed breed dogs and a terrier that would get going for 5-10 minutes at a stretch (all 3), stop for a few minute and go at it again. All night long.

How can people sleep with their own dogs making such a racket.?? Unbelievable.

I went and spoke with the neighbor to the rear. He apologized, but did nothing. So, every time his dog woke me up I called him and politely asked him to do something about it. Didn't matter what time of night it was. If his dog woke me up, he can get up and fix it. I would give no less courtesy to him. Eventually he stopped leaving the dog out all night long. Problem #1 solved. He never would speak to me at neighborhood events, but, so be it.

The neighbors to the left were not so easy to fix. When I spoke with them the first time, they accused me of making it up. So the next time, when I knocked on their door at 3:AM after their dogs were barking nonstop for an hour, I showed them the video I took of their dogs randomly barking at the fence, the sky and each other. Of course they told me it was my fault for disturbing the dogs with my video making. How could they POSSIBLY not hear that racket EVERY night?

The next time I knocked at around 2:AM, and an angry "relative" answered the door. He accused me of being a liar. The dogs had been barking nonstop since dark. I walked back to the sidewalk, stepped off the curb, and asked him to come over and call me a liar again (I was a little tired and grumpy ). He closed the door and I never went back there. I started keeping a log book of every time the dogs woke us, and calling animal control at 2, 3 and 4:AM to report them. As far as I know they were given several warnings (I only had a copy of one from a public records request in preparation for filing a civil lawsuit against them), and apparently a citation when the police responded to a 3:AM call and found the dogs barking incessantly as he drove up (probably helped that I met the LEO in front of the house, showed him my log book and videos and explained how long it was going on. Eventually the number of dogs went from 3 to 2 to one. But even that one remained a disturbance.

What I found was that animal control and the police were able to do very little. Write warnings, knock on doors. Our neighborhood did not have anything in the rules providing penalties for noise, so their noise rules were pretty much unenforceable. No teeth. Same with local ordinance. Warning, warning, warning, and eventually, maybe, if you caught the right LEO and the right time, they would write a citation. I was heading down the civil court route. Maybe your local ordinances are different or more strictly enforced??

In the end we moved before the dog issue was completely resolved. (not because of the dogs).
I still don't understand to this day how people can sleep through the racket their own dogs make.
I'm not a particularly light sleeper and neither is my wife.

[jbarn]

Hypothetical question. Suppose instead of looking over the fence to " trigger" the barking dog, he "chirped" his siren to alert the dog (along with all the other dogs in a three-block radius). He wouldn't have to enter the property to do this. Could he then claim to have witnessed the barking dog an issue a ticket?

Could an officer go from neighborhood to neighborhood, chirping his siren, then ticketing any household with a barking dog?

Discuss...

really?

[gemini]

[quote="RoyGBiv"]When I first moved to Texas I was STUNNED at the lack of consideration by two of my immediate neighbors re: their dogs barking. The neighbor behind us had an old retriever that would randomly bark through the night. A big, deep, loud, bark. The neighbors to our left had two large mixed breed dogs and a terrier that would get going for 5-10 minutes at a stretch (all 3), stop for a few minute and go at it again. All night long.

How can people sleep with their own dogs making such a racket.?? Unbelievable. .........................................


I've had the same problem at 2 different houses. Had tried calling owners during the night etc etc. Finally found, tried,
and was able to re-train their dogs, with the Dazzer. Sounded stupid, but I was willing to try anything. Used correctly
it helped. The dogs start barking, I zap 'em. No more endless indiscriminate barking. And the best thing is the neighbors
have no idea I have "helped" with their dogs behavior. (Here is a link with the product. Look around on i-net for better pricing
http://www.pestcontrolforyou.com/mm5/me ... _Code=DAZX" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
YMMV)

[03Lightningrocks]

...Abraham snip....

The neighbors to the left were not so easy to fix. When I spoke with them the first time, they accused me of making it up. So the next time, when I knocked on their door at 3:AM after their dogs were barking nonstop for an hour, I showed them the video I took of their dogs randomly barking at the fence, the sky and each other. Of course they told me it was my fault for disturbing the dogs with my video making. How could they POSSIBLY not hear that racket EVERY night?

The next time I knocked at around 2:AM, and an angry "relative" answered the door. He accused me of being a liar. The dogs had been barking nonstop since dark. I walked back to the sidewalk, stepped off the curb, and asked him to come over and call me a liar again (I was a little tired and grumpy ). He closed the door and I never went back there. I started keeping a log book of every time the dogs woke us, and calling animal control at 2, 3 and 4:AM to report them. As far as I know they were given several warnings (I only had a copy of one from a public records request in preparation for filing a civil lawsuit against them), and apparently a citation when the police responded to a 3:AM call and found the dogs barking incessantly as he drove up (probably helped that I met the LEO in front of the house, showed him my log book and videos and explained how long it was going on. Eventually the number of dogs went from 3 to 2 to one. But even that one remained a disturbance.

What I found was that animal control and the police were able to do very little. Write warnings, knock on doors. Our neighborhood did not have anything in the rules providing penalties for noise, so their noise rules were pretty much unenforceable. No teeth. Same with local ordinance. Warning, warning, warning, and eventually, maybe, if you caught the right LEO and the right time, they would write a citation. I was heading down the civil court route. Maybe your local ordinances are different or more strictly enforced??

In the end we moved before the dog issue was completely resolved. (not because of the dogs).
I still don't understand to this day how people can sleep through the racket their own dogs make.
I'm not a particularly light sleeper and neither is my wife.

I think your guy moved next door to me. My neighbor also called me a liar. He told me it could be any dog and that dogs bark all over the neighborhood all the time. My neighbor and I don't speak either but i wave at him any time i see him in his yard. I only do it to make him crazy and I stay steady on his tail end about his "ghetto" behavior. One day he comes into my yard while I was pulling weeds. He was crying because the duct tape I used to put my "barking dog note" on his glass storm door was hard to get off. I told him maybe his dogs could help him clean it off.

[hillfighter]

I've had the same problem at 2 different houses. Had tried calling owners during the night etc etc. Finally found, tried,
and was able to re-train their dogs, with the Dazzer. Sounded stupid, but I was willing to try anything. Used correctly
it helped. The dogs start barking, I zap 'em. No more endless indiscriminate barking.

If I ever have to move back to the suburbs, I just may have to build a remote controlled, weatherproof, magnum version of that for my back yard.

[texanjoker]

Hypothetical question. Suppose instead of looking over the fence to " trigger" the barking dog, he "chirped" his siren to alert the dog (along with all the other dogs in a three-block radius). He wouldn't have to enter the property to do this. Could he then claim to have witnessed the barking dog an issue a ticket?

Could an officer go from neighborhood to neighborhood, chirping his siren, then ticketing any household with a barking dog?

Discuss...

Seriously? way too much Alex Jones in this thread. LEO investigated a barking dog. If they want to make something up, they will do more then bother somebody about a dog