Re: Barking Dog
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:57 am
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.
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.
I told him maybe his dogs could help him clean it off.
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