Noise complaint about my dogs

[Keepers]

Not sure if this is the right thread to post...

However, have had a noise complaint about barking dogs and unsure what step to take next

I have been living here for 6 years, I live in a small caravan in a field that I rent behind my parents house which they in turn also rent.
When we moved I moved with many pigs/sheep/dogs etc from 20 mins away, we are in the middle of farm land and fields of which many I rent.
I am right next to the A33 which is very noisy and goes all night/day and drowns out most sounds, a few mins walk across a field away are 5 houses.
I am friends with the people in 4 of them, two of them being my landlord/his mother and their houses back onto the land of which I rent from them.

2 years ago some people moved into the old pub house, they never once have said hello, have not met any of the other people and once when I waved at them whilst unloading sheep onto the road outside their house to walk down a track, they did not smile or wave back.

Day before yesterday I received an email from the local community support officer and then a knock on the door from the same officer lady to tell us we have an email, so the people from the house rather emailed the officer than knock on our door

It said (I have removed names etc)

Hello

At the moment we are getting a lot of noise disturbance from barking dogs - early in the morning through the day to the evening and often later. It is incredibly loud right now, hence me messaging you. We think the dogs barking are maybe at ***** though cannot be sure.

Do you have contact information for the people living there so we can contact them to discuss it? It is really affecting us at the moment. Alternatively I am happy for you to pass my email onto them to ask if they wish to contact me.

I only got back from work late so did not go and knock on her door so I sent a reply to the people the house

Hi

We have a couple of young working sheep dogs on the other / north side of the house. Due to the location I'm not sure you would hear them.

A potential could be that the dogs bark while working the sheep on our land which is behind your house or while being trained.

I am not always at home so please do text me when things get bad so we can see if it is our dogs

Kind Regards

The reply was

The barking is often quite early in the morning, as early as 6:30, and is on and off during the day and evening. At times it is quieter than other times, sometimes quite loud.

This afternoon my disabled daughter could not concentrate on her school homework due to the barking which she finds quite distressing. She feels dogs barking equates to upset dogs. We had to close all the windows in our house on one of the hottest days of the year

I will let you know when we hear the barking next



The dogs are with me every morning from 5am through to 7:30pm, I then leave to go to work tractor driving (in which I cannot take dogs with) or I do sheep in which case the dogs will come with.
The days I am tractor working they get let out (either by myself if I get back early or by a member of the family if I am late) at around 6pm and only go back to kennels at 9-10pm when they are fed. I do tractor work 3-4 days per week or 6 days per week during harvest granted but harvest is over now

The whole time they are out there is no constant barking at all, the only bark would be once or twice while they are playing, if they barked early or late I would know as I live in a caravan 30 yards from the kennels

At the moment I have a welsh sheepdog cross dog, he does bark a lot during the day however it is never early or late and It is very hard to hear from that far away I am still thinking about wether I am keeping him or not as I don't like his work style, but that might reduce barking, apart from that what can I do?

What would be the next step? as even if they call saying dogs are barking whilst I am in a tractor, I won't be able to do anything about it anyway. I could cut down tractor work somehow and increase sheep work? get rid of welsh sheepdog and get another border collie instead?

Main issue is, I cannot pee anyone off too much as parents house is rented, and I am in a caravan on land rented off the same landlord as my parents house.
The landlord is an estate owned by a famous duke in history and the land/house is part of their estate

Any help would be great, just to try and reduce this added stress

 

[michael N123]

Tell em to feck off

 

[Punch]

I'm not going to be as sympathetic as you.
Tell them to F off.
We've had complaints about farm dogs barking even when the winds been blowing from boarding kennels next door. It's what I would expect in the country along with sheep blarting and cattle bellowing.
Tell em to try living in town with sirens going all hours.

 

[Punch]

Too slow again

 

[Princess Pooper]

Go and see them. Take the dogs and assuming that they are safe, let them and the daughter say hello to them so she can see they are well cared for. Explain that dogs may bark for a variety of reasons eg excitement, alerting to visitors, not just as a sign of distress. I suspect there is nothing they can do as I suspect the noise levels at their place are not unreasonable (we live next door to neighbour with 4 dogs that bark a hell of a lot and they are 10 yards from our house). However, I think you are better off trying to show a human face to these people - at least you know you will have tried and it may reduce future hassle.

 

[landslave the 2nd]

What's the distance from their house to your abode/yard/ your family ?

 

[ARW]

A dogs bark can travel well in certain conditions. We have trouble at home, our 3 bark sometimes but it mainly at other dogs barking miles away, there's a crazy woman 2miles away with at least 5 dogs locked up all day in kennels barking, a herd of golden retrievers 2 miles away and 5 shitsue things next door that yap constantly, I hate it when it's our dogs barking back as I feel guilty if I'm keeping the neighbours up.
I don't think your I the wrong they are just moaning barstewards that must not like you so have to find something wrong

 

[kfpben]

As early as 6.30!? I suggest they start getting up earlier!

I live opposite a scaffolding yard that often start work at 5am. Doesn't bother me, we all have to make a living- can't all be app designers and diversity co-ordinaters.

 

[Alicecow]

Are yours the only dogs in the neighbourhood?
A guy I know was constantly being reported to the dog warden by a busybody complaining about his dogs barking and being kept in poor conditions, even though his kennels are fantastic. It had almost become a joke between them. I think the warden stopped bothering listening to the complaints in the end.
Be firmer about saying that it's not your dogs barking in the early morning.
Maybe get a cctv recording system to monitor if it is your dogs or not, it's evidence and proof for you if it goes further.

 

[Dry Rot]

All good advice, meantime is there anything you can do to deaden the barking IF it is your dogs? Even a few straw bales can deaden sound and maybe you can move the kennels?

I've one dog here that likes to wind the others up by running up and down a fence line. Doesn't bother me and I couldn't care less about my neighbour as he has five dogs that are far worse! But if he was a half decent neighbour, I might! Sometimes just switching around which dog is kennelled where can help reduce play barking. Or maybe a sheet of board up against the kennel fence?

 

[Bones]

Anti bark collars ,

 

[Spartacus]

Anti bark collars ,

I was going to say this. Heard you can get them on ebay for about 6 or 7 quid and they work really well.

 

[bjreroberts]

You admit yourself, that you have a dog that barks all day. Doesn't matter that it is not early or late it will be irritating to the people that have to tolerate it whilst you are at work, it is your responsibility to address it.

 

[Badshot]

Firstly, I doubt there's much they can do.
Secondly, is the caravan there legally? It's possible more likely they object to that than the dogs.
Thirdly, my dogs bark, drive me mad sometimes, but it's because of a slow car, person, Fox, etc. They're doing what they're meant to, alerting me to potential intrusion.

 

[BELOWAVERAGE]

We've had it all, don't know why they move to the country, take no notice, saying that I did move the donkey when they complained, didn't think it was fair when he was kicking off at 5am, on a sunday morning 15 yards from their bedroom window. Very valid point about the caravan, they might not stop at the dogs.

 

[Still Farming]

I remember an old boy had so called nasty dogs and was reported and had them put down ?????
Was'nt long after his farm home got broke into and robbed ???
Wasters about !!!

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Anti bark collars ,

Fine unless your dog works out he can still whine and whine all day without setting the collar off.


A static collar on a remote control would be good, as long as you were within range for it to work.

 

[roscoe erf]

me I'd get a camera with sound and record my kennels for 24 hrs and see just what is going on and then decide what to do next

 

[wasted years]

They have been reasonable and polite in their approach about the matter, do the same in return.
There is nothing more annoying than a yapping dog, their owners don't hear it .

 

[Keepers]

Thanks all

I don't think caravan is an issue, its completely hidden from sight, so unless they planned on joining me in bed they would never know it is there. The estate know it is there and they are fine with it, its been there for three years since I was moved out of the house and its only a very small 2 berth movable one, not a static.

I do admit that the one dog Welsh sheepdog barks and it would have been him in the afternoon yesterday, however it is never constant and is not a loud bark, we cannot hear it from inside our house although I am not sure they would be able to hear it, no one has double glazing here and so I suppose the sound might travel down the hill across our field to them.

A camera to record kennels might be a good idea! as if the dog is actually barking all day solid then perhaps even though it is not very early or late then something should be done.
Bales around the kennels are a good idea!

Every house apart from theirs have dogs here, both houses either side of them have dogs that bark and the big house of my landlord has two dogs. my landlords mother's house backs straight onto my land and she cannot hear my dogs either

Not sure on the distance but have taken a print screen of google maps and will put it up, going to visit taking a puppy along may help, although I am just unsure of what to say, and I know I am female and small but I know I will end up just telling them to F off and this is a farm and farm animals make noise/sex/poo.. which might not go down well