I have just had a neighbour round complaining my dogs are barking. He said they are barking all day, every day which I find hard to beleive.  I know there was a problem which caused one dog to bark for about an hour early on Sunday morning  but this has been resolved now. I don't know if he is upset mainly because of this incident or if there is really a problem.

Unfortunately I am out for several hours a day. I come and go so the dogs are never left for more than 4-5 hours and often much less but obviously I don't know how much they bark when I am not in. Sometimes I get home and the dogs are barking but I don't know if it is because they have heard me arrive or if they have been barking for a while before that. When I go out I shut them in the living room with all the windows shut. I have double glazing. They don't sound excessively loud to me when I hear them outside and the person lives in the next street several hundred yards from my house so I find it hard to beleive it is excessively loud in his house. He is retired so is at home all day presumably listening out for my dogs all the time.

There is another dog that is often left outside and barks for long stretches. I wonder if I am getting the blame for that dog as well. My next door neighbours dog also barks quite a lot. Particularly when I come home and go out. It often barks when I go out with the dogs in the morning even though my dogs are quiet. 

I am now obviously cracking down on any barking when I am home and bringing them in from the garden at the first peep but I am wondering what the limits are for dogs barking when I am out. How long can a dog bark for before it counts as a nuisance? How loud does it have to be in his house? are there limits? I am wondering if I ought to contact other people in the area to see if they have a problem too. I was told that everyone in the neighbourhood is complaining about my dogs but no one else has the guts to come and talk to me. However I don't want to make people start listening out for my dogs if this isn't the case. I have not lived here that long and the people are not particularly friendly. We tend to ignore each other and no-one speaks to me although I nod and smile if I see them in the street.

I recently had a comment from my new neighbour about my dogs barking. Mine are quiet a vocal breed by nature.
We've not long moved house and I put it down to them being a little bit unsettled.

I got 2 DAP diffusers, have the radio on quite loud, all windows closed all curtains pulled so that the room is quite dark and leave them with Kongs stuffed with goodies.

It seems to be working but I do worry when I'm out if I will return home to another note through the door.

What tickles me is that there are dogs all around our street and I regularly hear them barking but of course they don't live next door to my neighbour!!

I'm sure you've heard my story before as I have told it many a time. The ugliest word I know in the English language is "neighbour" and I will never ever again live near other people because of what we went through.

Your neighbour needs to make an official complaint to the council. If he doesn't, and you have done all you can to prevent barking, then he doesn't have a leg to stand on. I'd try recording the dogs -there was a thread not long ago about people testing it out.

When the council receives a noise complaint they have to send you a letter, and the person who has made the complaint is sent a diary to fill in over 14 days, detailing what times he hears barking, and for how long. This was the first thing that happened to us. Our neighbours blatantly lied and said the dogs barked non stop every day between 7 pm and 10 pm. They must have noticed we went to dog training during those times, but only ONCE a week. The rest of the time I was at home, so knew full well there was no excessive barking.

A lot of people don't bother to return the diary and then there's nothing else the council can do. Our neighbours did, and according to the diary there clearly was too much barking (as they had lied) so the council asked the neighbours if they wanted listening equipment installed, to record how much is heard in their property and for how long. The neighbours refused. After 3 turns of this, the council told the neighbours if they refused the listening equipment again, they would not accept more complaints. So they agreed. The dog owner will NOT be told when listening is going on, and also will not be told of the outcome unless there is decided to be a problem in which case action will be taken. We didn't leave things alone but kept calling the council ourselves. Thus we found out that the first time listening equipment was installed (which can pinpoint WHERE the barking originates, and the recordings of which will be listened to by a group of people) -it was proved our dogs did NOT bark too much. So the neighbours left it a bit longer, then made another complaint, lied in the diary, had listening equipment installed again, and once again it was determined our dogs did not bark too much.

By this time, needless to say, we were walking on eggshells, terrified of the slightest noise, and did not dare to EVER leave the dogs alone. For 2 years we didn't leave them alone for even 5 minutes unless there was a real emergency and we had no choice. We put the house on the market as we realised the neighbours disliked us and wanted us gone, and who wants to stay then? The complaining neighbours then involved the neighbours on the other side as well.

Took years to sell the house and move away, and those were terrible years. We had a total of 8 official complaints plus some straight from the neighbours. The last time they tried to complain about dog poo in the garden, but that was also proved to not be excessive as it was picked up every day. The neighbours then decided that if our dogs did not officially bark too much, they'd ensure they did. This I found out when I was at home one evening, alone, and the neighbours clearly thought I was not home. Suddenly I heard people banging on the windows and kicking at the front door. Needless to say the dogs barked! The same happened at 2 am once when my husband worked nights. They seemed to think that if there was no car in the drive, then nobody could be at home.

We took legal advice, we tried counter complaints (both neighbours had dogs as well, that did bark) but it was pointless. Even Trevor Cooper the dog law solicitor said that even though we were in the right, the only thing we could do to avoid all of this was to move away. He said the same at his seminar last year. If you can move, DO IT. We now live in the countryside, only one neighbour that isn't very close. And the dogs bark a LOT more as it is so quiet here that anything happening is unusual, such as a car going past.

Legally, there are no set rules, but you can't have dogs barking at anti social hours which is before 7 am and after 11 pm. Excessive barking is not a bit of woofing now and then, it is constant non stop barking for 15-20 minutes or so.

It's also interesting how people perceive barking. We now have my elderly disabled mother in law living with us. Every time we have to go out and leave her (never for more than an hour, as she cannot cope on her own) when we come back she says "the dogs never stopped barking ALL the time you were gone!" And I believed her. She loves dogs, she doesn't say it to be nasty. Then a few weeks ago I had bad toothache and was in bed. My husband went out to do some shopping and MIL thought she was alone. When hubby came home she told him the usual -the dogs barked ALL the time he was gone, non stop. Except they DIDN'T, which I knew as I had been in bed all the time, reading, and knew that they had barked a couple of times but not at all constantly!

If you are not sure how about putting a video camera in your house and see what you dogs do. Not technical but sure you could suss something out with sound. See if indeed it is yours. Before you worry too much. Have to say him being retired is your biggest obstacle. lol
When I am at work nothing fusses me when I was off this year for a few weeks with my knee everything started to irritate me.............I even found myself hanging out the window trying to identify where a barking dog lived......then caught myself . Went back to work the next week.  

If you are not sure how about putting a video camera in your house and see what you dogs do. Not technical but sure you could suss something out with sound. See if indeed it is yours. Before you worry too much. Have to say him being retired is your biggest obstacle. lol
When I am at work nothing fusses me when I was off this year for a few weeks with my knee everything started to irritate me.............I even found myself hanging out the window trying to identify where a barking dog lived......then caught myself . Went back to work the next week.  

I'd get a camera up and film them when your out. That way you will know if it is your dogs barking or not and if not you can copy it to a DVD and give him a copy as proof. One that says date and time would help as you can ask him what day he Hurd them then give him the DVD of that day of your quiet dogs.

The app mentioned above is Sleep Talk Recorder. Records only when there is noise so you don't have hours of recordings to go through (unless they really do bark for hours!!). It also records the time the noise starts and ends and obviously the duration of each clip.
I used it when my neighbours said they heard my dogs some time back. I was able to pinpoint the room they were in and figured out it was because of a dog allowed to roam free coming up to the front door, so curtain up, radio moved no more problem, and happy neighbours who "never hears them". :)

I feel for you though, it's a terrible feeling leaving them and just wanting to get back in case they are barking. Hope you find a solution soon.

I have an app on my phone called 'Dog Monitor,' you need two iOS devices (so I use my iPad and my iPhone and it uses one device's camera and microphone to transmit pictures and audio whilst you're out. It gives you a notification if your dog is barking :)

thanks for all the ideas. I think I am the only person in the world without an iphone or ipad. I have ordered a voice recorder off ebay that is noise activated so hopefully that will work.
I am getting paranoid about it I tripped over a dog who yelped while I was in my living room with the door shut and my first thought was not to comfort my dog but to worry in case my neighbour had heard :(  I haven't even walked the dogs since because I am so worried. I have to do two walks as I have several dogs and can't manage them all in one go. I can't walk then now in case the ones left behind bark.

One worry is that the house with the dog that barks outside a lot is in a direct line from his house with mine in the middle. If the council use listening equipment will they be able to tell that it is not my house that the noise is coming from. Another thought. The house with the barking dog is closer to me than my house is to the complainer. The other barking dog is outside barking but I only notice it when I am standing outside with my dogs. Can my dogs barking in a closed house 200yds away really be heard in his house?

GoldMali it sounds like you had a horrendous time with your neighbours. Unfortunately I don't think moving is an option at the moment. I only moved here a few months ago and have just done loads of alterations with the idea of making this my last home. ( for anyone following my other thread about rights when getting building work done. It did get done eventually but not without lots of problems along the way but that is another thread in itself). I was so looking forward to living here and now I am so depressed about it I could cry. Well actually I have cried quite a bit since. :(

Did you suggest to the complainer that there could be misidentification of the source of the barking that other dogs left out were more likely to be heard?

A friend of mine who had a lot of dogs so was very visible in the area invited a complainer to her house to listen, and was able to pinpoint the actual location of the noise that was bothering the person, who apologised.

They assumed it was her with the lots of dogs.

IF they are barking, the frustration of no exercise will only make it worse. Cam you not drive somewhere and leave half the dogs in the car and walk half, then do the same again?

> They assumed it was her with the lots of dogs.

I've had this too from my neighbours - the woman caught me a while back to tell me they'd been barking for half an hour at 7.50am when I went out, that much turned out to be true (I started monitoring them to find out what was going on) but she went on to have a go at me for them all barking at 4am and waking her whole household up!

I pointed out that it wasn't mine that did it, they all sleep in my room so would have woken me up and hadn't made a sound all night.  She looked a bit sheepish at that :-P

I've used the sleep recorder app to sort my guys out - newyork, I don't have an iphone or ipade either, just a really cheap contract LG smartphone with android so I could use the app.  Took me a few days of recordings to work out who was making who bark/howl and why, and now I split them up 4 ways when I leave.  Phoebe still barks as far as I know but as she's reacting to noises I'm limited in what I can do about it - she has the stereo on when I'm not here which helps though, and her bark doesn't carry well at all (not that you'd think it when you're in the house with her when she barks).

> Can my dogs barking in a closed house 200yds away really be heard in his house?

Depends on the soundproofing on your house and the type of bark but I'd say probably not.  I have heard Linc and Raine barking from the house when I've been at the end of my road, but only just and that's 50 yards tops - and that's with very poor soundproofing because I had to replace the main double glazed pane in my front windows two years ago and it's never been anywhere near as good as the original.  From 200 yards, I'd not be able to hear them.  Linc has a bark that really travels, too.

>Can my dogs barking in a closed house 200yds away really be heard in his house?

Id say yes its possible. I live in the middle of nowhere now, nearest neighbor is 100m away. I have one dog who barks if im out training with another dog. The bottom of our paddock is about 130m from the house and i can hear her barking at the bottom of the field even when she is shut in the house with no windows open.

There is a house about 300m away from us who have 3 dogs that live outside in kennels. I do hear them barking if im outside or in the summer if I have windows open but im in the house.

Just gives you an idea of how far you can hear dogs making noise.

I wouldn't take much notice.
if it was a direct neighbour complaining I would take it more seriously but if the person complaining is several streets away then it really does sound like they have nothing better to do, and also, how can they be sure it is your dogs?

If the council use listening equipment will they be able to tell that it is not my house that the noise is coming from

They told us that yes, this would be possible. We pointed out lots of other houses had dogs as well.

Can my dogs barking in a closed house 200yds away really be heard in his house?

In a built up area, I doubt it. I also doubt the council would have too much of a worry with somebody living that distance away. Our neighbours don't seem to hear our dogs bark when in the house. Their house is about 100 yards away from ours. If they are indoors and I go for a walk, I cannot hear them bark when I am about 200 yards away, but if they are outdoors, I can hear them over half a mile away -but then there are just open fields here and nothing stopping sounds. I can hear the dogs at a farm a mile away on some days.

My friend went up in a hot air balloon and said the only thing she could hear was dogs barking!
If you live in a built up area the likelihood is other dogs can be heard barking so the blame can't be all with your dogs. I worked for the LA as a dog warden for 5 years we never took anyone to court for noise nuisance even though on some occasions listening equipment was installed. One person (a retired vet) complained all the time about 2 dogs barking 'constantly' and said they should have their vocal chords cut (charming)!  The couple who owned the dogs were mortified and took the dogs away for a holiday and the person still complained about the barking. Needless to say he wasn't taken seriously after that.

My dogs bark and I try to keep it to a minimum but from time to time they will be noisy and although we don't live on top of our neighbours occasionally I've had angry messages left on my phone - always number withheld - so I ignore them otherwise I would ring them back. After all I could have noisy teenagers playing loud music or revving up motor bikes, it has to be give and take! Now 2 nearest neighbours also have dogs who are very reactive at our boundaries so it's not just my dogs now. I'm with Marianne, neighbours are a PITA.

Why don't you ring your dog warden and have a chat?

> I worked for the LA as a dog warden for 5 years we never took anyone to court for noise nuisance even though on some occasions listening equipment was installed.

I did wonder if many complaints actually ended in a court case.  If it did, and the complainant was considered right, what action would actually be taken?  I really feel for Goldmali, what a terrible situation to be in.

If it did, and the complainant was considered right, what action would actually be taken?

I have some vague memory of a TV programme about noisy neighbours where the dog owners were told they had to either move away or not keep their dogs. (After a noise abatement order was served and not adhered to.) Of course, if the property is rented, it is a lot easier as the landlord can just evict them.

>My friend went up in a hot air balloon and said the only thing she could hear was dogs barking!

That isn't surprising as a lot of dogs don't like/are afraid of hot air balloons, it's one of the very few things that will set my Lexi off.