We, as we said ina previous thread of a couple of months ago live next door to a lady in her 60's who is retired, stays at home all day and does not really go out.  She knocks on the bedroom wall when my husband snores and when we first moved in she came round and complained about me going up and down the stairs saying she was going to take leagle action against me.

When we 1st got puppy Nov, he cried for 20 mins the 1st night and she was banging the walls and he cried for 10 mins the 2nd night and she again banged loudly and saw me the next day saying all the noise was making her ill.  Consequently the dog now sleeps SILENTLY in our room in his basket. 

I work three hours an afternoon.  Unfortunately I do have to go to work no choice about that and beagle is placed in a large cage with a radio on, a blanket over the top and plenty of toys treats and water left out.  I go out at 2 by husband comes home at 5.  The dog is walked in the morning and given plenty of attention.  He is not an avid barker, only when he excited about a walk or something.

Neighbour sticks a post it through our door last night, we had gone out (with dog as well) it said, that if our dog did not stop barking when I was out (at work) she was going to report me!!. (report me to who I dont know???, The council maybe who I am sure would laugh in her face or the RSPCA who would think she was having a joke! ) Some dogs are left eight hours a day.  We are talking about a much loved pet beagle here!

Husband said he will have to have a word with her and set her straight.

Unfortunately next door waits until he is not about and waits till I go into garden to clear up and appears having a moan at me. So I am just waiting for her to appear again.

We did have a dog sitter comp come in when he was tiny for 20 mins in the afternnon to let him out, but I cannot afford them all the time as they cost more than my daughters child care.

Any ideas, next door is making me feel mad and helpless.

sounds like your neighbour is a sad lonely person whom has nothing else to do but moan,
Heidi

Well, wonder if asking her to come in and let the dog into the garden for half and hour and then pop him back in his cage and make sure he is comfy. Say you can't afford to pay her but she is welcome to make herself a cup of tea. Sometimes it is better to know the devil.

Jackie H 

Nice idea but she is not v friendly and have heard that she doesn't like dogs, last time she moaned I actually showed her the puppy and she visably recoiled from him and said she did not want to pat him.

She is very lonely I think.  We had neighbours the other side of us at one time who were your neighbours from hell, loud dance music, lots of cars, shouting etc. who moved in the summer.  Unfortunately the old lady was great mates with the noisy couple and they would all stand outside gossiping, so who knows what has been said about us in the past.

I have apologised to this lady on previous occasions, I have sent apologetic notes through the door, our new neighbour other side young chap on his own says he never hears a peep.

Borrow my kids for a week - after she's had to put up with the banging up and down stairs, the fighting, the giggling and you shouting 'pick up the pieces so the dog doesn't get them!' nothing your dog can do will fizzle her again ;)

I'm lucky with my neighbours, even though they have a yappy dog who barks from the moment they leave the house untill they return, neither of us has ever complained in 6 years :D

My neighbours were similar and complained to the dog warden that my dogs were left out all day.  Left out, means in suitable kennel (they are working dogs), walked regularly and certainly not neglected.  I wasn't in when the dog warden called but we had a long chat on the phone, my neighbour the other side phoned her too to back me up.

Although the situation didn't amount to anything, it was thoroughly unpleasant and stressful.   Some people just don't have anything better to do, it's actually nothing to do with your dog barking just her insecurity and lack of interest in other things.

I'd warn her the next time she moans that unless she can substantiate that you are causing CONSIDERABLE noise you will report her for harrasment to the police. Make sure you note down everything she complains about, like going up and down the stairs etc as these silly comments will make her case look even more ridiculous.

Jesse

OK - She will probably report you to the council who may not laugh at her, but ask her to keep a diary of noise - they will also keep their own records (which she will not be aware of) to see if her record is 'accurate'.  You can do a lot to help yourself - set up a tape recorded (or video camera if you have one) to see for yourself IF your do IS making a fuss.  If he is, then see if you can get help from a registered behaviourist through a referal from your vet, and tell the council you are aware of the problem now (you hadn't been up until now) and are taking steps - give them the name of the behaviourist and/or vet.  If he isn't then you've already armed yourself with proof for the council that there is no case to answer.  If she keeps up, then as Poodlebabe said, go to the police for advise about harrasement.

my sister has a similar problem with neighbours who complain about her dog barking all day while they are at work she had a visit from the council and has had a letter warning them they are being observed she was told that if the neighbour could prove that the dog was barking for more than 10 minutes at a time then they would take action and fine her she was advised to record her dog barking to asses the extent of the problem she says its not that bad but is still waiting to hear from the council I would think it would be a good idea if you could record how bad the dog is befor you get a visit then you will have some answers for them if the call

Maybe try putting a tape/video recorder on when you go out to see how noisey (if at all) your dog is? and if you dont hear any noise then go round to your neighbours ask her if she heard anything and if she says yes then play her the tape?

What an awful neighbour.  We have a miserable ol' git over the way who complains about parking and constantly harrasses my visitors when they park outside my house.  I put a sign up telling people to come into the drive to avoid the likelyhood of my husband going out there and decking him one day.  He is too far away though to complain about any dog noise. 
On the other side of the coin though we only have one immediate neighbour and when their house was for sale a few years ago we made sure that the dogs were always in the garden whenever anyone came to view.  As my now neighbours pulled up outside to view the house they took one look and decided it was too close to the house next door (ours) and were just about to pull away when the owner opened the front door so out of courtesy then went in.  Whilst they were upstairs they looked out of the bedroom window and saw our dogs - we had eight then- and agreed to buy it there and then.  They moved in with eleven dogs and we have got on brilliantly ever since - well once we'd put up a double fence between us!!
Sally

We have had trouble in the past with our neighbours but we took the same steps as digger mentioned and recorded both video and tape recording and although he did bark it was when someone knocked at the door or he heard loud noises.  She has put several notes through the door but the worst one ever was the day of my mums funeral she put don't leave your dog all day you evil cow!! as you can imagine I saw red but didn't go round sent boyf instead he is far more diplomatic than me;) and we have never had anything since she even says morning to boyf now.  The trouble is she is stuck in between two houses who both love dogs and generally in the neighbourhood is surrounded by them.  I say if she wants the level of peace and quiet shes after she should move to the countryD)

Good grief don't send her off the country it is far too noisy :d :D :D

Haven't you heard all the "townies" complaining about roosters crowing, sheep bleating, cows lowing, horses neighing etc etc?  Not to mention the tiresome machinery noise from sowing, harvesting and the terrible stench from much spreaders and fertilisers and silage.  Then there are the terrible eyesores of silaged grass, haystacks, etc

Let's not even go to the cruel farmer department where cows are left in fields all day when it is raining without a coat!  The poor english farmer cannot win, if he puts his animals indoors it is "battery farming" if he keeps them outdoors they must wear waterproofs!  I am not joking either!

Then you have church bells, whistling posties, ............................

I just say how lucky you all are having such gud councils my council you cant get through to then when you do they never do any thing so maybe they deserve and award for customer service lol :-)  as for the women next door.. buy her some ear muffs and tell her its a late xmas present lol :-0

I had neighbours like yours. She was paranoid :rolleyes:

She complained that she could hear the dogs walking on the dining room floor and our sneezes disturbed her We had the builders in to check the insulation and all was well. We used to have them battering on the door being abusive if we  put some music on. In the end I wrote a lovely letter to her and explained that we were living a normal life and if she didn't like it then she ought to go and buy a detached property in the  middle of nowhere :D

I said if she would like to discuss further then we would be glad to sit and talk. We met up and she just started on a tiraid of abuse and we sat and listened and then got up and said we hoped she felt better for that and there was nothing we were doing wrong and I suggested she go and seek medical help. Their house went up for sale soon after and they moved :D :D

Don't stand for it, you have done nothing wrong and have tried to talk to her. Get tough with her otherwise she will carry on harrassing you !

before taking issue with this woman you need to confirm that your dog really isnt making noise for 3 hours(otherwise you will look a chump!) obviously if he IS you will have to do something about it, as people cannot be expected to tolerate it. If , however , as you think, he is being quiet, you will have some proof of that. as the others have suggested, give her the rope to hang herself, and catch her out lying. The council can come and listen, but they cant and wont take any action against you uness he is making a noise.  I had a neighbour who complained like that about everything, and the council were round every 10 minutes, but eventually the council realised he was lying, and stopped taking any ntice of him. they agreed only to come out if he AND other neighbours complained...which of course did not happen. Best thing tho is to relax about it...it only causes stress arguing, and to be honest gets you nowhere. I just learned not to get agitated and not to argue. eventually my very own "mr angry" dropped dead of a heart attack brought on by all that hate!

Assuming that you live in a semi, it may be worth checking that you have good carpets everywhere and with good underlay. I'm a really tolerant person and nearly went mad (and i'm not joking) when my neighbour in the upstairs flat decided to take up his carpet. Suddenly i could hear everything, even their conversations, where they walked,  going to the loo etc. It may be similar in a semi so maybe you could assess your home and do a sort of double check.

Having said that, i hate to say it,but i have had problems in the past with neighbours who hated "alsatians" (my dogs weren't !) and made my life a misery and complained to the council etc....and i ended up moving. It was the best decision i ever made :)

Good luck

Lindsay

Hi Guys,

Perhaps you can help us as we have neighbours from hell.
We live in end terrace cottage just outside a small village our neighbours in their 40's one daughter have complained and wait for it

1)the fact we park outside our own house and not in th ruts created by her husband van across the road in the mud as the parking area is not large enough for all the cars she cannot get parked and therefore is forced to park behind her husband van.

2) We have put up a 6"fence to keep 3 Goldens and 4 children in following our show koi being poisoned .We put up nice bamboo but following her swearing about it in public we made this solid and attached the bamboo on to it.

3)As we did not want a solid fence down a very long garden we also planted conifers kept to 6 " which she wanted at 3ft followed by alot of abuse I said politely no ,my dogs would clear it and be in her pond.

4)We put a wooden greenhouse in our garden and she complained after taking photos to planning of it they said nothing as it was in our garden.

5)complained about my kennels after we knocked down one dangerous brick building and advice from planning we built a properly built brick kennel of the same size within keeping .of our cottage.

6)she has also got the local football club of which she is secretary of ,to slash hedges over our cars and when I asked them to stop they threanted to use the farm frailer on me and proceeded to start it up along myleg where upon partner phoned police who were on their way but the neighbour sat on a wall and watched laughing got 2 other men involved to swear at me my daughter in tears.They cleared off by the time police arrived as they got divereted.

7)We had a brick up at our baby s window and after the fish killed we had cctv installed which she has also logged a complaint about but was unfounded as it just looked down our garden.

All is quiet for now, she has not complained at my dogs barking yet as they dont really bark hardly at all except when they play but we have alot other dogs close by that do alot more barking.
she constantly saying things about us to people out at the front which we just ignore.
She does have access through our property for coal men etc and she has complained we have put gates up to stop the dogs from running out and our toddler .The field the other side of us is managed by the local football club of which she is secretary she used to walk accross our garden to the pitch before the fence and trees went up.

The neighbour works mon-Fri but has 2 weeks off at the moment.
We like it here we get on with the other neighbours made improvements to the cottage and garden as its been renovated I don't whether its jealousy whish seems so daft.
however its nice that our garden is private now even if we can't do much about her swearing which is difficult as I have young children and find offensive.

Regards Briony :-)

Hi,

I really do feel for you. We have problems with our neighbours, we were accused of leaving our dog alone for weekends whilst we were away and we had a visit from the RSPCA!! We also had a visit from social services following a complaint that someone heard a child crying and an adult shouting. We were considering contacting the police to complain that we were being harrassed. When I mentioned this to one of my neighbours, we never heard any more from RSPCA or social services. I think sometimes jealousy or loneliness causes it. I still live in the same house and sometimes I feel like I'd like to run away or as if I have done somthing wrong when I know I look after my dog and children very well. We previously lived in London and did not ever have problems with our neighbours but since we moved to the country it all changed!

I hope you can resolve your differences with your neighbour

JB :)

Hi Beaglebonkerz,
I had a neighbour like that until 2 years ago and she was only 26yrs old. She had a Staffy, a beautiful bitch, unlike it's owner.
I had 4 dogs at the time. They were kept in the house, not connected to hers. They had access to a yard between my house and hers. These were council properties.
She complained so many times to the Council that they came out on a number of occasions to check the 'level of dog dirt'. There never was any as I cleaned up each time the dogs went. I used a 'Professional Choice' disinfectant/Viricide.
The Estates Manager once complained about one bit of dog dirt, recently deposited, at which I laughed.
She then complained to the RSPCA who came out and were overawed at the level of care the dogs were receiving. Most of my dogs are rescues.
On one occasion the 'Estate Manager' and her pal came out and my dogs were outside. When I answered the door my dogs were barking. She said " Well if this is how they go on I'm not surprised we've had complaints". To which I said "If your pal would stop teasing them then they would stop" " Stop barking girls". My dogs stopped barking and the annoying Council persons  left. The silly 'C*W' had been jumping up and down at my gate.
I later found out that the neighbour had a 'Thing' for my partners brother, who sensibly knocked her back, and was taking it out on us.
I suppose she still won as we moved.
My daughter now lives there with a very aggressive, well trained, Mastiff. She has never said a word to my daughter about her dog and I have stopped my daughter from complaining her dog barking at the cats all night and waking up her children.
We are just glad that we are out of it and living in a beautiful country village.
D4wn

I just dont understand where 'live and let live' and 'tolerance' went?????

when we live in crowded accomodation, like terraces, semis, estates etc, its only natural that you can hear other ppl making noise, but some ppl seem to think that despite living in a terrace on a busy road, for example, they should have complete silence all around them.

My friends neighbours, in such a terrace, complain about the slightest noise, voices too loud (normal talking level, but deep male voices), people walking up the (carpeted) stairs, etc etc. But they dont come round and ask politely, nooooooo they bang on the walls and yell.

Yes, you can hear noises, in Lindas living room you can hear their dog bark, the tv, most of conversations, music, etc. Not to mention that 'her next door' seems to have a thing for slamming doors. They also like to have unnannounced parties that go on til 4 am, on a sunday night!

I now have to answer the door to 'him next door' when 'her next door' sends him round to whinge (if im there on my own, ive taken to banging back on the wall when they do it) as Linda wont go to the door. The last time it happened, he he, the owners of the deep male voices (two lads topping 6ft, adn built like the proverbial brick sh*t house) answered the door, and him next door mumbled something an left sharpish!

In my own semi, i can hear my neighbours, Mother in her 60's (adn now good friend) and son my age. At 7 am his music comes on, his room is next to mine, so i get System of a Down for 3/4 of an hour whilst he gets up. Then his mum will start yelling SALLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM, GET UP!!!!! several times. When they had a dog, she would bark at the postman.

Does it bother me? after the first week, no, learn to sleep through it.....they have a right to live with out tiptoeing round.

Ive also learned to sleep through the newspapers being delivered to the paper shop opposite my house....that involves the shop shutters going up, very loud and rattley, at about 3-5 am....and then the shop opens at 6 am, invariably setting the alarm off briefly.....

I think these things only irritate people if certain types of people actually WANT to be irritated by them.

i have to say, i love my neighbour, she is ace.....tells me if the dogs were barking, tells me if the;y have been good....the one on the other side has one virtue, she never talks to me (good job, horrible backyard puppy farmer that one)!

Anyways, im thinking of you all, if you have bad neighbours, been there, never want to do that again!

Em

I had a goldie some years back who I thought was a quite little lamb only to discover that when I went out she would bark like mad untill I got back.  My next door neighbour never said a thing and it was someone over on the next street that layed the complaint.  So the first thing I did is go and see my neighbour who is home all day to ask if she has heard anything.  Well she blushes and tells me "Yes" my girl does bark every time I'm away.  I asked "why didn't you tell me?" she replied that she didn't want to cause trouble. 
I felt like a right booby!!! 
The next thing I did is drive my car to the end of the street and then went back to listen outside my front gate and right on que she went "Woof...Woof...Woof"  I listened for a full 15 mins and she never let up.  So the very next thing I did was to buy an noise control collar.  Needless to say that solved the problem.  But I would like to say that though you might think your neighbour is just full of hot air herself...are you sure? 
I would check it out ASAP because there is nothing quicker to drive a person mad than having to listen to a repetitive sound all day/night long.  It dosn't have to only be a dog barking, in my case with my new neighbour it was the sound of the water sprinkler system going off on a 40 min cycle 2/4 times a night during the summer (my neighbours were a bowls club)  And most mornings the lawn would be flooded.  
Tick, tick, tick, tick, swish, tick tick, tick, tick, swish!!!  I can tell you it drove me nuts and I became so sensitive to that sound (I could even hear it through earplugs) that I couldn't sleep and turned into a right b*.<h. 
It only resolved itself when I had to resort to calling in the noise control guys (they didn't belive me at the bowls club that it was that loud and basicly call me a trouble maker) 
The noise man measured it and "YES" it was above the limit and they had to put new quite sprinkler heads on their system.  And to think that all I ever asked them to do was, please change the timer so it would finish at 10pm and turn on at 7am and not go on all night.  It wouldn't have cost them a thing, instead they had to pay out a large sum to go noiseless.    So the point to my story is take care to see your neighbours point of view, sleep depravation can drive some people over the edge.  Rember she is old and she has her naps during the day.  Some people are just more senstive than others. 
If you find out that she fibbed, call her crazy...and good luck to you!
:-)

At present my neighbours are extemely good.  One side wants to adopt the dogs, the other has had dogs.  Both sides say the boys are quite quiet unless they start playing rough, but even that has stopped now one particular one has gone.

The once "I" did cause noise was deliberate to see what would happen if one who had never been alone was left.  Yes he made a noise - he howled the house down, but when they told me about it they said "he was a bit vocal and obviously missing me" and "could they do anything to help"!  I hadn't told them in advance.

I am having to move house soon (hubbys job) and all the above neighbour problems make me realise what I could loose!!!

This is a good example of what happens when households with 2 dogs change something, which is why I try and make sure both of mine are used to being apart from each other, as much as anything else it helps with training.

Ah but I'm not.  I had 4.  2 worked, 2 didn't.  When 1 of the non-workers went, I had a fair idea of what would happen and was trying to point out to my husband that we needed to get a smaller 4th as company.

As it turned out the remaining non-worker has now decided that he might just work after all.  So problem solved.  It only took 51/2 years to get there!!!!

Hi beaglebonkerz,

I think you need to take a step back first of all and determine two things, firstly, as several people on the thread have already said, is there a genuine noise problem?  Secondly have you perhaps become a but hypersensitive to comments etc from this neighbour which could leave you thinking things are worse than perhaps they are.  If there is not a real noise problem and you're not being overly sensitive at the neighbour's behaviour then you are dealing with a situation, which often has three main causes I'd say.  Firstly I remember from your other thread that you were very nice and spoke to the neighbour warning her about the dog, apologised about the noise etc, unfortunately whilst this should make people more reasonable it often has the opposite effect, they see it as weakness and get far worse.  Secondly, if this woman is retired has doesn't go out much then you could find that she literally sits there all day waiting for the slightest noise and then complains about it, people who don't have other things to fill their day can become obsessional about things.  The third element is that people often have no acceptance of their situation, we'd all like to live in massive houses with acres of land where we can do what we want whenever we want and have silence when required, but we all must live in the real world, it's a pity a lot of people don't.  As other posters have said they expect silence in the middle of a housing estate, people shoot each other over terraced house parking spaces that no-one owns etc.

A possible solution is firstly, stop apologising and being overly nice with the person, secondly go around there for a serious chat.  The approach you're looking for in the chat is not friendly but not aggressive either, be professional and business like about it.  Keep the conversation moving towards a solution and be clear that it's in everyone's interest to find one, but make sure you control the conversation.  If the person starts arguing or interrupting simply don't respond to what they say, wait and then "If I could continue" and carry on, it's like dominance theory for people, be very careful not to descend into arguing as arguing is where unreasonable people live.  The detail of the approach would be to go down the lines of, "Obviously there is no way we can continue with the way we things are going and must find a solution, as we certainly don't want things getting far worse where we report you to the police for harassment over matters such as banging the wall at snoring or even worse we have to end up retaliating to each bang on the wall with 15 minutes of very loud music every time.  I would hope we're above that sort of behaviour but it seems you're not happy with things and we've definitely had enough of this"

A word of warning is that I'd only use this if you're comfortable with how the approach works otherwise you may lose control and then it would be useless.  You can also use the content to be more or less verbally aggressive, try and identify things the person would not like and point out that it's towards those that things are heading, such as being reported to the police, video taping behaviour (in the case of the other poster who had people cut hedges onto their car) to give to the police etc.

Hope this, wow really long, post helps and good luck.

Kind Regards

MRD

Hi Folks

Thanks for all the replies Wow, and loads of good advice.  My husband sent her a letter saying we were trying our best to settle puppy in and that we are doing all we can to minimise the noise and that the houses conduct lots of sounds as the walls are very thin and that we only leave the pup for three hours at the most and that I have to work and that the breeder and the vet think this is an acceptable time to be left for and we are taking into account her feelings and we have moved his crate to the other side of the house to see if that is less noisy. 

What we also did was send a note to the young chap the other side apologising for any noise.  he came round and said he never heard a thing and agreed to listen out for the puppy yesterday afternoon, which he did and he said the pup barked once or twice when he heard front doors opening, but he was not barking at all other than that.

If in time if we do have a problem which I think we dont, I would have to consider other measures maybe an antibark collar (which I really dont agree with)
I just think that next door is a sad interfearing old busy body who has got nothing better to do

I have to confess to being very noise intolerant.  But I have never complained about my neighbours even though to me they are noisey they have four lovely,  slightly loud children.  I really struggle in the summer.  My neighbours have a lovely big pool and have given permision of all the local children to use it even if they are not there.  So it can get so noisey with exceitable children that I can't hear myself think.  Then of course they wind up my dog by calling his name so they get him all excited.  My reaction is pack a picnic and go for a walk,  I have no right to complain about people enjoying themselves. Im the one that has the problem not them.  My weakness is Im sensitive to noise,  but my strength is tolerance and recognising my weakness's
Regards
Emma
P.s SSSSSHHHHH

although easier than said than done i would re assure your neighbour that you will try to be quieter then it ends there do not let her intimidate you, you will have to be firm make your self clear (like with dogs ) make her back down and ignore her comments your husband should also go and tell her /she has the upper hand of you ,that must be turned round ..make her think twice before putting siily notes through the door .  could you not put  a tape recorder on to see if your beagle  really is barking while your out .maybe she likes having a good moan about something makes her feel better

Sounds to me like you have a case for harrassment.  Mention that to her and see what she has to say!

MW

Oh boy its like I took work home with me! It is really hard trying to work out if someone is intolerant or has a justified complaint unless you are there when its happening. I find people who object to noise start listening for it and stop making normal life-sounds themselves so the problem is magnified. Beagles neighbour has such an aversion to dogs it sounds as if any noise draws her attention to the fact a dog ( horrors!) lives next door. This week I was in a flat where 2 out of 3 tenants have left due to noise - the family upstairs are loud, period and their lifestyle clashes with their neighbours. One of the tenants chose to be homeless with a young child rather than complain. A mediation service can help resolve if the other party is amenable to sorting it out and you dont have to talk to each other at the beginning, if not itll have to be the tape recorder and harassment. Good luck.

Live and let live sort of noise tolerance I can accept but there are some out there determined to make other peoples lives a misery for whatever reason. A house I once lived in was bordered by another terrace whereby OK the walls were thin, but you got used to the day to day noise but the guy next door had the largest speakers I've ever seen directed at out walls so no wonder we had a wall of sound every night. Tolerance is one thing respect is another.

Where I live now there is a lot of noise going by from the street as people and cars pass (my small end-terraced house goes straight out on to the street), but I know its just passing by so I live with it and know that there's no vindication by all this noise unlike the guy I used to live next door to (above).

Try living next door to a pair of Wildebeest during the mating season! We had three years of this, and what made it worse was I was permanently worn out as I had 2 kids aged 1 and 2 at the time - the most exciting Friday night we had was playing scrabble! ;)

Tracy