Hello my loves

Need some advice asap,my 2 dogs pug and newf are not really barkers,george is a little but stays in,stan ONLY barks at the postman or someone coming to the gate,so its prob 10 mins worth spread out throughout the day,today i had to leash stan to the garden gate as i had an emergancy vet visit with pug and granny had to housesit stan as the tesco shoping was coming,granny is terriefied of large dogs (oops)and stan barked constantly for 40 mins,this was a one off,my neighbour who hates me has come around and screamed in my face about stans barking and threatned the police,i was so mad i swore at him and slammed the door in his face(although this was after i explained the situation about the vets with puggy)now where do i stand with the police etc,will they take stan away,what do i do,im sshaking like a leaf,my issue with the law,is that if they do come around,stan will bark like mad at them,if they want to come in,stan will slobber them and if i leash him outside he will bark like mad to come in,the neighbours will do anything to make my life hell,park in my spot the list is endless

Calm down the worse that may happen is someone will call and ask about your dogs and if they do bark, but in all likely hood nothing at all will happen.

im so stressed nova,george has been so ill the past couple of weeks,stan is such a good boy but these neighbours will do anything to get at me :(

It's not a police matter at all, it is a council/environmental health matter and it is a LONG process. If a person reports a dog for barking too much, they will be asked to keep a diary for the next 4 weeks, noting times the dog barked, how long it went on for etc. At the same time the dog owner will be sent a letter telling them there has been a complaint.  The council then looks at the diary, and if it appears to them that the barking is excessive (of course, the complainer can lie on the diary!), they may opt to install a listening device in the neighbour's property. A committee will then listen to the recording, done over several days, to determine whether there is excessive barking or not.   If the barking is too much (which in your case will never be a question -the 40 mins was excessive but if it was a one off, so they will never even hear it) then you can be served a noise abatement order and if you ignore it (i.e. the barking continues to be excessive)  you can be evicted or told you must get rid of your dogs. There is no way on earth anyone can take a dog from you. So deep breath and calm down!

I doubt that the police would get involved unless there was some sort of threat to someone's safety. The local council will be the place for your neighbour to make a complaint about any barking and it would most probably be the dog warden that deals with it. Initially your neighbours would be given a 'diary' to record the time, length and level of barking. The next step would probably be sound monitoring with an eventual court hearing if necessary, but that would be a last resort.

If it's the case that the neighbours are intimidating you and making your life a misery, if they have frightened you by shouting at you and threatening you, surely that's a case for the police anyway?

Good point Dill!

they deliberatly park in front of my home,even if the street is empty,they will park so close to my boot i cant open it even with me standing there,always getting eveil looks,coments for me to over hear etc etc,they have it in for me,

Joanne I lived through neighbours that hated my dogs, for 6 years. 8 complaints to the council and lot of other hassle. Not ONE complaint resulted in any action as it was proved my dogs did not bark too much. I had 9 back then. Needless to say though we didn't want to keep living like this (couldn't go out as the neighbours would kick the door, bang on windows etc to MAKE the dogs bark) so we ended up moving. Ironically the dogs now bark FAR more but now we're in a rural area with just one neighbour.

How horrible for you. Don't worry the police will not act on a noise problem anyway ! Not unless it was maybe a very loud party in the middle of the night LOL.
I had a GSD once who (In my darker days with horrible EX OH ) was kenneled with his Mum, she came into season so he was put in another kennel (Puppy kennel with lower fencing) he missed his Mum so jumped the fence to get to her but was stopped by the high fence round her. He popped over next door to chat to the sweet lady boxer who lived there and was chased out (He was a softie) by the owner...a Crown Prosecuting Solicitor..who rang the police and said I had a dangerous dog out of control. I was terrified, he was gentle as a lamb. Purly because of who he was the police called and said don't worry no harm done it will be forgotten...till the court date arrived ! The man had abused his posittion and pushed it through, I went to court expecting to lose my wonderful dog, (Held in a court 100 miles away from my house for an Impartial hearing !) I could not afford a solicitor so represented myself. As he (The idiot) walked into the court room he waved and chatted to the ushers and gave me a sly nasty smile.  Thank God for the system it worked and the judge threw it out of court...Said man stomped out of the court before the judge had left ! slamming the door behind him. He lost his job, his house and ultimatly his wife and children over it. But it made me a nervose wreck for weeks. The worst you will get I susspect will be a call from the dog warden, who will probably be happy to have a newfie slobber ! LOL
Aileen

blinking hell goldimali,thats terrible,i am just panicking,i know that,im just so tired with george at the mo everything is getting on top of me,she barks at my dogs when she walks past my home,she hates my guts,im not a trouble maker,,if you remember a long time ago i put a post on here about her daughters safety and after a good discuision with yourselves i did ring the nspcc,her daughter was mentaly ill,i would hear her threatning to kill herself,she would be exposing herself and doing sexual acts in  the garden on the trampoline,she is only aprox 10 years old,she was out in the garden alot in the dark screaming for her parents to help her and they never,there was no gate etc to the garden and the front of the house is on a way to fast road,not good for a girl with mental health issues and suicide issues,a couple times she ran off and luckily i spotted it(was outside smoking in my smoking days)they used to just stick her outside for about 15 hours a day and she used to walk in circles,they were always screaming at her,so i told you guys and then told the nspcc,i didnt want to do it,but the girl needed help,the nspcc said the neighbour would not be told it was me,but she did acuse me,and since then,hates me,the girl was taken away for a long time,is home now,still very very ill,completly gone mentally,but she is calmer,and they dont leave her side,alot less screaming at her etc,so im glad i did what i did for the girl but my life has been hell ever since

Joanne, if you are being intimidated, and it sounds as if you are, it is you who should be contacting the police if only to let them know you have a problem, they may well follow it up and keep an eye on the situation.

Blimey Aileen.  What a nightmare story!  :-(

Understand your worry, but Goldmali has explained the law perfectly with regards to this, your dogs are in no danger.

So, brush that problem under the door mat where it belongs.

These people will bare a grudge against you due to what happened, they can't prove it was you who called the nspcc, but so what, should you really care? You did the right thing.

They are horrible parents, nasty people and you need take no notice of them, infact if an inspector ever did call (though people like this are generally cowards) you only need tell them that your dogs bark for no longer than a few minutes a day which dogs are absolutely allowed to do, there are not many mute dogs around in this world  and you then tell them why they have it in for you and the inspector will probably never call again.

Remember dogs are allowed to bark it is not against the law just not at unsociable hours for 30 mins or so, which would drive any of us mad.

I don't know what to suggest about the parking if it is a public roadway and not a private drive nothing you can do, but probably best to just ignore them and hope they get bored, after all they are putting themselves out too parking in front of the wrong house. If they are parking so close that you can not lift your boot up, hopefully someone will park up close to them so that they are boxed in.

I was just thinking the same,Dill!Do they still have police mediators(where they hear both sides and try to help in neighbour problems?)That might be the way forward?
And I hope social workers are involved with the mentally ill child,they were quick enough to get involved with people i know,over much less,with weekly visits etc.

If these people are barking at a dog when they go past, then I wonder if there is mental illness with the parents too?   How many people would bark at a dog? 

Whatever the case, or the cause of the problem, if these people are making your life difficult and intimidating you, making threats etc. then you might wish to have a chat with the police to see what, if anything, can be done.   Then there will be a record of the difficulties that these people are causing.  

What we found when this sort of thing was happening to us (for over 10 years!!!)  was that it was very isolating, we never saw any other neighbours, these people ruled the street.   Then when they went, people were coming up to me and saying how relieved they were - it wasn't just us being affected, and we never knew because we were so isolated - which is what the bullies wanted so they could do as they pleased.  It took it's toll on my health, and the health of my neighbours :(   It took us a very long time to speak to the police because when it started, it was only an occasional thing but it got worse over time as the bullies got bolder :(    If I'd known how bad it would get I'd have got the police involved straight away.

I wouldn't worry too much. It was probably said out of anger. Someone i know was recently contacted by the rspca about someone reporting their dog who barks for long periods of time daily (we are trying to help with training). There has been NO mention of police or taking dogs away, they are quite calm about the situation.

It was probably your neighbours harsh reaction that has shaken you, having a few nasty neighbors myself I know how this feels. Had him jump forward and growl at my gsd and rottie after screaming/spitting in my face to try to get my dogs to react. Bless, they both ignored him as know not to get involved. Police were also involved due to threats, he even threatened to get my vicious dogs put down, police laughed when I told them and said they could see they were friendly and told me not to worry as neither of my dogs had done anything wrong (really upset me). I'd complained about his dog poo in the past and he'd taken offence and tried to scare me.

Don't let bullies get to you, have a cuppa and calm down :)

More people than you would expect,would bark at a dog!Was sitting in the car in a carpark,waiting for my then partner,once,in the next car was a large dog on the back seat.A man walked past the car and as he did so,the dog raved at him,he does no more than turn back,and stand there shaking his fist at the dog!I couldnt believe it,there are some funny people out there!

they deliberatly park in front of my home,even if the street is empty,they will park so close to my boot i cant open it

My daughter (who works in the legal profession) tells me that there should be sufficient room between parked cars for someone to walk between them.  If not you can call the police.  (I think that´s what she´s already had to do with her car and her neighbours!!