The natural thing to do when a neighbor complains about dog barking is to get defensive. “My dog? Causing a problem? How dare you?!”
Don’t go there. Defensiveness exacerbates hostilities, escalates tension, and encourages your neighbor to make a mountain out of what you perceive to be a molehill. Remember, it’s all about perception, and your neighbor’s perception is his reality. Instead of being defensive, try these things:
1. Listen intently to your neighbor’s complaint.
Unless one of you plans to move, defusing the situation beats all-out war. Set defensiveness aside, and listen to what your neighbor says. Assume there’s some nugget of truth to his complaint. You need to find it, so you can figure out what to do with it. He says your dog barks all the time, underneath his bedroom window, and wakes him up. That may be an exaggeration, but chances are your dog is barking some of the time, especially if you leave her out in the yard, or if she has free backyard access through a doggie-door.
2. Empathize and apologize for your dog barking.
Without admitting guilt, empathize with your complainer. “It must be frustrating to have to listen to barking dogs when you’re trying to sleep.” Be sincere. Tell him you’re sorry he’s being disturbed by barking. Reassure him that you don’t want your dog to be a nuisance, and you want to help find a solution to his concerns. Ask him to bear with you while you work on the problem. Bake him chocolate chip cookies.
3. Investigate your dog’s nuisance behavior.
Ask questions that won’t make your neighbor defensive. “Is there a time when it’s most annoying?” “Are there other dogs that are barking too?” “Other than giving up my dog, what would make you happy?” Set up a video camera or voice-activated tape recorder to document your dog’s activities when you aren’t home. Alternatively, take a day off and watch your own house from a distance, to see what goes on that might make your dog bark. Check the neighborhood to see if there are other dogs whose barking might be blamed on your dog. Ask other neighbors if they hear your dog, and if so, when and how much.
4. Respect all community dog laws.
Make sure your dog is currently licensed, and obey all local animal control laws. Maybe your neighbor is complaining because your dog runs loose and he feels threatened (even though you know your dog is a pussycat), or because you don’t clean up when you take her for walks. Those are legitimate grounds for complaint (as is excessive nuisance barking) even if your dog is a pussycat. You don’t want animal control to find you in violation of anything. Obey leash laws and scoop laws, and respect your neighbor’s discomfort with your dog – don’t let her off-leash even if you’re just walking out to your car. If she runs over to happily greet him, you’ll fuel the fires.
5. Take action to modify your dog’s behavior, and your own behavior.
Make changes to accommodate your neighbor and protect your dog. If his complaint is early-morning noise and she’s barking when you let her out at 6:00 am while you shower, alter your routine. Get up earlier and go out with her. Let her eliminate, then play with her. Keep her quietly occupied rather than leaving her to find her own entertainment. If it’s random throughout-the-day backyard barking while you’re away, bring her in and close the dog door. She doesn’t have to be outside all day. If things get ugly, leaving her out unattended exposes her to great risk from an irate neighbor. If necessary, pay someone to let her out for a noon potty break. If the complaint is about barking even when you are home, behavior modification is in order. (See “Modifying Your Dog’s Barking Behavior“.) If it’s something other than barking, determine how you can modify the situation to mitigate the problem. Some examples:
-Your dog charges the fence. Your neighbor fears for his children’s safety. Make the fence solid, or put up an inner fence so there’s an “airlock” between dog and kids. See, “Solve Fence Aggression with a Better Designed Dog Fence,” for more info on fencing.
-Your dog came over and attacked his dog. You think your dog was just playing, but whatever. Vow that your dog is never off her leash in your neighborhood. Even just walking to your car.
Keep your neighbor informed of your efforts to address his concerns. Document your actions in a journal in case you do have to face animal control. Ask your neighbor to let you know if he sees improvement – and document that. Save receipts for anything you buy to modify your dog’s environment. If you see your neighbor deliberately antagonizing your dog, document that with a video camera. Keep your dog safe. Be considerate. Keep baking chocolate chip cookies.
Two comments directed at WDJ:
1. You damage your credibility by allowing vulgarity and name calling in these comments. If you can’t afford to pay a moderator to patrol and delete, then close commenting. A cheap way for you to find a team of moderators would be to offer a free subscription to WDJ in exchange for volunteering to moderate. That would have to be subject to some timeliness metric, for example posts that break the rules are taken down within 4 hours.
2. Rules: hmmm, comment #1 doesn’t work unless you have rules to start with. Set a standard for what is allowed in the comments, then enforce it. See 1 above.
3. The original post failed to mention separation anxiety as a common cause for barking. An owner might have no idea that their dog actually has an emotional problem being by itself, hence the barking. Some owners might actually decide to try to help their dog with this if they had a clue that it was due to anxiety.
I’m the complaining neighbor. I’ve spoken with the family repeatedly regarding the barking and the escapes. I was told that it was a puppy, and it would outgrow the behaviour. That was over 5 years ago. Dogs don’t outgrow behaviours, they have to be trained.
I don’t want cookies. I want to go outside my house, in my own yard, and not be subjected to the constant barking that occurs when I’m outside my house. I don’t think I should be the one who has to build a fence to achieve quiet. I’d also like to walk across my lawn and not worry about dog logs.
dog owners can be so f**kin stupid sometimes. if my neighbour’s dog doesn’t stop soon I’m gonna throw chocolate and mushrooms over the fence. Here you go, wa*kers, suck on that thought!
It’s true with good owners and intelligent neighbors know that humans are smarter than does there fore humans teach Dogs to obey and be good as if owners are in control they represent the way the animals acts. It’s common for Dogs to protect their territory if their is a threat but excessive and constant aggravation of animals out of control and unable to understand they live in a human environment which should not be unnecessarily abused or violated. If he owners cannot control there pets they are not doing their job or owners of the property as there are laws to protect property owners from individuals that abuse there rights and lives with noise pollution from negligence from people that don’t care about their neighbors.
Animal Control or Law enforcement Officials are there to serve and protect. Don’t believe me look it up n the web. Read and weep if you must. Neighbors are to be respectful of one another . It’s in the Bible.
My neighbor’s dog was out for 2 hours barking the whole time at anything, in 29 degrees Fahrenheit. No doghouse.They’re on their 4th or 5th one over about a 10 year period. The others are dead. I guess maybe all these barking dogs are crying for help? Maybe you should pay more attention to your own animals than your selfish crusade on not giving a…
NAHHHH… stupid people are hopeless.
are you legitimately concerned that the other dogs may be dead because of their owners not treating them right?
I’m scared of y’all. Your neighbors deserve peace. They aren’t psychos because they get tired of your dog’s non-stop barking. Also please don’t shoot anyone’s dogs wtf.
I only read the title. Seems to be from an ignorant person, frankly.
5 things to do when your neighbor complains about your dog barking-
#1-Shut your dog up. Period.
There’s no number two.
If you need number two, you are a piece of number two.
Dogs aren’t the problem-ignorant/oblivious owners are.
Dumbasses.
i cant even let my dog out to pee with out her running to the bak gate and barking. i stop her everytime but the neighbour comes running out saying hes gonna call bylaw if i dont shut her up its 6pm. im afraid to let her out at all anymore
You can’t kill the owner of the chronically barking dog. Although, the owner probably deserves it and you would likely get caught and go to prison. However, under the law, dogs are considered property. No one goes to prison for destruction of property, even if it could be proved.
My neighbor is threatening to have our dog removed from the home because she has major separation anxiety. She doesn’t cry outside, she only cries (maybe even howls?) while she’s inside and all alone. She probably cries most of the time that everyone is gone. We haven’t had a complaint from any of the other neighbors that we live in close proximity to, which is strange because the neighbor on the other side of us is very snoopy. So if she is as obnoxious as he says then why isn’t anyone else bringing this up? But I no longer live in the house. Before I left my ex we had three dogs. I took two and he kept one. We just broke up a couple months ago after a 6 year relationship. All our dogs are rescues and the one he kept is the most emotional and sensitive out of them all. She had a really hard past and was in terrible condition when we rescued her. She is a happy girl when she has someone with her. She is so distraught now that her mom and her babies are no longer in the house with her. My ex goes to work and that’s when she cries and cries. The next door neighbor is now saying that we’ve been abusing her for years which is totally insane and such a hurtful thing to say about people who advocate for rescuing animals. We LOVE our pets like they’re our children. He says he will not give up until our dog is removed from the house. This is devastating to us as the breakup has already been so difficult on us and our pets. Our dog has been through so much she would be devastated if she had to be re homed yet again and so would we. How do you punish a dog who has separation anxiety and who is a rescue with emotional issues? When nobody is there to tell her no? I feel like this guy is taking out all his anger on us. He sits outside and listens to her and leaves his front door wide open in the middle of the summer. Why would he do that if he doesn’t want to
Hear her crying? He walked up on our front porch last night, was super disrespectful to my ex’s Dad, then got in my ex’s face and was threatening him. Our neighbor just moved in with his new wife, they have three kids, who we used to see all the time and now we never see them. I’m literally concerned about the well being of his family. This guy seems like he’s losing his grip and it’s really scary. It’s difficult to reason with someone when they’re so aggressive. We’re at a loss right now and I can’t stop crying. The thought of losing her is killing the me. Please help with any suggestions on how to help our dog feel at ease when nobody is home? I can’t stop crying I already feel so bad for taking the other dogs and leaving her confused.
Find a competent animal behaviorist/trainer and have them work with your dog to help solve her issues and follow the trainer’s advice. Your neighbors should not have to keep their doors and windows closed and be trapped inside their home, not able to sit on their own porch because of your dog, whether your dog is inside your home or not. Quite frankly, your neighbors are probably at the end of their own rope after having to listen to the dog crying every day when no one is there at home with her. Fix the problem, don’t blame the neighbors who have a very valid complaint.