Has the HOA come to you about his complaints? It sounds like you are being harassed, his relative needs to mind her own business IMHO, she doesnt live there. He chose to live in a pet friendly place so he needs to learn to live with barking dogs. In my lease it states no loud noise between 10pm & 9am, doesnt your lease state that? I have a real nasty lady that lives below me and wakes me between 4-6 am every morning and when I tried to talk to her about it,she told me to get used to it, and the building mgr. doesnt want to get involved, so now I no longer respect her and I no longer try to be quiet for her, she was very foolish since I'm the one that lives above her and I can really make her live miserable if I want to. Good Luck, he makes you want to play ball with your dog doesnt he LOL.. I've thought of getting a bowling ball just to drop over her head, shame on me :>)

Does he ever complain about you and your noise or is it just the dog?

Because I'll be frank. Even one minute of my next door neighbor's dog barking can really interrupt my day. It's a pain in the neck, much more intrusive than footsteps or doors banging or music or tv playing at a normal volume. (And this is "next door" as in the building next door, and they let their dog out in the yard.) Barking directly overhead when he's trying to sleep is probably very annoying.

aliciar876,

It seems like you have taken reasonable steps to keep the noise down. You cannot account for your neighbours odd work schedule and so long as you have done your due dilligence do not fret. Should this become a legal matter, continue to record your dog's noise levels when you are away. Also make sure to record the time of the day and keep these letters on hand. You can go out and file a complain with the authorities regarding the harassment if you would like but if it continues to escalate and you end up in court you might still end up on the winning side.

My advice is to stop worrying about it, at this point its not your fault.

Thanks everyone for the advice... I have spoken to my HOA board and they dont see the dog barking as a noise issue. They do have a quiet hrs b/t 10pm and 7 am, I always follow.
He has never complained about me just my dog. I do understand that dog barking from above you can be annoying, but when its not constant and happen frequently it should not be made to be a big deal. Dogs are going to bark when they hear noises.
EVen the HOA board said it was "impossible to keep a dog from barking when you are not home"
I am trying to respect his odd work hrs and that he sleeps from 5am to 2 pm, but I can't help when I have to leave at 12 noon and have to leave my dog at home b/c its getting to hot to take her with me. The recordings of her show that he doesn't bark constantly.

Look into sound insulation.

Here is a link that might be useful: sound proofing

OMG, this is almost exactly whats happening to me! in my case however, the tenant is calling the landlord, and he's calling me. I finally sent him an email stating all the efforts we've made, dogs on meds, excersise, taking them with (unless its too hot), someone's home with them all day, etc and that the tenant has not made any effort at all. she rarely/if ever leaves the house (summer teacher) so its impossible to accommodate the issue completely. I finally did stop worrying about it, but the landlord calls every single time she calls him (she'll call 3 times for 1 issue)...I must say to him in a calm voice, "what do you want", and hope that he doesn't say..."for you to move out".....I'm totally stressed about it.
please advise!

Seems like your downstairs neighbour has an unreasonable expectation here. I mean, my neighbour makes some noise at night and I just use earphones with white noise to keep me from waking up. In this case, she is more passive aggressive and doesn't even complain but tries to "punish" me during the day for every sound I make, mimicking/relatiating... It's the same unreasonable reaction I guess...

My general attitude is:
- try to be as silent as possible generally
- usually friendly to people, have a conversation when they're new
- headphones for music, my stereo is never on
- I don't have a dog or other pet
- no noise at night
- sometimes I practice acoustic guitar but try to keep it down and not go full volume with it

Situation:
- I live in a noisy, badly sound proofed apartment downtown, especially contact noises are audible 2 floors away (walls/floors)

Downstairs neighbour:
- she seems like a girl in her early 20s who likes expensive brands and she doesn't seem to have many friends
- moved in just a couple of months ago
- owns a dog, which is against contract regulations in our building!
- actually manages building cleaning and is the official contact for complaints!
- she can be quite silent, unless she hears any noise
- there are noisy neighbours downstairs and one time when they made late night noise, she turned up her stereo quite loudly until they quieted down (opposed to talking with them)
- any noise, also small ones like putting my tooth paste on the sink, and suddenly I hear more noises from her. A couple small noises more from me, the more noise she makes. Sometimes suddenly a loud bang right underneath me.
- when I subtly play guitar, she either turns up her stereo quite hard or makes other noises
- sometimes slams her front door really hard when I am at home (upper floor shakes)

I'm quite sure I'm not being paranoid because the pattern is persistent.
I've been reading up on it, maybe she's one of those High Conflict Persons (impossible to please) - at least close to someone with a personality disorder, uncapable of taking responsibility for themselves? She seems to react really immature on any noise, even below what is to be considered normal. Like she wants to always dominate in the amount of noise made (???)

The best thing is to ignore these cases I think, especially when there is no clear communication or someone has no reasonable expectations. Selfishness abound :-( Sometimes it's almost as if the majority of people these days only thinks about "ME ME ME I only care about ME, and if you make my life miserable, I make your life miserable!".

Well - being an ultra quiet person and having lived in NYC for 33 years - I can understand the down stairs person. And depending on where you live quiet is quiet regardless of time of day or night.

That being said - it was a law to put down not only carpet but rubber padding prior - (late 70's) 80's of the room which is essentially wall to wall. Rubber is the only material that stops "noise" vibration - to the guy below - he's in a sound box (like drum or violin) the sound goes through the floors, walls and into his "sound box" and is magnified often many times over the original sound output!

I had a guy with a dog, and dropped weights all day and ALL night (our building was in a fire so I ended up at nadir (vegetative) so could do nothing much about it... even the cat was hysterical... (I can handle heater noise, care noise but not sudden drops - even things fell off the shelves.) Finally my x boyfriend who can sleep through anything started getting woken up - he was a high powered chef and slept days and worked nights but again this went on day and night. The police came and sat in our apt and said WOW - sounds like somebody dropping a bowling ball! Guy came down later and tried to choke me! (police waited in lobby has they got a clue to his violence and lack of communication when I first went up)

Unfortunately when the older landlord died new management was brought in and the new apts (renovated after the fire) tenants did not have management enforce actual laws.

I ended up sleeping on the lobby couch for years! (and young people moving in and out at all hours of the night - during "my day" neighbors were contacted and it was done during the day when most were at work.)

So what may not seem like much noise to you is not the same for the guy below. And at least in NYC one could not allow any machine, instrument et al to create noise for a neighbor - during any part of the day (a myth at x hours so on).

And as well dogs were then allowed - one barked they all barked - people would be up all night trying to find out where the dogs barking would come from (and reason why I owned cats - I would NEVER have a dog - being a social animal ie pack animal, alone in an apt or doing his job ie guarding his territory. All the things people would do to keep their dog quiet to me is inhumane (studied to be a vet).

Barking dogs (and I do animal rescue and love dogs) drove me nuts - NUTS! I and countless other tenants - would be woken up at all hours of the night when the young tenants would party all night - leaving their barking dogs for others to deal with.

But the good news is YOU are on the floor above this guy and unlike the ones below (very hard to sound proof all when below - inner box has to float away from actual walls and ours were cement - could not hear next door but above below could). Very expensive.

My friend in another apt - had same situation (person below would come up) she just padded and padded until they could no longer here anything... Find rubber padding, add two layers, then huge rugs or carpet... then layer of rug.

The synthetic stuff under carpets is useless... (my brother was an architect plus I did tons of work to end this nightmare)...

(and had earplugs until my ears were infected - spent money on white noise machines, tape recorders - still sleep round the clock now with them even though I no longer live there out of habit and more).

And btw - I did sculpture - I would go to all my neighbors talk with them and find out the schedule (even though I could during the day) to work and always stopped (as well a law) by five if not before (worked on quiet stuff when any one home sick or later in evening).

It's not being selfish - the NUMBER one cause of suicide is actually noise "pollution" - we are not designed to endure it for long and the stress alone (adrenal cortisol hormones) can kill.

Their are dog house sitters or you can take pooch with you... (some in our apt would cage them and med them and that's sad - don't own one if that's the case mho) They esp large dogs not bred for apt life need to run and roam.

See if your landlord is willing to soundproof or insulate, with my neighbors they were making up rediculous complaints so we had to contantly film and record our actions to counter every complaint they made to the landlord until the landlord realized they were looney. The other option is if he tries to sue you, counter sue for defamation because his intent is to corrupt your record by making complaints. The other thing you can do is get the police involved as frequently as possible, getting them on site for every time he knocks on your door for harassment. It will be a great back up for court on your behalf.

Lol, YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS!!! My downstairs neighbors file complaints with my board all the time. They even threatened to sue me, and for what? I travel for work a lot and I live with my bf halt the time, and I get complaints for when I'M NOT LIVING THERE. As in, no one is in the apartment!! I finally got fed up and said, "someone was probably robbing me, next time call the police for me." Lol. You can take legal issues, like file a harassment case, if it's really unbearable. I would take that route, but these two ladies are so crazy that they would try to take it to the supreme court, and I don't have money for that. Good luck though, and don't let them intimidate you. Find out if they have complaints against them.

Interested articles, thanks for sharing.

If your day is ruined because of 2 or 3 minutes of barking then i think apartment living is not for you. I live in a house, my neighbors have dogs, they bark, they bark often, you learn to live with it cause its just a part of life. Just think about having to listen to hours of early morning mowing and weed trimming every weekend morning...2 or 3 minutes of barking is a cake walk.

You are making some silly assumptions.

One, I do not live in an apartment. Dog barking is not confined to apartments.

It is pretty funny for the person who is causing a noise offense by letting his or her dog bark to think he or she is entitled to judge others who are being disturbed is definitely backwards

It is your job to figure out how to end the offense, not to instruct others that they are the problem. I am sorry to say that this type of egotism and lack of consideration are all too common in the area of noise pollutoin. It is you who are not suited to apartment living if you think it is OK to disturb your neighbors with your dog's barking, or any noise disturbance.

And, why do you assume that you know my opinion of leaf blowers etc?

I am also not a fan of leaf blowers. Thay are particularly stupid because they blow the leaves into someone else's property. where they have to be blown away again. In most yard the lealves can be raked up faster than they can be blown anyhow. A number of cities have taken steps to curb this unpleasant and unnecessary source of noise and air pollution.

Its daytime noises. And 2-3 minutes of noise during the daytime is not a unheard of concept. Apartments have noise, its the noise of living. In the past i have lived in dorms, townhouses, etc and when you get people stacked there will be some noise. Dogs bark, children cry and rugs get vacuumed. If you have a situation where your quiet hour need to be different than the rest of the world you need to make arraignments to account for the normal living of those around you if it bothers you.

leaf blowers? When did i say anything about leaf blowers? I do have one but it is used to blow leaves off my driveway and into my yard once or twice a year after a large leaf fall from the oaks. Why would anyone give their leaves to their neighbors? That prime compost right there and it feeds my tree and yard.

I would venture to say that a barking dog is one of the most annoying souinds there is. Far more annoying than a vacuum cleaner. That, and stereo music turned up too loud. The bottom ilne, though, is that your dog's barking is annoying your neighbor. You don't have a right to cause a noise disturbance. I am surprised that you are baslically saying: Bite it. You don't care that you are disturbing your neighbor. I am glad I do not live next to you. I do have a small apartment and in this building we are considerate of each other. I have let it be known that if any acitvity of mine (such as playing piano, etc.) is disturbing, please let me know and I will stop it. I do not enjoy realizing that my neighbors have been annoyed and they didn't let me know and so they went along feeling more and more annoyed. You should be grateful that your neighbor has let you know that the dog is disturbing. Now it is up to you to be considerate, courteous, take steps to curb your dog's barking, and generally be mature.

A barking collar for the dog might land the peace.

This is an old thread from 2013. The OP is long gone with her dog.

Maybe. But I am sure more have meanwhile sprung up in that one's place! They never go away. Unfortunately. In fact, more and more people seem to have dogs. they don't have time to walk them, so dog walking has become a profession. And picking up dog doo for multiple dogs. Ugh. Truly a dog's life.

Wow. I feel bad for you. I am having the same issues with my next door neighbor. I'm only 6 months into my lease and he complained twice to the office, probably 3-4 times by knocking on my door and pounding on the wall. Which I'm starting to feel like he is harassing us. I cannot believe the things these other peeps are telling you. I agree with you that it is an apartment and there are going to be noises regardless of the time of the day. If you cannot handle the noise, do not live in an apartment. My neighbor works from home and I'm guessing he works at night. But I shouldn't have to quiet down just so he could focus on his job. I'm paying for rent just like everybody else, why should I try to please my neighbor or follow his rules. I respect my neighbors and never make noises intentionally. I'm just having my normal conversations with my fiancee and sometimes I do have family and friends over, but we are usually quiet before 10pm. We do our weekly cleaning and vaccuming. We also noticed that the neighbor is bothered by the way we open and shut our doors. The doors in our unit likes to snap-in shut when its like an inch away from the lock. This neighbor just don't want any kind of noise. I am not going to shut up and be quiet like a mice. I'm not being disruptive or disrepecting my neighbors. He even had the audacity to say he never had any issues with his next door neighbors until we moved in. After numerous complaints, we had to go and ask our neighbors around our unit including the ones downstairs if they can hear us and if we were ever too loud. They all said we are fine and they don't hear anything from our unit besides normal things like walking around and dropping things. Sometimes I feel like he is delusional. We even spoke to the management team and they agreed with us that IT IS an apartment, there are going to be noises. If this neighbor renews his lease then thats too bad, hes going to have to deal with us. You just keep doing your thing girl.

Honestly i have neighbor harrassing us almost everyday. Day and night she complained. I don't know what to do. I tried to avoid it at night for my 2 year old kid. His actions unpredictable sometimes. All of a sudden he will jump because his very happy. I got mad, downtairs neighbor is getting mad when you are making noise. At night she kept pestering us with her complaint that were moving furnitures at night. Which we never did it. I have an 89 year old mother in-law and 2 kids the 8 years old and my 2 year s old. Every time they bang that they heard noise. My 2 years old is running and crying crazy. But before we move in, we told them if they want upstairs. But they say no. Even if we are in the bed. For them is like moving a furniture. I kept changing his pampers recently. He has diarrhea. But my neighbors kept complaining moving furnitures. And she threaten to call the police if she heard abother noise. I am stressed out already and the same as my kids..my downtairs neighbor Mom a little noise will freak her out. She cannot sleep. I don't know what to do anymore..