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Barking dogs

9 years ago

I was talking to my neighbor a few days ago and she mentioned that she sometimes hears my dogs barking at night. While I do get up early and let them out for a minute, the times she is talking about hearing them, they are sleeping in their crates in my room. But obviously she is hearing some dog bark.

Here is my view on barking dogs: I am glad my dogs alert me and bark inside when someone comes to the door or even walks across the yard, I am hearing impaired and it helps me know someone is there because I can hear them alerting me by barking a few feet away from me but often cannot hear someone knocking on the door.

Most of the time when my dogs are outside I am too, if I hear them bark for more than a minute I take them inside. That can happen for a number of reasons, such as increased traffic around my house when the local high school lets out.

It can happen for other reasons like them finding a toad in the garden, so they go inside and the poor toad can continue doing whatever it was doing. I always pay attention because my dogs always bark for a reason.

I think it is irresponsible to let a dog be outside barking for extended periods of time especially at night. It disrupts the neighborhood, and obviously the poor dog is distressed, fearful or lonely if it barks for hours.

Comments (22)

  • 9 years ago

    Our peke is only outside when we are home, and even then he doesn't care to stay out long. If he starts barking I call him in so he doesn't disturb any neighbors.

  • 9 years ago

    My dog seldom ever barks, not even when there are deer in the yard or he sees another dog. He may whine a bit and rush around trying to get a better glimpse but no barking. Same in the car - never a bark. He only barks if he gets tangled up outside (he's on a tie out when he's out - no fence) to alert me to come rescue him :-) He is just not much of a talker :-))

    My upstairs landlady's dog is another matter. Nasty, yappy little thing barks incessantly. And he howls if left alone, sometimes even in the middle of the night!! Fortunately, she is only in residence one week out of the month and takes the dog with her when she leaves. But her cat stays and comes to my place as a border when mom is not home.

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  • 9 years ago

    Our old dog was not a barker. In the 15 years we had her, I think I could count the number of times she barked. Always for a reason.

    Our neighbor dog sits in her home. She has one dog that visits regularly, and it barks constantly when it's outside. It's spring now, and time for the windows to be open, but not when that dog is barking. Fortunately, she keeps it inside more than out.

  • 9 years ago

    I agree. Don't ask me how or why. But my neighbor left for work and forgot to let their dogs back inside. After about 4 hours of barking and howling I texted the neighbor. He said his spouse was in bed and must be sound asleep.

    He asked me to go thru their back fence, open the sliding door that's not locked and let them inside. So I did.

    Hasn't happened again.

    When mine go outside in the middle of the night Logan will occasionally bark. And I'm standing right at the door & shush him.

  • 9 years ago

    My neighbor had a dog for a year and she was barking every minute when outdoors. She was outdoors all day while the owners worked. She barked at birds, the deer, the woodchucks, the kids, me. Gah!

    Finally, the HOA enforced the disturbance ruling and the dog is elsewhere.

    OTH, my neighbor across the street has a dog that is quiet and kind. Ideal pet.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My dogs only ever bark if something is amiss. When we lived in a neighborhood, my next door neighbors said that she appreciated that they did that,as she and her partner were older,hard of hearing and afraid sometimes. Once,one of the neighborhood hooligans was trying to break in their back door on the middle of the night. They were home. My dogs went nuts, and SO went out there, and scared him off. Our security cameras and game cameras caught him and so he was arrested soon after. Even now that we moved out of the city,they dont ever bark unless someone or something is out there that doesn't belong there. Or they bark if they wanna come inside. But when it's that,they only bark once,at the back door,and that has rarely ever happened.

  • 9 years ago

    Our dogs bark when somebody goes by the house. If there is a dog with them it is pandalerium LOL! If they are outside they will bark a couple of times but love to just run back and forth along the fence following whoever is going by. Not vicious, just LOVE TO BARK AND RUN lol!

    That being said, they are not left outside for any length of time usually. Sometimes in nice weather they will poke about the yard for a bit before coming back to the door to be let in, and if they do make a ruckus we call them in.

    My neighbour keeps their dog in the garage. A small weenie dog mix. And it barks and cries constantly. All day, all night. Poor thing! I love that dog, but he bites me every time I see him. Acts all happy to see me, will let me pet it, and at the last minute SNAP! Every time, the bugger!

    Dances.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Our dog growls to let us know there is someone close buy and she barks if they are at the door. When outside, she only barks when she's running in the sprinklers or someone is approaching us. She doesn't chase other animals or run off even when other people are in their own yards. Neighbors comment often about how good she is. It's always been important to me (as her trainer) that we are respectful of our neighbors. They shouldn't have to bear any burden just because we have a dog.

    On the flip side, we have two neighbors who live next to each other and between them they have 3 labs. One lets his dog out when ever he's home (and awake), starting at 5:30 am while he's dressing for work. All this dog does is bark, nonstop for hours and he could care less. When the battery on her collar dies, she actually goes to the doors of other homes to bark at the people inside. Personally, I think it's to just to say hello because when we go out to take her home, she's very happy for the attention

    All of the neighbors have complained repeatedly to him to no avail. Recently, I've started to file formal complaints so an officer will come talk to him. I figure that even though the quiet is always short lived, at least it's documented. More than anything, I feel sorry for the dog. She's over weight and lonely, she's often out in the weather and severe cold. That jerk doesn't deserve to have her and sometimes I just want to KICK him where it hurts. (Yes it really does upset me)

    The other house with the pair, one older and one younger, tends to let them run amock so they can play and do their business in other people's yards. Our yards all back up to each other. They're large and open. The dogs have plenty of running room in their own yard but still love to wander off. Often times I have to get them home or atleast out of our yard before Ellie can do her own thing and I can run her. Obviously, the labs just want to play chuck it too, so I feel badly but we face a busier road and I don't want to encourage them to wander over to us. The other day, the younger pup, who is only about 8 months old was digging holes in another yard, the owners were no where in site and again I had to get Lucy to go home.

    Why do people even want to have dogs when they are not interested in engaging with them and/or even keeping them safe? That is just baffling to me.

  • PRO
    9 years ago

    Many years ago, in casual conversation, my neighbor 2 houses up told me that she often hears my dogs barking during the night. Since they're on my BED, I know they are NOT barking and told her so! It turns out it was another person who has a dog door. The dog would hear a "critter" in the garden, use the dog door and go outside and bark. Owners either didn't hear or didn't care (I suspect the latter). But because I had 3 small dogs, the assumption was that it was mine barking. Very annoying...

  • 9 years ago

    Uncontrolled barking dogs are a nuisance and very annoying. It's a typical manifestation of irresponsible pet owners lacking consideration for others. Those who fail to pick up their dogs' poo when out walking is #2 on that list for me.

  • 9 years ago

    Thank goodness my little dog is not a yapping dog. I can't stand yapping little dogs. We had one behind our house when we lived in Memphis. Which caused my dogs to bark at it.

    Mia only barks if someone is in our space, driveway yard etc. Occasionally she hears my neighbors 2 dogs barking and will reply back lol. My neighbor has 2 black labs, we love them, they come visit and play with Mia. But one of them gets so excited by the squirrels her voice goes up to this super high squeaky sound. It does not even sound like a dog. It took me a while to figure out what that noise was. She just rescued her a year ago. The other dog, also a rescue, is not big on barking but now the new one with her squeak gets her to barking too. It usually doesn't bother me because we have a lot of trees separating us.

  • 9 years ago

    I've never heard "acres" used as a distance measurement before! :)

    If someone wrongly accused my dog of barking, I'd be making it clear to them that they're mistaken. Saves trouble down the road. Two big pet peeves to me are uncontrolled barking dogs and uncontrolled screaming/crying kids. Other people shouldn't have to put up with it. For a dog to bark a couple times isn't unusual as long as it's not at unreasonable times.

  • 9 years ago

    I am not a dog owner. But if I was, I'd try to keep my dogs quiet. That said, my neighbor fusses at their dog if it barks at all. I think that's too much. It's always during the day when someone is out riding their motorcycle down the street, or someone is weed eating, etc. So why worry over noise during the day? It's ok, I don't mind! :) They're sweet for being so accommodating, but surely people can tolerate it some.

  • 9 years ago

    Dogs barking are #1 on my list of things that make me crazy and the primary reason I don't like dogs. Luckily my neighbors with two big dogs keep them in the house most of the time, but they've trained them to bark to be let back in the house. So even though it's not incessant barking, they wake me up every single morning, my grandson was never, ever able to take a nap without being awakened by their afternoon barks and for 15 years I've lost the pleasure of being able to snooze in the hammock, should I want to. Knowing I'm likely going to be blasted awake by a loud round of barking completely takes the relaxation aspect away. They don't awaken me at night because I stay up later than they do. Sometimes I fantasize about making noise that disturbs their sleep/peace and quiet. But I won't.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What irritates me, possibly even more than the constant barking, is the owner yelling (repeatedly at the top of his lungs) for the dog to shut up. Both would benefit from some training. JMO

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My Dachshund is not a barker, which I have been told is unusual for the breed. She has only barked when someone drove up or came to the door and rang the doorbell. She would bark only once or twice and stopped when I answered the door.

    And when outside, she would bark if she saw someone on the ridge behind us. People would use deer trails for hiking. It would creep me out to have strangers staring down at me while I worked in the garden. That is one of the reasons why I got a dog. It doesn't happen much anymore because someone built a house on the land. She ignored all the other neighbors talking and even ignored their barking dogs. She never joined in.

    I always felt safe with her around because we are way out in the country. In the past there have been a few break ins in the area, but I never worried about it. I would only be on alert if she barked because I knew there was a reason. Now that she is 15 and is deaf and sleeps most of the time, I don't feel as safe.

  • 9 years ago

    My two go insane when someone knocks on our door. The 25 pound dogs sound like little Cujos. I like that because if I were a burglar I'd turn and leave. The dachshund sounds like a German Shepard with a deep bark. When they're outside in the good weather, I'm there too. The Boston Terrier mix is the biggest pain in the butt because apparently no one is allowed on our sidewalks because he runs along the fence barking his head off. Annoying to me and probably to neighbors. When that person goes, he shuts up.

  • 9 years ago

    Barking dogs get on my nerves....as does any repetitive noise. My dogs are not to bark unless at a person or when another dog comes on the place, which is rare because people around here are good at keeping their dogs home. At night most of my dogs go in a pen. They are used to it and usually are in there waiting on their supper when it is time. I don't hear a peep out of them all night. Three female dogs sleep in the house...a couple of old dogs and my bulldog. The bulldog only barks at the hogs. She is part boxer and pit and she wouldn't bark at a person to save your life. The old terrier and catahoula will bark at people.

    There is a guy who lives down the road and around the corner from me and every day he and his two dogs walk up this road. When he gets to my front gate, he stops and stands there, looking down my driveway. My dogs pitch a fit and run out barking at them. I call them back. Most of them won't run out there any more but a couple do. Irritates the hell out of me. He wouldn't like it if I did that to him.

  • 9 years ago

    My two do bark, my response is to bring them in when they do. I did work with them and the two separate neighbours dogs to be out together and not bark. When its late or early I don't want them making noise but if others are out ie people talking or car doors slamming they will bark at this I of course feel bad, I stop the barking immediately. Unlike the neighbour who runs his loud truck for 15 to 20 min to warm up then roar up the street when he finally does leave at 6 in the morning. Their are lots of neighbours with dogs around here at any given time someone is barking. When they are all out its can be like a chain reaction. The first dog sees someone out for a walk and barks and so on down the bock until the walker is out of site. When the school buses go by from three to four there is a lot of barking. I think most are like me and try not to let barking continue. There are a few that completely ignore their barking dogs. One very yappy small dog around the corner temps me to visit the owner for a word, but I remind myself to be neighbourly cause I'm sure there is something I may do that annoys someone give and take keep the peace. My newest neighbours beside me have a trampoline, and above ground pool in their yard and three or is it four children loads of friends and no supervision other then a parent yelling out the window. It is going to be an interesting summer the dogs react to the screams and hollers and lots of crying, and them jumping being seen over the fence. and their two dogs, one who barks non stop when in the yard. I refuse to keep my dogs in all the time because their family or dogs are outside at all hours of the day. I'm going to be in my yard gardening and being with my dogs and sometimes the dogs are going to be out without me, and running them in and out constantly is not going to work. All I can do is work with mine not to bark but, on the other end why should I have to listen to screams and crying and kid hollering non stop either?

  • 9 years ago

    My neighbor, who has his land next to our long driveway, always has had 2 or 3 labs. They moved in about 12 years ago. The first 2 labs they had would bark their heads off if any of us walked or drove on our driveway. This went on for years, even when I tried to be friendly calling their names and giving them treats. They were old and have since died. We felt like prisoners when they were around. The current ones are more friendly and only bark at the UPS, propane or softwater truck. At least I know when we are getting deliveries.

  • 9 years ago

    We do our best to keep our two reasonably quiet. They have a doggie door to the fenced backyard, and once in a while something needs barking at. Two adjacent neighbors also have dogs and keep similar levels of control on them, so I feel okay about it. All six dogs are used to each other, and don't bark at each other anymore. Once in a while, a neighbor on the cross street must leave their little dog in the house alone, because I can hear it yapping almost constantly for hours. But that happens so rarely, I don't think the dog is being seriously neglected. We did once have neighbors who kept their german shepherd permanently in their backyard and rarely gave it attention even when they fed it. It barked in a very annoying way, but we felt so sorry for it.