Woof

Scott said :

Ok, good – It’s just yap.yap…yap.yap… yapyap… yap yap yap..

Haha. Yap, yap, yap yap yap … sounds like one of those small, annoying toy froodle, poodle, doodle dogs with a diamonte collar and a YSL bag lady as its owner.

On the other hand, if it was “WHOOOF, WHOOOF, WHOOOOOF”, (in my best Hagrid voice), then it’d be one of those Rottweillers with sloppy, syruppy, slag drooping from it’s mouth …

I’m hearing it mate, I’m hearing it …

Egg cartons.

Towards the watson side – The dog is right behind my house though… I LOVE Hackett and I love the people here – it’s just this last few weeks of barking. I’m nervous to approach my neighbour about the dog because I often hear quite aggresive arguments going on, and I’m scared of starting up some kind of “battle” if they react badly..

Which part of Hackett, Scott? I live in Hackett and it’s the quietest place I’ve ever lived.

My observation of this thread is that it’s a sad comment on society that we can’t talk to each other about problems like this and solve them without being defensive, or having to worry that the person might retaliate against us. When did we become so alienated from each other?

Note that I am not criticising anyone in this thread – most of the commentary and ideas are spot on. But what happened to community and communication? It disappeared somewhere along the way and we’re all the poorer for that.

zig – “harden up” is NOT a solution. Being being more considerate of each other is the solution, but unfortunately many people only think about their own needs.

It’s a noise issue, so make a noise complaint to the police when you get woken up.

Also read this http://www.tams.act.gov.au/live/pets/dgctfactsht/animalnuisance

Canberra towie, welcome to kambah.

Ok, good – I don’t seem to be the only one this drives crazy. Thanks for all the awesome suggestions to those who put them out there (particularly like the egg cartons. hehe). I think I’m gonna go with the late night letter drop (while I’m compiling times and dates for submission) – In reply to some of the posts, when I said several dogs, I meant that the one which barks sets off the others. And to zig – I really don’t generally give a toss about noise around my area – people can do whatever they please in my opinion. It’s just yap.yap…yap.yap… yapyap… yap yap yap.. begins to get on your nerves if it continues day in, day out, night in, night out. It’s not a normal noise I’m talking about here – these people must be seriously mistreating or neglecting their pet. Even though I’m pissed about the noise – I’m concerned for the dog as well.

I live in units and often noise intrudes at night. Not dogs thankfully. I keep a few sets of those foam earplugs handy, and if the noise intrudes in any way it’s quick and easy to reach over to the bedside table, squeeze and insert (the plugs people, the plugs) and once they’re in nothing disturbs me. Bit drastic according to some but it has lowered my late night blood pressure by heaps on many occasions.

As for your ill thought out comment zig, a lot of people find barking dogs intensely irritating to the point of going spare, so have a little compassion for people who can’t ignore a yapping canine as you so obviously can.

Well zig, sleep deprivation is a known torture method so as easy as it is to tell people to harden up, don’t underestimate the impact of sleepless nights.

You’d think barking dogs would equally bother their owners but it may be that the owners are shift workers and not even there. I like the sound of the letterbox drop myself not being a confrontationist – and it would be a confrontation if you don’t have an existing relationship with them. If they choose to ignore it they only have themselves to blame when they wake up and find their dog has been baited. If you leave it to others to solve the problem you don’t usually get input into the solution.

zig, I doubt Scott would have come to RiotAct for suggestions about his problem, if he wasn’t seriously p’d off with what’s happening. One constantly barking dog is bloody annoying … but several would drive me bananas too.

You say you don’t complain about noisy children, cars, drunks, trucks, planes or power tools … but it seems you do complain about people.

People have different levels of tolerance; just accept it.

Seems like people these days have so little to complain about that the only thing they can complain about is someone’s barking dogs.

Wow some people need to harden up.

I had a guy up the street complain about my dogs barking during the day. As a result I went and spoke to all my other neighbours and they all said my dogs were quiet and that they hardly ever heard them. I had one neighbour comment that they liked my dogs as they kept nuisance vandal kids out of the alleyway adjacent to my house. Environment ACT was parked outside my house on a number of occasions doing spot checks and the complaint was thrown out as they found no significant problem. The moron up the road was just a serial complainer obviously.

Anyhow despite the occasional noise that dogs make they serve several purposes including:

a) Teach kids how to look after and respect animals
b) Exercise companion
c) Security/Alarm

If people don’t want to hear any suburban noise than perhaps they are better suited to living in the country or out of the burbs at least.

Do I complain about other people noisy children, fighting cats, cars, drunks, trucks, planes, power tools? Hell the guy next door is quite often working on his car late at night revving the engine and tinkering. No I don’t complain I just accept it and move on because I live in the suburbs. Canberrans really need to harden up and stop being so god damned precious.

The owners must be home at 5 am so they probably do know about the barking.

I wouldn’t approach the neighbours, because if they refuse to make an effort and then you get the council involved, they’ll know it’s you that complained. And if they’re jerks, things could get nasty.

Actually, I have to disagree with canberra townie – I did once end up compiling and sending in the records that Domestic Animal Services asked for, and within a few days they’d been round to the place in question and the problem was solved. They even called me a couple of weeks later to explain what had been done and check that the problem was resolved.
So yeah, in my experience the “official channels” work quite well for this problem.

we also have several mongrel dogs that bark non stop where i live in kambah and also 2 inconsiderate teenages that live over the back that like to get drunk when mummy and daddy go away and use foul language such as c..t and f..k at the top of there lungs at 3 am the police nor the act govenment wil help me
One of the houses that has a problem LOUD dog also has a act govenment ANIMAL CONTROL ute parked out the front most nights !!!
The reason i moved back to kambah is to help my father who has lung cancer and does’nt have long to go well with all the barking dogs and yelling pissed teenages over the back he’s not getting a lot of rest and its making me mad

dont bother sending letters to the dog control people they wont do shit to help you dont bother calling act policing when there are 2 children that have 2 vodka cruisers each and cant handle it and start yelling at the top of there lungs they wont show up!!

you want something done in this town your on your own !!!!

Scott, another version of the letterbox drop is to simply write a letter to the dog owners explaining the problem – but remembering the old ‘you catch more flies with honey’ theory.

Don’t write an angry or threatening letter, but let them know what great neighbours they are and how reluctant you are to complain about their barking dog.

I had the same problem with my neighbours whom I got along with great, except for the fact that their dog drove me crazy. Not willing to risk the friendship I wrote them a friendly, anonymous letter explaining the impact their dog was having on me and including a phone number for Bark Busters at the end of the note.

It worked! Unfortunately they’ve just sold their house and a family with an equally annoying dog has just moved in!

illyria, you read my mind. Was just about to say, Scott, be careful with approaching neighbours. Whilst you would have good intentions, the neighbours may go on the defensive, and you could very well end up with an even bigger problem.

Hagrid from Harry Potter could very well open the door to you …

I approached a neighbour once about something similar – smelly chook pen in her backyard. Anyway, the old chook has ignored us ever since … whereas prior to that, it was many hellos and waves … we even got home-grown tomatoes. Now? nothing. All because I mentioned, ever so gently, the smell of the chook house. I shudda just gone straight to the authorities, anonymously, and a letter box drop would have been too obvious in my case.

Illyria is right – de-barking, but several dogs from several neighbours would be a challenge. Maybe try to tape them barking on one of those super-sensitive recorders and keep a record of the time etc. Good evidence.

drag out an old tape recorder, buy the longest playing blank tape (do they still sell those things ?) you can find and record a few dozen hours evidence of the noise pollution.

Then you can (depending how your sleep-deprived mood takes you) :

a) deliver a copy to the owners with a polite letter saying “please listen to what I have to endure whenever you are out/away whatever.”; or

b) submit said tape to appropriate authorities as proof or

c) play it back to neighbours through a PA system when they are home and their pet is on it’s best behaviour. During any outside events like a bbq or a family gathering should get maximum effect. 🙂

From my experience it’s 9/10 times the owners neglect of their pet causing the issue.

I agree with the 3am covert letterbox drop. We have a little yapper behind our place and the owners just got defensive when we tried to say something to them.

It is out there yapping away as we speak. It goes right off every day at about the same time as I am trying to get small children to have their lunchtime sleep so I feel your pain!

We may have to go rural to get away from it, but then there would be roosters and other such annoying beasties.

You sound like you are following correct ACT Govt requirements by keeping records and my understanding is that they can have the problem animals “de-barked”.

You could also move, but that’s a cop out and you may end up living near a zoo.

what, like florey townhouses??

speaking to the owners is, as advised, the best start. dogs will bark when they’re bored, so talking to the owners, trying to get them to keep their animals happy, should be a good way to solve the dilemma.

if they’re non-communicative, bait the owners and when their corpses are rotting in their kitchens, authorities will send the dogs to rspca and problem solved… [actually, don’t do this – try CR’s advice about a letter drop; do a few houses either side, too – makes it look more authoritative and helps the other neighbours know what to talk to them about!]

Scott, you say “several dogs” above. Is this from several neighbouring properties, or are the several dogs from the same neighbour?

If it is from several neighbouring properties, which is the sense I got from your message, I would do up a flyer, and do a postal drop to the houses in the vicinity at 3am to avoid being seen. Throw in some legal Animals Act mumbo Jumbo and make it look official without actually saying it is official. Throw in some suggestions like, feed your animal, provide water, walk your dog regularly to avoid boredom, and provide things to entertain your dog, such as a stuffed toy attahced to the clothes line etc, ha!.

Might make them think twice, and remember, some people need to be reminded of these fundamental things when keeping animals, and it might help reduce the barking somewhat, you never know.

You could also buy those ears plugs and use them at night, although it is difficult to get used to to at first.

You could also place egg cartons along each of the interior walls of your house – very good sound proofing materials, hehe.

You could also move, but that’s a cop out and you may end up living near a zoo.

All the best.

Have you spoken to the owners? Dog owners near me weren’t aware that their dog barked nonstop whenever they were out – which was often. They started locking him inside – not the best option for the dog, but its barking was intolerable – or taking it with them when they could. Very little problem since.

Definitely talk to the owners first. I’ve had limited success there, but it does work occasionally. And it gives you ‘brownie points’ when talking to any kind of authority that you’ve attempted to solve the problem yourself.

Some dogs bark an anything unfortunately.

One of mine barks at magpies, which is hard to prevent – they are everywhere.

We keep ours in at night though.

Can you ask the owners to put them inside at night?
Maybe they will in Winter anyway, if you’re lucky.