Do barking dog owners have rights?

Question

We have lived in a corner house for the last 3 years with our 2 small dogs. The last 6 weeks 1 neighbor & only 1 neighbor called the police over 20x's complaining of barking (never before). PD has sat outside our yard on most visits & haven't heard the dogs. The officiers agree that our dogs don't bark excessively. They bark when people walk by and when HER cat is on the fence. We checked with the 4 other homes whose yards border ours, none had issues. Some didn't know we have dogs! We bought a shock barking collar for the one who barks the most irritating (smallest collar made & to big); put up a bamboo fence to keep her cat off the common fence. FYI, this neighbor has asked us keep our grandson quiet one weekend cause they were sleeping in 0830 a; asked us to turn off our lighted trees; and asked us to change the time our pool filter runs; we have complied. We are good neighbors. If she would have asked we would have done something but she chose the police. Do we have rights?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, we can't choose our neighbors...
The best thing you can do is to continue to be a good neighbor and try to keep peace with the folks next door. If everybody else around you (including the police) feels that your dogs are not excessively noisy you have nothing to worry about.
Good luck.

Answer 2

First of this neighbor of your sounds as if she's very unhappy in her own life, if even the police said your dogs do not bark too much. What about her cat, she needs to keep it indoors that would eliminate some of the barking, also why do you even go as far as pleasing her with her wishes about the pool filter, your lighted trees & most of all your grandson playing outside. I would have no patience with her at all, tell her she too is part of a community not the owner of the neighbor hood, who is she that she can influence you so much? Yes dog owners have rights, as long as you keep them confined in your yard you are doing fine. Please do not let that woman run your life, I'm surprised the cops came out so many times for the same problem without any proof you had done anything wrong, where I live the cops would've told that "woman" if she keeps that up calling for nonsens she will get a ticket. If I be you I would not comply any longer, ask her to keep her cat out of your yard, tell her to put ear plugs in if she cannot sleep when your grandson play in YOUR yard. She is a nutcase, as I said don't let her run your life, go & get a signed list of neighbors who aren't bothered by your dogs & family. Next time she starts that "stuff" again tell her she needs to get a life

Answer 3

I once had an elderly lady for a friend. She had a wonderful little dog. A mix of some sort. She had the dog trained well and it behaved very well. Learn here https://tr.im/Wxmdm

She kept an uncovered candy dish on her coffee table with candy in it. The dog was forbidden to eat the candy. When she was in the room observing the dog he did not even appear to notice the candy. One day while she was in her dinning room she happened to look in a mirror and could see her dog in the living room. He did not know he was being watched. For several minutes he was sitting in front of the candy bowl staring at the candy. Finally he reached in and took one. He placed it on the table and stared at it, he woofed at it. He stared some more, licked his chops and PUT IT BACK in the bowl and walked away. Did he want the candy, oh yeah. Did he eat it? Nope. They can be trained that well but most, I'll admit, are not trained that well. When I was a young boy, maybe 5 years old. We had a german shepherd. He was very well trained also. My mom could leave food unattended on the table, no problem. She would open the oven door and set a pan roast beef or roast chicken on the door to cool. No problem. He would not touch it, watched or not. But butter? Whole other story. You leave a stick of butter anywhere he could reach and it was gone. He was a large shepherd so there were not many places he could not reach. Really, I think the number of dogs trained to the point they will leave food alone when not being supervised is very small indeed.
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Now if we are talking obedience training, not food grubbing, that is a different story. Way back when I was first learning obedience training one of the final exercises was to put our dogs in a down/stay and not only leave the room but leave the building for 15 minutes. The only person that stayed was our trainer, not the owners. Most of the dogs in my class did not break their stay, which would be an automatic fail. I'm happy to report my dog was one of the ones that passed.

Answer 4

This neighbor seems very unpleasant. I can see keeping your grandchild quiet before 9:00 am after that I'm sorry. I would tell them sorry but he is only a child. as far as the dogs go if they do not ticket you, don't worry. Tell them if they were to keep their cat in the house your dog would not bark so much. Your dogs should be brought in the house after 11:00pm if you do this they can not complain. Here in the US I do not think you would be ticketed if your dogs were quite after 11. Are these new neighbors? I have to tell you I feel sorry for you.

Answer 5

These people are way out of line. They really have no business harassing you over the normal "wear and tear" of everyday life. You have bent over backwards for them, and have been way more than fair. Of course you have rights, among them suing them over their incessant unreasonable demands. And about the dogs - barking dogs are not pleasant, but if the police agree they are not excessive, it is just one more thing that they have chosen to harass you about. They want to live in the woods or in the country, and they should move there and not complain about having neighbors. They are bad neighbors.

Answer 6

Your neighbors need to mind their own business whether your dogs bark or not.
You are giving your neighbors all the power.
If they dont like the barking , they can close their doors and turn a fan or TV on.
Yes, U have all the rights....Tell your neighbor u will do what the hell u want to do cause this is America and we have soldiers that fight for our freedom so we can live like we want.
Tell your neighbors complainin to GO get a LIFE ...and leave u and your dogs alone.l

Answer 7

You most certainly do have rights.
And you need to start exercising them.
So far you have done everything they have asked.They know you'll back down and give them their way no matter how unreasonable it is so they're just gonna keep right on making foolish demands and expecting you to jump to please them.

I have neighbors exactly like this.We did'nt live here a day before they started annoying us.
Whatever they did to destroy our property or annoy us was fine.But any little thing we did they'd run and tell us to quit.
They insisted that the property line was 2 ft.from their fence and they mowed 4 ft.from it to be NICE to usafter they watched me time after time plant flowers on my side and water them daily only to watch this fool run them over with his mower!They thought nothing of filling my house with gas fumes from their gas grill almost nightly.Rather than an apology they told us to close our windows.They set off fireworks for 2 days before the 4th of July knowing I have to be in bed by 8p.m. to be at work at 4 a.m..Yet when we set them off on the 5th they yelled at us to quit because we were bothering them!
I finally got tired of their crap and had a survey done.Their fence is on MY side of the property line.I had the rest of the yard fenced to keep them off my property.The result was they stopped talking to us.They call us troublemakers and tell everyone who'll listen how quiet and nice the neighborhood was before we moved in.We're trash and they just ignore us.{Their words}We're horrible neighbors altho it took 3 yrs.for us to show our true colors.
Well guess what? This piece of trash has not dented their vehicles,tossed trash or yard waste on their property or slandered them all over the neighborhood.I don't have to cos all the other neighbors have watched them treat us badly.
Let your dogs do as they will.Get rid of that shock collar.Tell your grandkids to make as much noise as they want within reason.Turn the lights on your trees ON and set your pool filter to suit yourself! It's obvious that they don't care about your feelings so why should you care about theirs?
If anythings said you just do what I did.Tell them that when they pay your bills,put food on your table and clothes on your back then and only then can they dictate how you'll live and what you can and cannot have.They started a war and you're going to end it because it is not now or ever in the past your job to please them.It's nowhere in your homeowners papers or in your lease if you rent that you have to keep the neighbors happy to live where you do and you're not doing it anymore.If t6hey don't like it too bad.

Answer 8

I think that I've never hear a dog owner bark before, but apparently their neighbors can... ;)
Seriously, if it goes to court, you can cite the police reports of not hearing noise, the efforts you've taken to releive the problem, and your neighbor's unusual requests. You'll win.

Answer 9

You have the right to not be falsely accused of disturbing the peace.

It seems to me a video camera is the only option. Perhaps a webcam that saves to your hard drive.

Mike Honeycutt

Answer 10

What is your communities noise ordinance? If you dogs bark after the times described, then sorry, your in violation of the ordinance.