Ours bark when my husband comes home just about 6 barks when our neighbours complained the dog warden said he doesn't rate that as nuisance and a dog would need to be barking non stop for at least 20 minutes before he would call it a problem he needed to deal with, obviously different councils may be different but it might be worth asking what the deem a nuisance to be.

Thanks everyone, I think I will give the council a ring - his barking over a week wouldn't add up to 20 minutes I'm sure. The horrid thing is that when Marco has barked, probably only twice today, I could feel the stress rising and I don't want that at all, the last thing I want is to pass that on to Marco.

Really appreciate all the advice.

Good luck,hope you get it sorted

We are in a similar situation with a temporary neighbour who is a horrible bit of nastiness who shouts up the stairs at us if one of the dogs barks *once*, lies *to us* about them barking all the time when we're out all day (which we are not, and they don't) and is verbally and physically threatening. I ask the readership to determine who is being antisocial here.

We've still got this problem ongoing, but here's what we've done:

We've set up a spare laptop in the dining room that records every sound over the volume of a clap, so not your usual conversation, but barking will register. It times and date stamps everything and will show absolutely definitively if a dog barked four times on a Tuesday afternoon at 4:35. Neighbours might get a lend of a noise monitor-- so might you, so you can prove that your dog is no nuisance.

I record every single time I come in and go out on my phone, in case I get challenged. I erase the recordings if nothing happens-- we have the permanent recordings going on, but I do not like being yelled at on the stairs and I will keep a record of all such doings. If you haven't got a smartphone you can pick up a digital voice recorder for cheap. Just stick it in your pocket. Especially record, live if you can, in notes if you have to write it down later, every time this person has been awful to you and in what way. You don't deserve to be intimidated.

Some people live to make other people's lives miserable. I officially wish you a non-miserable day and hugs to you and yours.

I always think of them being miserable themselves and wanting to spread the misery we have a couple like that here !

I think they've succeeded to some extent to make your life a misery if you get to the stage of setting up cameras and voice recorders and having to remember to record everything and worry about coming in and out of your own home without them being abusive. (Perhaps just keeping a record of any bellowing at you or anything else that they do - sounds as if they are creating more noise pollution than any dog)

I see it simply as there's no way they can have anything done about your dog if it isn't barking all day or even hardly at all from what you say. They can't just have action taken on their 'say so'. They'd have to offer some proof the dog was a 'noise nuisance'. They can't do that - so try to ignore them.

Ideally would be to move away from them but if that's not possible don't let them encroach on your daily life and stop you enjoying your own home.

It could be a good idea to 'get in first' and speak to the dog warden or council dept responsible for dealing with noise complaints. Just tell them they are making your life a misery over this and that your dog is not constantly barking blah blah. So they have a record of you going in first should these people ever try to make an official complaint.

Geez I wish I had neighbours with a portie! I'd be making a nuisance of myself trying to get to it for a cuddle or offering to take it out for a walk!

They've succeeded in large extent to make my life a misery, and I don't very much like it. I don't think it is at all unreasonable for a dog to bark when a beloved family member comes home, when they need to go out, or when they need to draw your attention to something! I would guess most council people in charge of judging such things would be of similar mind.

If a person cannot stand the sound of a dog barking, then they need to go live in one of those awful twee adults-only-no-children-no-pets gated communities. Blecch.

But we who live near these awful people still need to deal with them. The burden should be on them to prove there is a nuisance-- but that is not going to stop them shouting, looming, opening their doors and glowering up, or any of the other things they do on their own time.

It shouldn't be our problem, mine and Cath's, but it is. Edit: and it makes me quite angry.

I'll quite happily sit it out, have decided they can bang all they want and that it can upset them and not me

Moving house is a no go, we've lived here for 25 years last July, we got the house two weeks before getting married and apart from these particular neighbours love living here.....no that's wrong, I love living here totally and they are just a pain.

Today Marco is yet to bark once, he's on a complete laid back day and is his happy little chilling self.

Your neighbours sound horrendous Strangechilde, well done for coping with it the way you do!

Thank you Cath! It really helps to have your support. 25 years-- yeah, it's your place.

Our neighbours have been leaving us alone of late-- possibly the guy has made his complaint and the police & council have told him where to go; possibly the owner of the flat has told him to stop scaring me. He has told us on the stairs 'thank you for keeping your dogs quiet' but my husband says that was sarcastic in the extreme. He's better at picking up on this stuff than I am. I am much better at dog than at human, I'm afraid.

We do as we must!

Well that's some progress at least. Just live with the 'sarcasm' and try to forget about him.

I couldn't agree with you more about the 'communities' or even the park home places where they insist on a minimum age for purchasers and no children or animals.

I'd rather put up with rowdy kids and barking dogs and all sorts than live somewhere like that (even if I well qualify as to the age bit!) in fact I think I'd rather be dead than living somewhere like that where it seems to me people go to just wait to die (in peace?) Oh no!

I'm a townie and always have been. Even when living in Cornwall and Devon I lived in 'town' there, not on the outskirts or in the wild. Same here in Cyprus - yes I could have a lovely little villa or traditional house with its own pool for the same money about 3 miles inland. But I'd rather be 'where it's at' any day. I don't want to live anywhere that I could drop dead and no one would notice I was missing!

But the key to it is LIVE AND LET LIVE. Put up with 'reasonable' sounds of other people living close by and expect them to put up with the reasonable sounds you make.

If they can't do that it is they who should seek the solitude in the lonely and deserted places - not expect everyone else around them to live in a way that they can 'pretend' they live in splendid isolation where they can't hear their neighbours.