Does Bark Off work?
 

I have neighbors who leave their dogs out all day. The dogs bark and howl anytime anyone walks or bikes past the property.

The neighbors do nothing about it.

Does anyone have any experience with those "Bark Off" devices? Do they work?

No experience yet but was considering the same thing for the same situation.... I'm growing to not like labs as dogs because they NEVER STOP BARKING EVER! But I figure it will be much quieter once I finish the work on the other house. (I'm gonna like having room for a football field between us and the neighbors!)

How about filing noise/nusiance complaint with your local town? Where I'm at, they send out someone to verify and then leave a letter for the owners to respond or face fine. Gets their attention without giving away your identity.

And then be prepared to be arrested for cruelty to animals.

Suggestion:

Some cities have nuisance laws regarding dog barking. Why first arm yourself with the law. If you find you have the law on your side then before doing anything legally just kindly speak with your neighbors. Let them know what happening and see if they take any action to stop the problem. Take careful notes regarding the conversation. If they don't follow thru then the next move is to take the proper legal action based on your legal rights.

The device you mentioned and others like them work. They just don't work immediately or for very long. The dogs grow accustomed to them.

Noise ordinances typically go into effect before 7 AM and after 10 PM. So if the dog barks at people passing by, Fed Ex trucks, etc., between the hours of 8 AM and 7 PM you may be hard pressed to get law enforcement assistance. Though if the dog barks non-stop, you might be able to make the case of a nuisance barker, should your area have one of those laws on their books.

As someone with multiple dogs, I would far prefer it if my neighbor came to me and said something like, "I'm uncertain if you are aware, but your dogs bark a great deal during the day." I'd have my dogs locked down so fast. I don't want to annoy my neighbors and I don't want them to annoy me. But most importantly, I don't want my dogs upset throughout the day.

Alex, since my yard has a 6' fence, I'd know right away who to suspect and I would follow up with every resource available, should someone harm my dogs. It's a lousy way to live, but after you have paid the fines for animal cruelty you'd never be able to quit looking over your shoulder. I would be coming for you.

Barking dogs, loud teenagers, and other weird behavior (right now one of my neighbors keeps their windows open and HE is a moaner!) by those who live next to us is a part of life. How you deal with it is what defines who you are.

But hey, he never complains about my dogs.
:nanana:

Don't you think that if you know your dogs bark at everyone who passes by it would be your responsibility to deal with it BEFORE your neighbors have to complain?

As someone who had my house built and lived in my neighborhood for the past sixteen years, I felt that having the landloard rent to dog owners was going to be a pain. But I decided to sit quiet and deal with it. But from day one these dogs have barked incessently (while someone was near the property).

For two months I lived with it. Even though the dogs "rally point" for barking at passers by is just outside my office window where I worked for those two months.

The barking was not so bad at first because it was winter and not too many people walked by. In addition, since I travel from time to time, I decided to let it go since I was on the road a percentage of the time.

Now, spring has sprung and people are starting to walk by and ride bikes again. I spent the weekend listing to the dogs. So when I asked the neighbors if they would "please control their dogs", I got a bunch of mouth about thow the dogs have rights. Informing the neighbors that there are ordinances against noisy dogs made me "the asshole" but I let that slide too.

But, since I just informed the neighbors yesterday that their dogs are a nuisanse, I want to give them time to take care of the matter before I put in a complaint to the county. I was hoping that a "bark off" would be a good alternative to living with the noise because I am quite sure these neighbors will do nothing to change the dog's behaviour.

I bought an electronic box that emits the high frequency. I turned it on, pointed it at the neighbors and hoped for the best. The dogs came outside, barked once and looked confused, barked again and went back inside! Success! A week later, they seem to enjoy the tone. Barking at 'it' as a way to scare it off!

For the "moaner", just fight weirdness with weirdness. Call their phone while their in the act and say "you guys want some company?" or "Oh, nothing... I just wanted to hear your voice......" If you do this whenever they are I bet they start closing the windows to hide when they are. :rofl:

That sux...any jackass can buy a dog and some petowners have a sense of entitlement.

You mentioned that it is a rented property...if you get no recourse from the dog owners, talk to the landlord and ask that he speak with the tenants. Your best bet may be that he stipulate that future tenants can not keep dogs. How often do leases turnover?...you could be stuck for a while. Even though there are legal ordinances it is very tough and lengthy to resolve legally. I have a friend that was at her wits end about a similar situation - tried legal to no avail and finally neighbours (rented) moved on.

I have a bunch of rental properties and never allow pets - too much hassle with tenants/neighbours.

GL

Fortunately, according to other neighbors, it seems to be only a 8 month lease (4 down and 4 to go).

As for the landlord, with the economy the way it is and them sitting on 15 or so houses, they rent to any tom, dick, or harry with a pulse - mostly section 8. Others in the neighborhood have already complained about the tenants parking habits to no avail.

Sometimes I think about just buying the property from the current owner and renting to who I want to rent.... But I don't want the extra PITA.

I swear, the worst thing in property owner life is to buy a property you like, and then have someone come along after you and buy next door as a rental.

Well, at least there's an end in sight - 4 mths isn't too bad, as annoying as it is right now.

Have a frank talk with the landlord before they get new tenants, always worth having another neighbour or two with you to substantiate your story. Most landlords won't want the extra hassle of neighbours complaining so will try and appease.

BTW, the down economy means that it's a great rental market for landlords at least around here - and only getting better with the continued housing market uncertainty, and interest rate jumps around the corner. There are more people renting than ever and it means that the owner can/should be picky.

GL

It may or may not be a good market for renters... But the owners - like almost everyone else have mortgages that cost more than the houses are now worth - multiplied by 10, 15, 20 (depending on how many houses they own.) But I have no tears for them.

Nah, put a bark collar on the bitch.







(thats a female dog...)

To be honest, no. It's like people with kids - those are much louder households than mine. And when you have a loud life, you have no idea what quiet is. So nah, I don't think your neighbors understand how annoying that can be to you. That's why I prefer the face to face sort of sugar coated approach early on - before I am so spun I start to sound like Donald Duck in a windstorm. But hey, that's me. Not only do I lock my dogs down when I am away, they are reprimanded for barking when I am home and I have a couple of bark collars that blast them in the face with a citronella spray EVERY time they bark.

It isn't that I'm insensitive to your situation. I had a neighbor's dog bark at me the minute I would go into my backyard. My solution was to buy the biggest rawhide chewy I could find. I tossed it over the fence and then let the owners know I had done it and the chewy was "safe". It took a couple of chewys, but the owners got it and the dog started staying in more.

Sounds like you are already too far down the path. If I were in the position you are now, I would waste no time in calling in Animal Control. It is a pretty easy guess your neighbors must be expecting it by now. I would certainly call the owner of the property, if the folks with the barking dogs are renters. Sounds like you need to be "barking dog" to the property owner.

Are you the only two neighbors on the block? I would think if you have other neighbors the dogs must be disturbing them. You might try talking to them to too.

Good luck!

:thumbup:
Ironically, when this first started, it was my dogs standing at the fence barking at the place where their jacuzzi is. I thought it was odd - it was daylight, midweek and my dogs know "barking is baaaaaaaaad!" So I recalled my dogs and then heard the moaning. The neighbors were "frolicking" in their jacuzzi. Then it was the jacuzzi and an open bedroom sliding door. Now that it is cooler, it is just the window! But they do it all the time and they do it when they know I am in the yard. Clearly they like having a non-consensual audience. I have installed a Bose Dock in my yard and just crank that puppy up when they "frolic". I need the sound screen, they may be Pervs, but I prefer to use my yard when I want - and I think it's important they know for sure how loud that music can get!;)

And I still don't let my dogs bark at them.:p:

While I appreciate the suggestions, I can't agree that they are deaf to the noise and it is therefore up to the neighbors to "sweetly approach them and ask on bended knee that they make their dogs behave." Yes I took big liberties in paraphrasing there...

If it was just the dog situation I might be able to lean a little more your way, but after them ignoring the complaints from the neighbors about the parking, I am quite sure they are aware and willfully ignoring the dog situation just as they did the cars.

Why is it that you are not deaf to your dogs, and act when necessary? Why haven't you become oblivious to your own annoyances? I would have to say it is because you are not an inconsiderate person to begin with.

There are people who just ignore the effect of their dogs in the yard, their kids crying in the theatres, and their radios being too loud in the streets. They are encased in their own world and I think it is because people have tried to "be nice" to them for so long that they think they are entitled to disturb the peace.

So far, after talking to them, their dogs have stayed inside for the past two days. I am pretty sure they will sooner or later return to the yard, but I will enjoy the quiet while I can.

Thanks again for the suggestions. If the barking resumes, I will just let the county handle it [or not]. I asked and have been made aware that there are $1000 fines that are enforced in this area.

But he said "HE" is a moaner... in which case the collar might be a turn-on ;pervert;