Barking Dogs

[Leema]

What are the current laws/by laws in your area regarding barking dogs? Are these laws adequate?

What is your personal involvement with these laws, if any?

If you believe this is inadequate, what would you have changed?

[Leema]

Wow, I must've posted this at a quiet time. Bump!

I am asking because this is one issue that I'm struggling to reconcile the best solution for, in my mind. I have been affected by barking dogs, and my dogs' barking has affected others, and I really don't know what the solution is.

[ESCS]

Brisbane City Council states that dogs are allowed to bark for a total of 6 minutes within an hour between 7am and 10pm. They are allowed to bark for up to 3 minutes within a 30 minute period between 10pm and 7am. Our tibbie can be a barker so we have to be careful he doesn't exhaust the neighbours' patience. He is usually set off by other dogs barking or dogs walking past our house. It used to be cats too but the neighbour's cat has silenced him! We try to minimise the barking with training and also by keeping him indoors when the neighbourhood dog orchestra is rehearsing or he will definitely join in! We have also spoken to all our immediate neighbours to determine if the barking is bothering them and to ask them to let us know when it becomes a problem.So far, the neighbours aren't bothered but we keep our dog indoors whenever we're not home to supervise. I find that we have times when our dog loves to bark and other times, he is really quiet. We walk him everyday as he is less likely to bark when he is tired out. If he is particularly barky, we take him for a jog (he's quite good at it for a small dog) and then he will snooze for hours! Weekends are hardest as there are many more dog walkers around.

[rastus_froggy]

I find the laws to be fairly vague in my council area, I personally cannot stand barking dogs and have a few around my house. The one across the road I have reported countless times, eventually they covered all the areas it could see out of it's yard to the street, which has made it become a bit quieter. I feel VERY sorry for this dog, it is constantly tied up and have never seen it out of it's yard.

The other dogs that barked at every person who walked passed did get out of their yard - but not to be walked by their owners it was just when they escaped. Luckily they let their house get into such a state it became unlivable and the landlord had to move them out!! Ahh nice and quiet - I just hope he doesn't move them back in when he fixes it.

I don't believe what they do around here is adequate, I think honestly the only way of fixing it is through (with these dogs) exercise and brain stimulation, and if this is done and the dog still barks I believe they should be made to get a trainer in to work on the issue with their dog.

I cannot stand barking dogs unless they are barking for a genuine reason, and to me genuine reasons are unwelcome people on your property, stray dog or cat on your property pretty much nothing else is allowed with my dogs. It's they way they were brought up and they know what's accepted.

[Isabel964]

In my experience when I walk my dogs around the neighbourhood (which I do for about an hour every day), is that when my girls and I walk past - the dogs in other houses and yards bark.

When my dogs see another person with dogs walk past my house they bark.

I had understood this to be normal behaviour. Is it not?

Edited June 5, 2011 by Sky

[J...]

What are the current laws/by laws in your area regarding barking dogs? Are these laws adequate?

What is your personal involvement with these laws, if any?

If you believe this is inadequate, what would you have changed?

Our local council website states that we should contact the local ranger if barking dogs are an issue. I've had experience with an excessively barking dog and reporting it repeatedly with no resolution until the guy moved. My parents are now having the same issue - for whatever reason in this shire you buy a big "guard" type dog as a protector (in a small country town of 3000 people :rolleyes: ) and that's sufficient reason for the dog to bark at all hours of the night and day. No resolution with them either, so I would say the laws are inadequate.

I have no personal involvement, but I would have a process put in place (there is none here) to actually do something about it, instead of complain, ranger rings dog owner, dog owner cracks the shits & then gives out the obligatory sob story, ranger rings complainant to notify of phone call to dog owner and resulting sob story, dog continues barking and the cycle continues. In both cases it is large active dogs locked in backyards with no outside stimulation or training.

Brisbane City Council states that dogs are allowed to bark for a total of 6 minutes within an hour between 7am and 10pm. They are allowed to bark for up to 3 minutes within a 30 minute period between 10pm and 7am.

That's still an awful lot of barking for night time, especially with dogs you can hear clearly from several houses away. The dog which I had problems with could be heard clearly two doors away over a TV on low- normal volume. If it barked for 3 mins every 30 mins overnight I would've gone nuts - how the hell can people sleep with that kind of disturbance?

[Leema]

Brisbane City Council states that dogs are allowed to bark for a total of 6 minutes within an hour between 7am and 10pm. They are allowed to bark for up to 3 minutes within a 30 minute period between 10pm and 7am. Our tibbie can be a barker so we have to be careful he doesn't exhaust the neighbours' patience. He is usually set off by other dogs barking or dogs walking past our house. It used to be cats too but the neighbour's cat has silenced him! We try to minimise the barking with training and also by keeping him indoors when the neighbourhood dog orchestra is rehearsing or he will definitely join in!

Thank-you for your response. I find it interesting that the council has specified day and night barking, but 'good' as well... I think night barkers are more of a nuisance than day barkers. That being said, there are plenty of people who work night shift and sleep during the day that are not catered to in this arrangement.

Those barking times actually seem rather generous (as Jess pointed out), and it could accumulate quickly, especially if there were multiple barkers within the area (e.g. if both next doors had barkers, and they barked individually for 3 minutes each every 30 minutes at night, that is still 6 minutes of barking in a 30 minute time period... Considering that we need to sleep for 20 minutes at a time to complete our sleep cycle, then this means that it could very likely be inhibited by the actions of two dogs in this scenario.) 'Dog orchestras' are a big problem, especially when they tag-team.

One of the problems with dog barking is the question of, "When is it reasonable for a dog to bark?" When there is someone walking past? Someone knocking on the door? When a cat comes in the yard? When the neighbours bang the fence? Should non-dog people ever have to put up with barking dogs, regardless of the scenario?

I find the laws to be fairly vague in my council area, I personally cannot stand barking dogs and have a few around my house...

I don't believe what they do around here is adequate, I think honestly the only way of fixing it is through (with these dogs) exercise and brain stimulation, and if this is done and the dog still barks I believe they should be made to get a trainer in to work on the issue with their dog.

I cannot stand barking dogs unless they are barking for a genuine reason, and to me genuine reasons are unwelcome people on your property, stray dog or cat on your property pretty much nothing else is allowed with my dogs. It's they way they were brought up and they know what's accepted.

Your council area does not seem to be adequately addressing barking dog concerns. Would you seek for there to be by laws that make for exercise and brain stimulation to be compulsory for barking dogs? Or trainers?

Do you think a council should differentiate between 'genuine reason' and 'ungenuine reason'?

In my experience when I walk my dogs around the neighbourhood (which I do for about an hour every day), is that when my girls and I walk past - the dogs in other houses and yards bark.

When my dogs see another person with dogs walk past my house they bark.

I had understood this to be normal behaviour. Is it not?

Barking is normal, but there is no doubt that barking disturbs many people in many neighbourhoods each year.

Our local council website states that we should contact the local ranger if barking dogs are an issue. I've had experience with an excessively barking dog and reporting it repeatedly with no resolution until the guy moved. My parents are now having the same issue...

I have no personal involvement, but I would have a process put in place (there is none here) to actually do something about it, instead of complain, ranger rings dog owner, dog owner cracks the shits & then gives out the obligatory sob story, ranger rings complainant to notify of phone call to dog owner and resulting sob story, dog continues barking and the cycle continues. In both cases it is large active dogs locked in backyards with no outside stimulation or training.

What would you like the ranger to do instead of what you've described?

[Malamum]

Luckily this is something that I have not had to worry about so I have no idea about what the laws are or what the local process is like.

Our dogs don't really bark at all so we have no issue with our own dogs. Our neighbours over the back have a dog can be a bit of a barker but it's a fairly infrequent occurrence and hasn't become nuisance behaviour.

[Akay]

With regards to the Brisbane City council - In addition to restrictions on the times and length a dog can bark for, it is also stiputlated that it can also be considered a problem if the barking interferes with normal activity. For example, there's a dog near me that regularly barked throughout the night : 1am, 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am, 6am, so I was being woken up nearly every hour. The thing is, it was only barking for maybe a minute or two at a time (not the 3 minutes all the time), but because it was interfering with a normal activity (ie. my ability to sleep) it was deemed a nuisance and the council followed up on my complaint. The dog has been very well-behaved since the complaint.

eta: I should say that the neighbours have been very well-behaved since my complaint!

Edited June 11, 2011 by Akay

[Leema]

'Normal activity', such as sleep, is fair enough. I'm not sure what else 'normal activity' would cover? I would assume the right to relax in the backyard might be normal activity as well.

I guess the overall problems with so many by laws in different councils is the lack of consistency. Would we better suited with state or national laws on barking dogs? Or is it more likely to reflect community standards when up to an individual council?

[rastus_froggy]

One of the problems with dog barking is the question of, "When is it reasonable for a dog to bark?" When there is someone walking past? Someone knocking on the door? When a cat comes in the yard? When the neighbours bang the fence? Should non-dog people ever have to put up with barking dogs, regardless of the scenario?

I find the laws to be fairly vague in my council area, I personally cannot stand barking dogs and have a few around my house...

I don't believe what they do around here is adequate, I think honestly the only way of fixing it is through (with these dogs) exercise and brain stimulation, and if this is done and the dog still barks I believe they should be made to get a trainer in to work on the issue with their dog.

I cannot stand barking dogs unless they are barking for a genuine reason, and to me genuine reasons are unwelcome people on your property, stray dog or cat on your property pretty much nothing else is allowed with my dogs. It's they way they were brought up and they know what's accepted.

Your council area does not seem to be adequately addressing barking dog concerns. Would you seek for there to be by laws that make for exercise and brain stimulation to be compulsory for barking dogs? Or trainers?

Do you think a council should differentiate between 'genuine reason' and 'ungenuine reason'?

In my experience when I walk my dogs around the neighbourhood (which I do for about an hour every day), is that when my girls and I walk past - the dogs in other houses and yards bark.

When my dogs see another person with dogs walk past my house they bark.

I had understood this to be normal behaviour. Is it not?

Barking is normal, but there is no doubt that barking disturbs many people in many neighbourhoods each year.

Yes I do believe people should sitmulate their dogs physically and mentally - should this be an enforcable law if the dog has had barking complaints yes I think it probably should be but it would be a hard one to enforce unless the council put on a course that barking dog's and their owners were forced to attend (similar to people who have committed certain crimes then have to go attend courses).

I believe reasonable barking is barking that does not continue for prolonged periods of time, eg unwelcome people enter your property uninvited your dog barks you go and address the issue, same as if a cat comes in.

I do not believe that someone walking past your house with a dog is reason for your dog to bark. I will not accept this at all, it is just a habit, the dog sees another dog, it barks the people continue walking past and out of sight, your dog believes IT was the cause of them no longer being there, it barked and it got rid of them, this happens everytime someone walks past and your dog thinks that they are just wonderful at getting rid of other dogs.

The dog passing by is not intruding on my dog's space so I have trained them that this is ok.

[Staranais]

The only thing I'd say is I believe if the ranger is going to forward a complaint to you about a barking dog, they should collect and give you as much information as possible about what's going on.

I've had one barking dog notification from the council before, when I spoke to the ranger all they told me was that "a neighbour" had complained that my dog barked "too much". They hadn't bothered to ask the complainant what time of day the dog was barking, or what days she barked on, or how long she was barking for, or what type/tone of barking it was, or if it had just suddenly started or had been going on for ages, or whether the neighbour thought she was barking at something in particular, etc... such a vague complaint makes it damn hard for a well meaning owner to figure out what's going on and stop the problem!

[Leema]

So would a universal law that made it compulsory for people with barking dogs to attend some kind of workshop on reducing dog barking work? Or perhaps only compulsory for people with barking dogs to commit to an exercise regime - but how would this be enforceable?

Are our current laws too easy for dog people? For a severe suggestion on barking dog legislation:

http://barkingdogs.net/modbarklaw.shtml

[wuffles]

Interesting. My dogs bark at people walking past the house (not every person, but ones being particularly noisy or with dogs or on scooters) and they get plenty of mental and physical exercise. We've also put in the effort to train them not to bark at everything, and when we are home they are as quiet as mice. You can't assume that because someone's dogs bark, they are untrained and starved for affection.

IMO barking at people walking past during the daytime is reasonable. Neighbourhoods are hardly silent places during the day, anyway - well mine sure ain't

[Odin-Genie]

You can't assume that because someone's dogs bark, they are untrained and starved for affection.

I have read plenty of posts here from people with a lot of experience with dogs who have had issues with dogs barking. It should be accepted that there are some dogs who are chronic barkers. With tougher laws regarding barking, debarking should also be made more accessible to poeple who can provide a notice from a dog trainer that the dog is a chronic barker.

Also, councils jumping on dog owners without requiring proof of barking from the complainant will only result in harrassment of dog owners by dog haters. People who complain about dogs barking aren't always reasonable. There have been enough posts here about barking complaints during the night when the dogs were safely tucked inside!!

[Odin-Genie]

Are our current laws too easy for dog people? For a severe suggestion on barking dog legislation:

http://barkingdogs.net/modbarklaw.shtml

From the website:

It shall be illegal for anyone to allow their dog's voice or any other sound produced by their dog, to be projected into human habitat, or for anyone to allow any sound produced by their dog to be projected into any location where any person finds that sound to be objectionable.

Right!!! Time to get some stuffed toys!!! Or move to a deserted island!!!

Must be written by someone who seriously hates dogs.

[Leema]

I also think it's a little bit 'harsh' to say that any dog that barks is under-stimulated, under exercised, or in any way is not sufficiently cared for. Some dogs are just talkative. However, debatably, it doesn't really matter if it is disturbing the peace of neighbours. Barking, for whatever reason, is annoying.

Though, that link provided, is a bit black and white for my liking, it has a point. Why should anyone have to put up with noise from neighbours?

What kind of things should be 'proof' of a dog barking?

[Staranais]

We all have to put up with some noise from neighbours, it's just part of living in suburbia. We don't expect our neighbours to cause NO noise in other respects. We understand that their kids are sometimes going to play outside and yell and squeal, that they're going to use their lawn mowers sometimes, that they'll have parties or play music sometimes.

Excessive noise is a problem no matter what the source is. So why do they single out dogs as the one noise that may not ever be "projected into human habitat"?

[JulesP]

For a month now a dog near me has barked and barked at night for long periods of time. It either keeps me awake or wakes me up. I am really getting feral about it now. Unfortunately I can not work out were it lives.