Ordinance against acting like a dog - Page 1

Hopefully someone can advise me here.

I have a neighbor who is a dog hater.  Since we took in our female, he has been after me to get rid of her. Today, he called me and said, if I'm keeping her, he will be calling the police each and every times she makes a peep.

I have German Shepherd dogs because they are loyal and protective dogs.  My male is mature and trained enough that he barks only on an as-need basis.  This female, however, spent the last two years locked up in a kennel out in the middle of nowhere with no exposure to strangers.  Since bringing her home, she has made great strides.  She used to bark at absolutely everyone and any animal she seen.  To ask my neighbor though, both of my dogs bark 24/7 without any reason at all. 

Today, my neighbor's direct complaint is that the female barks at everyone of his guitar students.  Well, maybe if he kept normal hours, it'd be a non-issue, but he teaches from late afternoon until well after dark.  I want my dogs to be watching for who's around after dark!  He's bringing in a lot of different faces into a very small, dead end neighborhood.  I don't think my female's behavior is out of line.

I have read as much of the City ordinance as is available online.  It states that it will penalize dogs the "habitually bark or cry."  If that's all there is to it, I'm not worried, because her barking is not "habitual," but "in response to."  What I worry about is whether an ordinance or law can try to prohibit an animal from behaving like an animal.  To say that a dog "cannot bark."  Our ordinance does say that a dog cannot "disturb the peace," but does not define it.  The crazy part is, we live right by a major highway AND railroad tracks, so there's no "peace" here anyway.

Any thoughts, suggestions?  I've got to be prepared to defend this female.  She's had a crappy life so far & like I told the neighbor, I'm not going to give up on her just because he doesn't like her.

 I would try to get along with this neighbor the best I possibly could. Meaning no verbal or physical confrontations. I might try to get a small tape recorder and tape a conversation with him over the dogs in general. Maybe you can get it on tape him stating he hates dogs....  I am not a lawyer or even close so I am not sure if this is legal. I think it is considered disturbing the peace after a reasonable hour, like 10:00 pm . Maybe they can sleep inside after that time? I also think the burden of proof is on him to prove your dog barks non stop. If you have any other neighbors that can verify this is not true it would benefit you. I would also document any dates and times he has issues about your dogs barking, that way you may be able to disprove them. Or perhaps keep a log of the guitar playing after hours and use it to your benefit even if you don't find it annoying. Good luck, neighbors can be a pain.

Hi CvK

Hopefully this will be some helpful advice, I used to work in local government and know a little about ordinances.  Take offensive action and go to your council meeting or go to the Borough building/City Hall and speak to an Ordinance Officer (typically a Police Officer) or even the Mayor.  Explain the circumstances and what your neighbor is complaining about.  As long as your dogs are being protective, there's no reason anyone should have reason to complain.  Typically, any dog that barks for 5 to 10 minutes or more on a regular basis with no reason would be considered disturbing the peace  As long as it is not before 8 o'clock in the morning or 10 o'clock  at night your dogs have a right to bark at anything that would be considered a threat to them.  Make sure your dogs are all current on required vaccinations and licenses.  Do not let them out when you are not at home so they don't have the opportunity to disturb anyone.  If you are at home and they are barking, find out why and try to quiet them if it's nothing.  Spend time with your new girl and try to teach her what she should and shouldn't be barking at (maybe an e-collar or bark collar will help).  Lastly, speak to other neighbors and ask if your dogs are disturbing them.  If nobody else has any complaints this guy will not have a leg to stand on and if he does file a formal complaint you can then go to the council meeting and ask your other neighbors to attend in your defense.

I once had an next door neighbor who TRIED to make my dogs bark so she could then complain.   I caught her blowing a dog whistle and the funny thing was they were totally ignoring her, made her even more mad.  She used to let her grandson squirt them with a super soaker squirt gun and they would walk my fence line just to torment them.  Little did she know I was a coworker of the building inspector (ordinance officer in this town) and he would call and let me know when she was complaining again (it helps to have friends in the right places).  She would mock me when I called the dogs in, it was a real nightmare.  Thankfully she moved and haven't had any problems since.

I hope some of this is useful to you and I wish you the best of luck with your new girl.

Cindi

Try and get along with the neighbor.  Try and get your other neigbors to like your dogs too.  Nothing works as well as pier pressure.

Has your neighbor actually registered a complaint with the proper authorities? A police officer in my city told me that it is a nuisance if a person feels it is a nuisance--no matter what hour of the day or night. With regard to noise laws, he said the hours of 7 am to 10 pm pertains largelyto the hours that construction workers may be working and making noise.

I have a bitchy neighbor, too. I keep the dogs quiet when I am at home. When I am away, I either bring them in the house or put bark collars on them.

After my bitch neighor reported me, I sent my her a letter containing some of the following:

I have repeatedly offered to introduce you to the dogs in order to allow you to see their friendly natures. These are “people dogs”--ones that literally love people. However, instead of your taking me up on my offer, you continue to shower my dogs with repeated verbal abuse, intimidation, threats, and harassment over and through our common fence. You have even invaded my privacy by taking videos of my backyard above the fence—an intrusion that has further antagonized the dogs...Can you not become more of a respectful neighbor and desist your program of harassment and invasion of privacy? I sincerely hope that you and I can work out our differences amicably and that you can learn more about “normal” canine behavior (especially that of the German Shepherd breed). If you will not desist and if you continue to pry, invade my privacy, harass (“elder abuse” by any definition) me and my “family”, and violate the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act, I may have to seek legal redress.

BTW, while I have received absolutely no overtures of friendliness from my neighbor, I have received no further complaints. Anyhow, the ball is back in her court.

CvK:

It is my uderstanding that each township has their own restrictions when it comes to barking dogs.  A friend has a neighbor who does not like gsd's, and has called the cops on several occassions complaining that her dogs are barking.  Similar to what Sparrow has said - it is only a problem if the dogs are caught barking continously for 10 minutes or so and cannot bark between 10:00 p.m thru 7:00 a.m.   Each time he called, a police officer went to her house and by the time he arrived the dogs had already returned to the house.  No summons was issued.  When the neighbor did not get satisfaction from his complaints regarding barking, he called the Licsence/inspection department advising she had more animals then which was allowed.  In our township you are allowed 6 animals total .  Her mother had recently moved in with her and brought a very old rabbit which stayed in the house and a 19 year old cat, which put her over the limit by 2 animals.   When the inspector came - she asked him if he would like to euthanize her 94 year old mother along with the cat?  He was very understanding and just asked if she would keep her mother's cat indoors so that the neighbor could not complain again.

Also you have to be careful when buying a house with an association.  My brother and sister in law purchased a house with about 1/2 acre.  They did not have a dog at the time, but have since adopted a gsd.  They fenced in their back yard and occassionally she barks when she sees something.  Their neighbor wrote to the association, stating they leave the dog out without  a leash and that it barks constantly.  Their association rules forbid you taking your dog out in the back yard (even if your yard is fenced) without having the dog on a leash.  Now isn't that crazy!

CvK,

Some people are ignorant and belligerent. You may never enlighten them, so be as mindfull as possible of REASONABLE sensibilities. I am compelled to keep my dogs in the house or indoor kennels at night for this very reason. My neighbor has a pit bull on a chain that barks and agitates my male, and the other neighbors see only MY dogs, so I must be doubly cautious. If in spite of your reasonable efforts a confrontation occurs that leads to police intervention, be prepared to explain your efforts to appease and accomodate this unreasonable person. If you can demonstrate effectively that your neighbor has unreasonable expectations the police will likely ignore his future complaints, and will likely tell him to get on with his life. I consider "reasonable" canine noise to be barks not louder than other intermittent local noise such as a truck passing or a door slamming and not for more than a minute at a time or late at night. I also make a point of going out whenever the dogs bark for more than 10 seconds either to silence them or to rectify the cause of their agitation. Does your neighbor mow his lawn? Perhaps he can see that having neighbors comes with some reasonable compromise. Best Wishes, Jonah

You stated that he is giving Guitar lessons from his house. Can you hear the Guitar music from your house? If so tell him it bothers you but you are willing to put up with it if he ignores occassional barking. If it really becomes heated look into whether he has a business permit to run his Guitar lessons out of his house, if so what are the hours of business? I think you may have some leverage with the guitar issue, like is he insured, bonded, does he have the proper permits etc. etc. etc.

We had a similar problem when Animal Control contacted me because a neighbor complained. I keep my dogs inside usually when I am gone. Sometimes they are kenneled outside and usually only bark when there is wildlife or strangers by our fence.

I took a letter that I photo copied to all my neighbors. It stated that we had "competitive show dogs' and if they had a problem with any of my dogs to please contact my husband or myself at any hour. I listed our cell phones, home phone and work phones. One day I recieved a call from the problem neighbor. She was quite angry because my dogs were going wild barking. I explained it couldn't possibly be my dogs as they were secure in there crates in the garage and I was in my living room and I couldn't hear any dogs barking..... She never called back- that was 4 years ago.

On the same token, one day we had a forest fire close to our house. It was spring so I took the dogs out to their kennels and placed bark collars on them. Well the fire department came around tell us that we had to evacuate. One of my neighbors called me at my office and got my dogs into crates so that when I got home I could load them into the truck and go... 

At any rate it has worked for me to be out going with my neighbors.

Peace!