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Thread: spite dog barking complaints

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    Default spite dog barking complaints

    Hi all

    I am not really sure what course of action i can take in this instance. I have received in my letterbox a notice (its from one of the neighbours) that they have to fill out before submitting a complaint to council. the notice had no details on it. My dog is an inside dog, and makes no sound when i am at home unless someone is actually in my yard. Now i have set up a cool bit of kit (3 condenser set with high gain throughout the house) and can hear myself if i jingle the keys in the front yard let alone the noise of the dog. now i have been recording while i am not home (when i am home the dog is very quiet.) when i am out and that has only been 4 hours while. the dog barked once when i was out and that was due to someone banging on the front door. at that point the dog got agitated (to be honest i would have got agitated at the banging at the door had i been home) barked for about 1 min then stopped, there was another noise about 2 min later. set the dog off for another min then it stopped. so out of the total amount of time i am out the dog barked in response to an event for no more than two min. out of 4 hours the dog barks for 0.8% of this time.

    what can be done in my case because the council process seems to be greatly unfair and i really don't want to have to take this matter to court to get resolution but at this point i am taking the evidence i have in case that i have to. I would have thought that there would have to be some level of verifiable evidence that would have to be presented to local council before such a claim can be made. apparently the complainant has to fill out a diary as to when the dog barks (a diary that really has no verification that it is true or accurate. they could put down anything in that diary and i have to defend against it)

    I also believe this is a spite complaint against me, reason being

    there are neighbours all around me. and each of them has a dog. many bark and often. yet the complaint is against my dog that is inside (keep in mind any barking would be muffled because the dog is in the house). I have lived here for over 9 years and i kind of feel a bit dirty that young people come in the area and rent in an area then proceed to cause problems and complain about everyone around them. if i wasn't paying off the mortgage on this house still i would just sell and move away but that is hard to do when still paying a house off.



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    It's likely that if you approach council reasonably with your evidence. They might just tell the complainant, to suck it up.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    yeah they seemed fairly reasonable and said they need more than one complaint before they take action. i have continued to record the audio while i am out in any case just in case and i have found that the dog rarely barks. and when he does it is short lived he doesnt persist for more than 30 seconds if that. actually i have found the RAAF way more noise way more frequently than my dog.

    apparently the dog must bark for 7 minutes or more each instance before it is considered an issue. so like 7 min of barking then like half an hour and another 7 min of barking then half an hour sort of thing and my dog hardly barks for 1 - 2 minutes in total over 12 hours. so i think i will present this evidence in the case that council comes knocking.

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    So council are going off what the neighbor has said? Council as a general rule to a dog complaint, have to be present and monitor your area to see if there is an issue. Do you have camera's outside your place? maybe its the neighbor annoying your dog when you go out, sounds like the neighbor needs to be put down

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    I think you are doing the right thing.
    Provide evidence of your dogs behaviour, CCTV would be even better i guess, as they can see its YOUR house.
    Enough cheap stand alone cameras on the market now.

    Submit evidence to council in relation to letter.
    Be on the front foot, beat the complainant at his own game.

    What you have described here is normal behaviour for a dog, any dog.
    So how can anyone make a noise compliant against that?

    EDIT: We had a dog barking all during the night in our neighbourhood, it was clearly outside and would bark as you described, 10min of barking, then stop for 20min, then 10min of barking again, at 2, 3, 4am, just when you were about back to sleep, bark bark bark bark
    (i can well appreciate any neighbours frustrations). My issue was with the owners, not the dog, seriously, who lets the happen?
    It's barking would in turn make some other dogs bark which wouldn't normally bark at all, and off it goes, stereo barking!
    I took a walk at 3am once, to try and pin point the property, but like Murphy's Law, it didn't bark when i was walking around (probably knew what it would receive)
    Anyway, others closer than us must have made contact with the owners, it doesn't do it anymore.
    Last edited by ol' boy; 20-07-17 at 11:46 AM.
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    There was story around some years ago of a persistantly barking dog that the owner claimed was as silent as the tomb but when an 'Official' called to investigate the compaint knocked on the door, the first thing the householder did on opening the door was to yell at the dog going ballistic saying, 'Shut up Barky'!!
    Last edited by gordon_s1942; 20-07-17 at 02:09 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by bazzy View Post
    yeah they seemed fairly reasonable and said they need more than one complaint before they take action. i have continued to record the audio while i am out in any case just in case and i have found that the dog rarely barks. and when he does it is short lived he doesnt persist for more than 30 seconds if that. actually i have found the RAAF way more noise way more frequently than my dog.

    apparently the dog must bark for 7 minutes or more each instance before it is considered an issue. so like 7 min of barking then like half an hour and another 7 min of barking then half an hour sort of thing and my dog hardly barks for 1 - 2 minutes in total over 12 hours. so i think i will present this evidence in the case that council comes knocking.
    When I was in the RAAF, and anyone complained about the noise, we'd just tell them; "That, mate, is the sound of freedom..."

    Never used to go over too well though.. But it cracked us up..

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    Quote Originally Posted by gordon_s1942 View Post
    There was story around some years ago of a persistantly barking dog that the owner claimed was as silent as the tomb but when an 'Official' called to investigate the compaint knocked on the door, the first thing the householder did on opening the door was to yell at the dog going ballistic saying, 'Shut up Barky'!!
    Yes I however have now gathered 30gb worth of evidence that the dog is not making noise through the day when i am not home. he is a generally well behaved dog with exception to when he breaks into the pantry.

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    Quote Originally Posted by bob_m_54 View Post
    When I was in the RAAF, and anyone complained about the noise, we'd just tell them; "That, mate, is the sound of freedom..."

    Never used to go over too well though.. But it cracked us up..
    i was not making that comment as a dig at the RAAF, i have no issues with them making noise at all. I knew they where across the field when i purchased the property 9 years ago. I also really like planes, reason for my comparison is that generally the jets that take off make far more noise than a dog that is inside the house so it is strange they are not complaining to RAAF especially considering about 5 jets took off within an hour and a half yesterday for example.

    the proximity to the RAAF base was part of the reason i purchased in the area,

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    You could fight fire with fire, if the people renting have a barking dog and you think they made the complaint you could complain to the real estate agency and ask them to intervene or else you will complain to council.

    It may seem tit for tat but if you're there for the long run stuff them.

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    Quote Originally Posted by lsemmens View Post
    It's likely that if you approach council reasonably with your evidence. They might just tell the complainant, to suck it up.
    Exactly.

    If you are doing your own logging and have proof, nothing is going to happen.

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    Quote Originally Posted by bazzy View Post
    i was not making that comment as a dig at the RAAF, i have no issues with them making noise at all. I knew they where across the field when i purchased the property 9 years ago. I also really like planes, reason for my comparison is that generally the jets that take off make far more noise than a dog that is inside the house so it is strange they are not complaining to RAAF especially considering about 5 jets took off within an hour and a half yesterday for example.

    the proximity to the RAAF base was part of the reason i purchased in the area,
    Nah, I realise that mate, it just brought back some funny memories of sitting in the Sergeant's Mess in Townsville, when a couple of shellbacks were having a whinge. And I hope you get the problem sorted out OK. We've had a similar problem here before, with a neighbor mistaking someone else's dog barking for ours. But I set up a video cam, and could prove that my two were both sleeping, when the said barking was supposed to have occured. Neighbors can be a real PITA at times eh.

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    A friend of mine had a few complaints and visits from the council for his supposed barking dog, but he knew it was not his dog. Complaints and visits from the council continued up to a year after the dog had died. In the end the complaints only ended when the council threatened the complainants with court action for making vexatious complaints. Up to that time the authorities always took the word of the complainant but as the dog was dead they clearly could no longer to so - yet even then it took the council a while to realise what was going on.

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    Quote Originally Posted by garrycol View Post
    A friend of mine had a few complaints and visits from the council for his supposed barking dog, but he knew it was not his dog. Complaints and visits from the council continued up to a year after the dog had died. In the end the complaints only ended when the council threatened the complainants with court action for making vexatious complaints. Up to that time the authorities always took the word of the complainant but as the dog was dead they clearly could no longer to so - yet even then it took the council a while to realise what was going on.
    Hope the dog died of natural causes and it wasn't all the plan of the complainant to clear themselves.
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    Quote Originally Posted by bob_m_54 View Post
    with a neighbor mistaking someone else's dog barking for ours.
    That must happen quite a bit. A friend of mine received a letter from the council regarding her barking dog - and a demand to register her dog.

    She doesn't have a dog. Has never had a dog and has lived there for more than 10 years.

    On the other hand, councils can be pretty useless. In my old neighbourhood, we had a yappy dog that never shut up. The poor thing was just left in the back yard with no attention - never walked and rarely played with. It wasn't the dog's fault, but it was going mad with loneliness and boredom. Yap yap yap all day and much of the night. The lady who lived next door to the yappy dog did the right thing - asked the owners directly to stop the dog barking. Nothing changed. Months went by, and nothing changed. She escalated to a complaint to the council, noise diaries from multiple neighbours and so on. Nothing changed. The dog kept barking and the council wouldn't do anything. I was thankful that it was all happening a little further away from me - I'd have gone nuts if I'd had it next door to me.

    The problem was only resolved when the yappy dog people moved house. I guess a new council complaint process has started at their new address and once again, the council aren't doing anything.

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    Quote Originally Posted by shred View Post
    That must happen quite a bit. A friend of mine received a letter from the council regarding her barking dog - and a demand to register her dog.

    She doesn't have a dog. Has never had a dog and has lived there for more than 10 years.

    On the other hand, councils can be pretty useless. In my old neighbourhood, we had a yappy dog that never shut up. The poor thing was just left in the back yard with no attention - never walked and rarely played with. It wasn't the dog's fault, but it was going mad with loneliness and boredom. Yap yap yap all day and much of the night. The lady who lived next door to the yappy dog did the right thing - asked the owners directly to stop the dog barking. Nothing changed. Months went by, and nothing changed. She escalated to a complaint to the council, noise diaries from multiple neighbours and so on. Nothing changed. The dog kept barking and the council wouldn't do anything. I was thankful that it was all happening a little further away from me - I'd have gone nuts if I'd had it next door to me.

    The problem was only resolved when the yappy dog people moved house. I guess a new council complaint process has started at their new address and once again, the council aren't doing anything.
    And thats why owners wonder why they're dogs are baited, the system fails every-time to act on complaints and people take matters into their own hands.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rick View Post
    And thats why owners wonder why they're dogs are baited, the system fails every-time to act on complaints and people take matters into their own hands.
    And those people don't make complaints to council or the owners at all.
    No need to become an obvious suspect.

    My friend down the road here had his dog baited by his neighbour.
    My friend went and searched through his bin and found a packet of snail bait.
    Then kindly struck up a friendly conversation with his neighbour about how good his garden looked
    He spoke admiringly of his garden and asked if he ever uses snail bait to keep it looking in top shape.
    The neighbour said "No, i never use such products"

    At which point my friend presented the used box of snail bait from his bin, asked him "Why is this in your bin then" and flattened him.

    Sadly, the law didn't see things the same way and my friend was put on an assault charge
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    Quote Originally Posted by oceanboy View Post
    And those people don't make complaints to council or the owners at all.
    No need to become an obvious suspect.
    This is the problem for the OP, I guess. Is it actually a vexatious complaint, or with other dogs all around him, is the complaint one of mistaken identity?

    If I was in his position, I'd be more worried about it being mistaken identity and someone trying to poison my dog that be worried about the council.

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    Quote Originally Posted by shred View Post
    This is the problem for the OP, I guess. Is it actually a vexatious complaint, or with other dogs all around him, is the complaint one of mistaken identity?

    If I was in his position, I'd be more worried about it being mistaken identity and someone trying to poison my dog that be worried about the council.
    well i guess in a way i am a little lucky in that my dog is kept in the house during the day and only let outside when going for walks or at least when i am home. (i sadly have been through this before where the people who lived next door in the drug house that have since moved where complaining about the dog for escaping the yard. and when i was putting him on a somehow he was "cutting the chain" and "breaking the lock on the gate" to get out. after that i had to lock him inside. at that point over a period of a month my garden shed contents all escaped along with my tools, air compressor, and fuel from my car needless to say the police where called there, and they instructed me to put the dog back outside to prevent further theft. however i did not comply in fear of further complaints from council)

    But as of today there was no sound from the dog, i can hear dogs in the area barking but my dog isn't barking, I have however noticed some concerning noises in this most recent recording, such as the sound of a door being opened (you can hear the pressure differential where the air blew past one of the microphones) and footsteps yet nothing was stolen so i am not sure what that was about, also there was no reaction from the dog at all about it. also there was the sound of glass breaking and i am not sure what happened there either. i have had a look around and can not find any evidence of glass breakage at all

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    Cameras Cameras Cameras!
    If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!

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