Image credit: Alun Callender
Our neighbour’s ridiculously tiny new dog never stops yapping.
My husband has taken to standing in the garden at all hours, mimicking it to make a point.
It sounds funny but I’m embarrassed. I don’t believe in falling out with your neighbours. What to do?
Men are wired differently to women. While you are seeking a peaceful solution to the nuisance caused by the neighbour’s dog, your husband is in the garden doing a war dance.
To be fair, his behaviour, hilarious to those of us not married to him, is a symptom of the problem, not the cause.
So on to the puppy. First, it’s possible your neighbours are unaware that its barking is being heard. The puppy might be barking because it’s being left alone too long. Or it might be an annoyingly noisy puppy that needs training.
Until you have a conversation with its owners you cannot know. I would suggest inviting them for a drink and start by saying how much you favour good relations with neighbours.
Then explain the noise in the most tactful terms possible.
For example: "You mightn’t know but the noise of your puppy’s barking travels to our garden and we wondered if you could do anything to help?"
While you are seeking a peaceful solution to the nuisance caused by the neighbour’s dog, your husband is in the garden doing a war dance
Training a dog not to bark needlessly requires time and patience. Maybe the owners are already attempting to do this.
Maybe not.
Their response will give you an idea of how much of a battle you have on your hands. In the worst-case scenario, they might take offence and then you will have no alternative but to report the noise to your local council.
For what it’s worth, on shoots in Gloucestershire, if a Labrador has the temerity to bark inappropriately, the owner is likely to take out a tube of mustard and put some on the dog’s tongue.
Obviously you can’t do that to the neighbour’s puppy, but I see no reason why you couldn’t try it on your husband.
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