Barking/Nuisance Dog Complaints

Most towns have laws against barking dogs. Local police handle this. Getting the HOA involved in an issue that is typically handled by the police is not a smart move.

A few thoughts

No one likes to go make a complaint to the neighbors.

Probably if it bothers one person a lot it bothers others some.

Owners are more tolerant of barking than non-owners.

I'd like to address the issue of how one defines excessive barking.

First, because you are in an unincorporated part of the city, see under which animal control authority you'd be under the jurisdiction. Then see how they define excessive barking.

You want to be consistent with the authorities.

I used to volunteer at a humane society so this is how they worked.

First, you need to know if this is a one-time incident. The reports should not be too general.

Then you check and see if it happens at the same time every day or every couple of days. Basically you are looking for a pattern. For instance, it could be that the dog is barking at the postal carrier, or the newspaper delivery person.

You want the reports to include the time of day and a record of occurrences. Sometimes it could be the case that it is another dog. Then you also want to check if there is another dog. I say this because if the people are complaining about one dog but not another, then it is a personal thing.

Where I once lived, the manager's dog barked at all hours, but the complaints or the only one he'd act upon were on my dogs. So his dogs barking weren't a concern but mine were. That means the policy is arbitrary and hard to enforce.

Similarly, the HOA where I used to live had a neighbor's dog that barked between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., but the complaint was against our dog. The complaint was general and there were many complaints (not about our dogs) but the legal authorities found the HOA was at fault for those. We challenged the complaint and the complaint was just a threat and nothing went forward on the barking complaint. I mean that a nebulous barking complaint can be just a means of threatening a dog owner.

So now you must define what is nuisance barking. Usually you want to see what the local authorities consider--both the city and the county and align with them. This should include certain hours (say from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.) and duration.

The duration is key. If a dog barks on a night and then is quieted, this is a singular incident and not considered nuisance barking. If the dog barks every night at a certain time for a duration of 5 minutes, this is a nuisance.

Often the definition is similar to car alarm problems.

Incidents should be recorded because it could very well turn out that the person and the dog aren't even home and then you have a different problem. This was the case when a person complained about loud parties. He thought there was a party on a certain night and complained and there wasn't a party at all.

If the people do not want to come forward and wish to remain anonymous, then you had a different problem of verification. If you're already having problems with garage bands, then you'll have a hard time saying that the dogs are worse than the garage bands. The garage bands may also cause the dogs to bark and in terms of an objective measure (decibels) and duration, are hard to argue against when you're talking about a dog.

If the dog is being teased, then this is a different matter entirely. A dog that is being teased into barking is doing its job and the fault is with the people. For the dog's well-being, the owner and the HOA should work on a better solution that keeps the dog away from the fence and prevents the teasing. You don't know how far the teasing may go, from just hitting the fence to actually hitting the dog and throwing things at it. No amount of exercise will counteract the teasing. In which case, you might ask local dog experts for suggestions.

We have had issues like this. First step is talking to the neighbor, second step ask management to send letter. This is because most ccrs of HOA's address noise issues what this is.

If it persists. Keep a log, and go as much as recording incident if possible. a filmed issue stops nay sayers from saying' It ain't me." I had a neighbor who filmed a mid week party by an owners son who kept saying "it ain't me". It sure was at 4am on a thurs!! LOL

Today nearly all of us have cell phones that can make video recordings that automatically record the time and date. I can't think of better evidence than a date-stamped, time-stamped video that shows just exactly what happened. When the dogs bark, reach for the video camera.

Barking dogs seem to be a problem everywhere. My HOA is made up of rural parcels at least 36 acres or larger. The parcels are in non-contigous sections scattered over more than 400 square miles. Only about ten percent of our 1600 parcels are occupied by full time residents. Despite all the wide open spaces and sparse population, our board received several complaints about barking dogs belonging to one resident! Apparently there is no place on earth where one can live without hearing someone's barking dogs.

Thankfully, we haven't had too big of a problem with loose dogs, although I did get a complaint a few years ago about a loose pit bull running around (it was suggested that animal control be contacted - even though I suspect the caller wanted me to get a net and my dog catcher uniform to go get it myself!). Unfortunately, there is little the HOA can do about loose animals (from a deed restriction standpoint) unless we know who the owner of the dog is.

The owner of the dog the recent complaints were received about is saying it isn't her dog. The complainant has been informed that a record of the time and duration of the barking would be very helpful (as would speaking to their neighbor directly) - and if possible, to call me or a board member as someone will go and verify the barking.

I suspect there will be some finger pointing (I've already received communication from the dog's owner about the neighbor doing this and doing that - their smelly smoke in my back yard, their kids play with my kids toys, etc). -in essence, things that the HOA can't handle for them. Time will tell on this one.

It will also be discussed at the upcoming board meeting - to establish guidelines for what should be considered nuisance or excessive barking.

Lots of times, it isn't necessarily a bad pet, just a bad parent!

Thanks again for all the responses.

There are some issues the authorities are best equipped to handle, but the HOA should have some rules that could reinforce some things, such as the loose dog issue. Loose dogs will crap everywhere, killing the lawn (thus add more expenses to replace it)and the poo can attract rats and other vermin (more expenses to get rid of that). Some owners will stand there and let the dog dig into the common area and wreck it (more expenses).

I've lived in two gated communities and both had problems with animal feces. In the first, it was the dog AND CATS owned by a large male biker who was friends with the manager and intimidated most of the other people in the complex. Cat feces can spread diseases and the cats were very active and vocal when they were breeding so I would attempt to enforce a leash rule for cats and dogs.

One way to keep dogs and cats from certain areas is chemical controls. I currently use used coffee grounds and chili powder or mustard powder.

In the second place, we rarely allowed our dogs to poop in the common areas. We did have a problem with cats and dogs from the neighboring apartment complex who could get through the gates. So this is to say, we were picking up feces from other animals. When we stopped doing this, we sent a written statement that we didn't allow our pets to poop in the common area. Instead we took them out to the park.

Loose animals might be a HOA problem because your animal control might consider your HOA a fenced area. Depending upon the laws governing animals, the owner might be within the city codes. For instance, one city I used to live by allowed for an unleashed animal on the owner property, but not when if left the property. That happens pretty easily if you have your pet in the front yard and it sees something and runs into the street. However, the owner isn't in violation of city code until it runs into the street. The neighboring community only allowed animals off-leash in a fenced area.

We did allow our dogs off leash in the early morning and late evening at our former HOA, but kept them in the back yards when no one else was there. Some cities allow this unofficially in the early morning in parks.

Finding the owner of a stray dog can be a problem, but in some areas you can simplify the matter because some cities will go door-to-door to check and see if the animals are licensed. You can sometimes check licensing records, since most cities require that at least dogs (and in some cases cats) must be licensed. A license usually requires rabies shots be updated so this is a community health issue. Stray and cats allowed to run loose can get into other people's exclusive use areas and cause property destruction say by killing an expensive pet bird, etc.

Another thing to consider is that if you allow unleashed dogs or cats that this might increase the problem of barking. In the first community I referred to, the guy's cats would be sunning themselves on my welcome mat and this would drive my dogs crazy. Sometimes they even played in front of my backyard gate. My solutions were as follows. If the cats were mating late night or teasing my dogs, I turned the water on and hosed them down. To prevent them from sunning themselves on my welcome mat, I used chili powder and mustard. Eventually that family moved out before I did, but they left the place with a definite smell of feline urine among other sanitation problems.

I own two dogs and we still have nuisance pets (feces in the garden and on our lawn) from our neighbors. I have heard of HOAs doing DNA testing to control the feces problems but I no longer live in a HOA.