18mos ago, for some unknown reason, our small city allowed a dog training business to open up. The problem is that it’s a primarily residential area. The “school” is separated from my house by a wooden fence. I always thought the point of a dog training school was to keep dogs quiet and well behaved. Their method seems to be more “bark it out.”
At first, this was 7 days/wk. Then the neighbors and I got together to complain to the city. It turns out that her license was only for 5 day/wk from 7am-7pm. She didn’t really care about the hours, though. One night around 11pm the dogs started barking and I went out and told her to stop. She screamed at me to “MIND YOUR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS!!” She also sneered about a dog grooming place opening up and that the noise would only get worse so I “should move if I didn’t like it.” The grooming place opened up and I never hear them.
I understand that you can’t calm down dogs immediately but the barking has gone on for up to 10mins sometimes. It may subside but it always starts up again. My upstairs neighbor and his girlfriend are moving because of it which sucks, because we’ve worked well for 20yrs together. Apparently, barking dogs during Zoom meetings make you look unprofessional.
It’s not just the dogs. She also had to have it explained to her that the green bin was only for recycling and the black bin is for general trash. She’s gotten stickers put on the bins telling her that her recycling was not picked up for that reason. Also, because she piles as much garbage as she can on top of it which winds up on the ground. She also seems to think that the garbage day happens whenever she puts her garbage cans out.
I thought about buying a noise frequency machine to keep the dogs barking but that felt counter productive. Instead, I hit upon a better idea. Bagpipe music. I give the dogs a few minutes and if it doesn’t stop I put out a bluetooth speaker on the porch and blast Scotland the Brave. All of it. It doesn’t matter if the dogs stop barking. The song plays until the end.
Weirdly, the dogs stop barking before the song ends peace and quiet is restored for a few hours.
Comments
An elegant solution.
Bagpipes? A tad brutal, yet creative. What if next time you blasted your cat’s screech? The neighbors could join in on the chaos and create a deafening feline cacophony… or just end up with more angry calls from the Homeowners Association. How’d ya feel about testing this out, just for kicks?
That business owner needed to be told to straighten up or be required to leave. Glad you found a solution that worked.
Ah, it brings me back to the Stereo Wars on my dorm floor in college! Even 100 watt systems couldn’t compete with 35 watts of Scottish Pipes!
May I also suggest looking up “the cheeky girls” for musical choice lol
Perhaps alternate it with March of Cambreadth.
But don’t you have to hear the bagpipe music too?
Updateme!
Lived in the upstairs apartment of a house. Downstairs got rented to a divorced music teacher with 2 tween kids. Not only was she giving beginner piano lessons at home, but her kids had to play 2 instruments each. Mom started leaving her kids home alone when she went on dates and they were monsters. They decided to torment us upstairs.
What they did not know was what I was getting for Christmas. Bagpipes. (And yes, I knew how to play them!)
NO contest! And they could hardly complain ….
I love bagpipe music, actually! This would be much better than dogs barking all day. I have 4 dogs, and guess what, they hardly ever bark.
In my first marriage we lived next door to an old couple who would go out and leave the dog to roam the house and bark every time sone one walked past. We worked for the Post Office, UK and started work at 5am so we’re in bed early. After too many times of being woken up by their dog barking, my exhusband put some chocolate laxative through the letter box. So presumably every time the dog barked it would poo. It didn’t take long before the dog was shut at the back of the house and all was quiet again
I approve.
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I am a dog owner and I do not let my dog bark for more than a couple of minutes. Usually he barks when a raccoon or two are in the yard or a bobcat or some other larger critter. I will go and see why he is barking and bring him in the house. Done. I don’t like barking any more that non dog owners.
I love the babpipes music as a way to stop the barking. Well done!
The kennel where my dog goes for Summer Camp plays them classical music every day except for Sundays. On Sundays they get opera.
May I also suggest Hammer &Switch by Tartanic? It’s got some good bass drums YOUTUBE LINK!
I love Scotland the Brave! If I were your neighbor, I’d much prefer bagpipes to barking dogs
I love bagpipe music, especially Scotland the Brave.
Surely they’re violating not only city noise ordinances, but also zoning laws? Did this female dog maybe get her permits (assuming she actually did) by less-than-honest means? It’d be a shame if she was operating illegally and had to be shut down…
This is a dog training business and the dogs don’t sound like they’re being trained. I would go online and leave reviews: “I’m the neighbor and this business seems fake because the dogs are unruly and she can’t control them. I hear all kinds of questionable things from her property. If I was her customer, I would demand a refund.”
Do you ever see her customers? Chat them up. “What’s it like in her house? Cause she seems disorganized and messy. Seems like the dogs are allowed to be unruly, doesn’t seem like much disciplining is going on…”
I’m a piper and can confirm – all the little creatures go silent and skitter away the instant I strike in. I think it hurts their ears. Heck – I’m wearing ear plugs because it hurts MY ears. 🙂
call your local pipes and drums for a practice in the yard
What you really need to do is learn to play the pipes, solves a lot of problems.
If you know the name of her business, I’d look it up online and start leaving some truthful reviews to how she runs it. It’s not libel if you can prove it!
Perfect try playing Clanadonia in the park 2011 for them at full volume ? Bagpipe music is an acquired taste, but I may be Weird.
We had a dog who loved bagpipe music, and bagpipe CDs upstairs and downstairs.
If I couldn’t find that dog after a quick search, I’d throw in a bagpipe CD and she’d show up within a minute if she was indoors.
I love dogs, but at this point it’s fight fire with fire. Sure would be a shame if you planted a bunch of plants along the fence that if they ate it would happened to cause dogs to have diarrhea…
All this talk of bagpipes and “music” reminded me of a bank commercial in Southern California. It was a fake call in show with an answer lady – by the end of the commercial – the answer would inevitably be – the bank. In one – a person phones in and asks her:
Do you know what an oxymoron is?
She pauses and responds:
Accordion Music?
Still makes me laugh.
Oh hey check out Clann an Drumma on Spotify or YouTube. They have two pipers and like four tribal drummers.
Good luck with the neighbors.
If the city license is for 5 days a week and only 7-7, does that mean they should not have dogs present after hours?
If that is the case and the place is not conforming, talk with the police. Usually giving them a heads up/ having them being informed of the license rules will work in your favor and if they are called, they understand the situation and can act (fines) as needed.
Bagpipes are my go-to for noise problems. I like ’em so I have lots of CDs.
Oh I need to put this on when our inconsiderate neighbor starts scream singing … sounds like a murder is taking place.
Yes bagpipe music!!!
Find some Southeast Asian brass band music. It’s Chinese Opera plus discordant brass. You might even grow to like it.
From when I was 4 to 12 years old, my Dad was a piper with a military reserve pipe band. During the summer, he’d practice in the backyard beneath my bedroom window, and I fell asleep to the sound of his bagpipes. When I was 16, my family billeted six guys (around the same age as me) who were members of a visiting orchestra. My Dad came downstairs and called everyone to wake up — twice — with no reaction. Since we had a full-home sound system, he put his favourite album on and cranked the volume. “The Massed Pipes and Drums of Her Majesty’s Scots Guards” from the Edinburgh Tattoo blared in surround sound. Six guys leaped out of bed like they’d experienced an electric shock, while I continued sleeping. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my Dad laugh longer or harder.
Don’t pick a fight with a Scot unless you are willing to take it all the way. Anybody who lets their balls hang low ready to be kicked and don’t care is someone you don’t want to mess with.