Bark, bark, bark continuously!

[lakeside013104]

First off, I am a dog owner, have worked with dogs for years, play with dogs and love dogs.

Currently in an Elite RV resort in central FL with about 300 sites half of which are privately owned and the remainder are rentals. This place is clean except for the sites with oak trees and the park is dog friendly.

Our neighbors are often gone for the day or evening and leave their dog in RV while away. As soon as they leave their dog starts barking and does not stop until they return. The dog barks enough to cause his bark to become hoarse and labored sounding.

My question is: "When is the appropriate time to complain to the office and what kind of response should one expect to receive"?


Lakeside

[mowermech]

Terryallan wrote:
they won't believe you, and will only get mad. So. Take care of the problem your self. There are bark arrestors you can get that hang from your awning, or sit on your picnic table. Every time it hears a bark. It sends out a sound that only a dog can hear. It does not hurt them in any way. But does make them uncomfortable. In other words they will stop barking to stop the sound.

Gonna get me one.

We DID get one. We now have three dogs, one of ours and two that belong to our daughter.
The sonic bark arrestor worked fair on the Corgi. She does not like it, and stops barking for a little while.
It has absolutely no effect on the Pomeranian. She just keeps yapping.
The long haired dachshund doesn't bark much, but when she does the sonic gimcrack doesn't seem to bother her a bit either.
Yes, we have tried various setting on the master unit. It makes no difference where the adjustments are set.
Good luck with your purchase.

Oh, yeah, I am with the "Go to the office" group, although making the recording of the noise is tempting, too.

[azrving]

captnjack wrote:

rjxj wrote:
Tell the office. It's what you paid for. They gave you a list of rules and it didn't say you had to deal with the other peoples problem.

I had a next door neighbor on 60 foot wide lake lots that kept putting the dog in a garage and leaving for the day and it barked non stop. I was surprised that when they came home and didn't do anything with the dog. As I made a trip out to the front/lake side of my house I realized they were sitting on the screen porch with the ball game blasting away.

I had a pile of firewood that I didn't feel like splitting so I got out my Stihl chainsaw with the broke muffler and 10 to 1 oil mixture and started ripping it. About half a tank later I noticed through the cloud of smoke that they had left the porch and took the dog into the house. Never heard the dog again.
They would come up for long weekends and put the dog in the garage and never take it out until it was time to put it in a cage in the back of a pick up for the ride home. No walks, poop/urine in garage, beautiful weekend for the poor dog.
Some thick heads are hard to penetrate.

This is WAY down on the list of possible actions a REASONABLE person would take. Not to mention you appear to have a LOT of free time on your hands. You probably live for petty conflicts like this.

If I agree with someone on here or not I would never consider their opinion petty. I would take it into consideration, apply logic and reasoning and use available resources to prove it true or false and continue on the civil conversation. I also forgot to mention above the crowd is not always right.

[captnjack]

rjxj wrote:
Tell the office. It's what you paid for. They gave you a list of rules and it didn't say you had to deal with the other peoples problem.

I had a next door neighbor on 60 foot wide lake lots that kept putting the dog in a garage and leaving for the day and it barked non stop. I was surprised that when they came home and didn't do anything with the dog. As I made a trip out to the front/lake side of my house I realized they were sitting on the screen porch with the ball game blasting away.

I had a pile of firewood that I didn't feel like splitting so I got out my Stihl chainsaw with the broke muffler and 10 to 1 oil mixture and started ripping it. About half a tank later I noticed through the cloud of smoke that they had left the porch and took the dog into the house. Never heard the dog again.
They would come up for long weekends and put the dog in the garage and never take it out until it was time to put it in a cage in the back of a pick up for the ride home. No walks, poop/urine in garage, beautiful weekend for the poor dog.
Some thick heads are hard to penetrate.

This is WAY down on the list of possible actions a REASONABLE person would take. Not to mention you appear to have a LOT of free time on your hands. You probably live for petty conflicts like this.

[azrving]

Here is another issue. Suppose the park owner was to go onto campsite reviews and notice that the reviews of his park have people mentioning the fact that when they come to stay they seem to have to tell someone about their dog being left in the trailer barking. About the only thing the park owner could do it that point is wonder why he's not getting any complaints about it or he may have changed his policies and his emphasis on that issue at check in. Hes not getting feed back because the majority didnt listen at check in when they say if you have any problems let us know we're it says on the rule sheet if you have any issues bring them to the park management. If the management is involved with resolving the problem he may be able to even weed out some people who would tend to continue that behavior. If they dont come back to this park then it would be more enjoyable for you and you wouldn't have to go deal with it.

[toedtoes]

I don't think anyone has voted for "confront the dog owner first". It's more "give the dog owner a heads up that there is an issue before making a formal complaint".

I think what many folks are suggesting is that you can prevent it from being a "problem that requires official intervening" simply by talking to the dog owner.

This seems to be a difficult thing to do nowadays - folks tend to see any and every thing as a Problem that needs resolving. Most often the thing is minimal, and considerate and straight-forward communication at the outset will resolve it before it becomes a Problem.

Sometimes reading these threads is like watching a Jane Bloody Austen movie - if the d**ned people would just communicate with each other, there'd be no stupid story... 🙂

[azrving]

DutchmenSport wrote:
After re-reading this entire thread, here's the unofficial talley:

Go to the office first and address the issue: 11
Go the the dog owner first and address the issue: 21

some not exactly sure where they stand, just making comments.

Looks like the "confront dog owner first" crowd wins up to this point!

j

Tell that to the park manager. I. Just called a local park inquiring about staying there later this month. We went over the basic rules and I finished up with a question for him. I said parks and people vary widely so if there are any problems while I am there do I address the issue with the other occupant or do you? He said no,if there are any problems come to the office as they prefer to deal with them.

No one ever mention calling the police over a dog noise ordinance. You wouldn't call the police, you would contact the park. They can contact the owner. They most likely have a cell number so they could get a hold of the owner. Problem would be solved sooner and dog wouldnt be miserable all day along with the neighbor. If the person was un cooperative with the park management they would then call the police. Rightfully so as that's the order it works in. System is in place so I just do what the park says. They own the place, not me. If brought to their attention they would have a closer handle on what's going on. Maybe have a stronger emphasis on that issue when people sign in or review whether their employees are giving out rule sheets or train them to go over the rules. By knowing what is going on or what problems are recurring they would then be best able to develope a solution. According to the survey it sounds like another problem exists and that is people not following the instructions of the park management and addressing any problems with them which I would guess is most parks policy. But my survey of one park is small, do you own survey if you like but you already know where my bet is.

[DutchmenSport]

After re-reading this entire thread, here's the unofficial talley:

Go to the office first and address the issue: 11
Go the the dog owner first and address the issue: 21

some not exactly sure where they stand, just making comments.

Looks like the "confront dog owner first" crowd wins up to this point!

[toedtoes]

rjxj wrote:
After you approach the neighbor and if it goes wrong, you are willing to go to the same office that I would go to let them deal with it and run their park how it should be run. If you will do that in the end, why not eliminate the risk/confrontation and just go there first?

No one said go get a lawyer, cop. Just go to the office that you dealt with and the same people who are ultimately the ones who will deal with it. I mean you could have the cops there and a lawyer if it escalates to that point. I really dont see that escalation in my method. In fact in the end I do not have the confrontation risk, but after they talk to the neighbor just say that he mentions it to me, all I have to say is no, I never heard your dog or we were out for awhile I dont know. Would you like a beer? We have a couple dogs, would you like to see them? Hey let me show you a couple gadgets that we bought for our dogs. SURE, you can try ours out on your dog tomorrow. Lets put it on your dog tomorrow and you guys drive off and I'll pay attention and see how he does. 🙂 There is more than one way to handle things.

So, you are frustrated because the dog next door is barking continuously. You don't want a confrontation, so you tell the office and let them deal with it. Fine.

But then, if the neighbor says something like "we just got told by the office that our dog is barking non-stop, have you heard him barking?", you are going to say "No, I haven't heard your dog barking"??????????????

I get wanting to avoid a potential confrontation by going to the office first, but denying a problem exists (one that you are frustrated with) only results in trivializing the problem. A simple "actually, yeah, I have heard the dog barking while you're gone. I didn't think anyone else could hear it." validates the complaint but doesn't ID you as the complainer.

[toedtoes]

Desert Captain wrote:

cdlaine wrote:
Sorry to be contrarian here...what dog owners don't know
what their dogs are like when they are gone? Really ? C'mon.

Charles

X2 Come on people you know darn well the dog owners are fully aware of their pooch's behavior, they live with it 24/7. I agree with the "speak to the management" crowd. It is not my job to correct a neighbor and the chances of that going bad are about 50/50.

I would definitely document the barking with my smart phone to prove there is a problem. I love dogs as much as anyone you have ever met but these chuckleheads make it hard on all of the responsible dog owners out there.

😞

I had a dog who I thought was fine. It wasn't until my next door neighbor approached me and said "your dog starts barking about an hour after you leave and keeps going for a couple hours". As she never barked when I was home, or when I was leaving or returning, I had no idea that she barked WHILE I was gone. Because my neighbor told me (and didn't make threats), I was able to apologize and quickly resolve the problem. Sure was better than having a cop at the door telling me I was in violation of a noise ordinance.

[azrving]

After you approach the neighbor and if it goes wrong, you are willing to go to the same office that I would go to let them deal with it and run their park how it should be run. If you will do that in the end, why not eliminate the risk/confrontation and just go there first?

No one said go get a lawyer, cop. Just go to the office that you dealt with and the same people who are ultimately the ones who will deal with it. I mean you could have the cops there and a lawyer if it escalates to that point. I really dont see that escalation in my method. In fact in the end I do not have the confrontation risk, but after they talk to the neighbor just say that he mentions it to me, all I have to say is no, I never heard your dog or we were out for awhile I dont know. Would you like a beer? We have a couple dogs, would you like to see them? Hey let me show you a couple gadgets that we bought for our dogs. SURE, you can try ours out on your dog tomorrow. Lets put it on your dog tomorrow and you guys drive off and I'll pay attention and see how he does. 🙂 There is more than one way to handle things.

[2012Coleman]

Speedogomer wrote:
I agree with approaching the owner politely, and tell them you were concerned if the dog was ok, that it barked all day. They may be unaware of it. If they are rude, or don't fix the problem, I'd tell the office. If youd rather not speak with them, I'd just let the office know.

Totally agree. Don't run to the office on the assumption they might be rude - go to the office only IF they are rude/unresponsive when you approach them.

You have to live with them as neighbors - don't you? Start by being neighborly yourself.

[toedtoes]

TomHaycraft wrote:
Have you talked to the dog's owner? Are they aware the dog is barking all day? While not a common approach in this day (and honestly, one that makes my wife nervous), but I often go to the source and 50% of the time, get a good response. I've been told off, at that point I get the property owners or authorities involved.

It is in the approach. In your situation, I would engage the neighbor in conversation about the dog and your concern for the dog's welfare, not how over-the-top irritating it is.

Just my 2 cents ...

I agree with this suggestion. It's human nature to go immediately into defense mode if we think we're under attack. Complaining, calling the office/authorities, etc. are all signs of attack. Being concerned about the dog and its obvious stress is not an attack.

And, let's face it, no one wants to be tattled on to the teacher/boss/authorities without ever being told there's a problem. Give them a chance to address it before tattling.

[wing_zealot]

sowego wrote:
You can jump to the end and call the office but why not think like a fellow pet owner and chat with the owner 1st!? If they are rude and refuse to do anything...then it's time for you to call the office.

So what difference does it make if you hear it from the neighbor or hear it from the campground host/manager. On the off chance I go over there and get some rude, vindictive, "I'll do whatever I want" guy, I'd rather the campground host give the heads up. I may run into 10 guys that respond positively, but I don't need one bad apple to spoil my vacation due to his problem.

[Terryallan]

they won't believe you, and will only get mad. So. Take care of the problem your self. There are bark arrestors you can get that hang from your awning, or sit on your picnic table. Every time it hears a bark. It sends out a sound that only a dog can hear. It does not hurt them in any way. But does make them uncomfortable. In other words they will stop barking to stop the sound.

Gonna get me one.

[sowego]

I'd talk to the owner...I agree--they may not know their dog is barking while they are gone.


To say the dog owners doesn't know isn't quite fair..they may indeed but give them a break...they may not. We did not know until a camping neighbor told us. So, we tested the theory...we pretended to leave, drove the car off a short ways and walked back and sure enough...he was barking.

So, we began work on a solution...we made sure the windows were closed, curtains shut, the AC/heat set to run, left a fan running, and we always left a radio or the TV on so he couldn't hear any outside noise. There are toys available you can put treats in to keep them busy if they like toys, but our dog did not. It may also work to take the dog for a long walk and have a long play session to wear them out a bit. The owner may know the dog well enough to be able to find a good solution.


Some dogs just can't handle being left alone in a strange place even though the RV is their home.

You can jump to the end and call the office but why not think like a fellow pet owner and chat with the owner 1st!? If they are rude and refuse to do anything...then it's time for you to call the office.