5 ms·

I sold my previous house precisely because of noisy neighbors (or rather their dogs). Their three dogs lived in the backyard permanently no matter what the weat

I sold my previous house precisely because of noisy neighbors (or rather their dogs). Their three dogs lived in the backyard permanently no matter what the weather - never seen them walked. Talked to the neighbors twice about the noise - no action. Called the cops at 3 in the morning - still nothing. Finally, I decided to sell the house and move somewhere where there is low dog density. I developed a dislike for dogs because of my previous neighbors. Even now, three years later, a barking dog drives me nuts, gets my heart going fast and blood boiling.

petre 7y ago
In Bavaria if your dog barks more than 30 minutes per day, the neighbours can record it on video, call the police and you will get fined. At first I thought this is astupid law but after reading your story I changed my mind.
- reddotX 7y ago
  in Bulgaria people will poison your dogs
  - rhacker 7y ago
    Oh you know that happens in everywhere right?
    - blub 7y ago
      Apparently not in the US, or not often enough to have an effect.
      - cgriswald 7y ago
        It happens here in the US, too[0]. The consequences, both criminal and civil, are generally not very severe. It may not be happening frequently enough to have an effect, or it may not be happening publicly enough to become a concern for owners. Plus, generally, the owners who are problems are already not very concerned about their dogs. [0] - https://gazette.com/news/colorado-springs-woman-pleads-guilty-after-trying-to-poison-neighbor/article_e6b0209e-a9c9-11e9-ac83-4f3cd9884b34.html https://gazette.com/news/colorado-springs-woman-pleads-guilt...
  - dsego 7y ago
    I remember hearing about people putting sharp objects in food, like broken glass or blades.
  - _0ffh 7y ago
    Same in Belize, I hear from J.McA.
    - slap 7y ago
      It's didn't go so well for the dog killer.
  - petre 7y ago
    In most places without sensible regulation they'd poison the dog, which opens the slippery slope to escalation. Bavarian law prevents that.
rhacker 7y ago
This saddens me to hear this. I see in Zillow sooo many instances of a Yellow dot (sold, say 1/2018) then a red dot shows up as of 5/2018 and just sits on the market. The problem? the new neighbors. After analysis my wife and I have concluded, after seeing hundreds of homes (even with acreage) that neighbors are far far far the #1 reason a house goes for sale. It might be kids, dogs or music.
crooked-v 7y ago
...and now you know why nosy HOAs are so common even though people always talk about hating them.
- AnthonyMouse 7y ago
  It should be possible to have a simple rule requiring noise not to cross into a neighbor's residential property, without having a dedicated organization of busybodies collecting dues and micromanaging everything with a constantly changing set of restrictions.
  - leetcrew 7y ago
    this is not very simple. sound doesn't just "stop" at a certain point; it dissipates until a specific sound can't be heard over the noise floor. the only realistic approach is to set a dB level that can't be exceeded for a sustained duration. this is how the law already works in most localities; it just isn't enforced unless you really nag the police.
    - AnthonyMouse 7y ago
      You can litigate everything forever if you want to be sufficiently pedantic, but that's missing the point. It's not that you don't at some point have to make a decision about how loud is too loud. It's that you can have a noise ordinance without giving anyone the capacity to compel anyone else to use a specific landscaping company or style.
      - leetcrew 7y ago
        > It's that you can have a noise ordinance without giving anyone the capacity to compel anyone else to use a specific landscaping company or style. of course you can, this is how the law already works in most relatively dense places! your original post seemed to imply that you weren't aware of noise ordinances outside of HOA bylaws, apologies if I misunderstood.
  - tjalfi 7y ago
chroma 7y ago
Instead of moving, isn't it much less trouble to kill their dogs by throwing some poisoned food over the fence? That's what people usually do with noisy animals and asshole neighbors.
- blub 7y ago
  What happens if you get caught? The neighbor could also go berserk when finding out, I imagine there's not too many suspects.
  - chroma 7y ago
    How could they know who did it? It could be any one of their neighbors, and most lots have 5 adjacent lots. In a place I used to live, there was a rooster that would constantly crow. Someone killed it. I wasn't involved but I'm certainly glad it happened. That rooster was driving the neighborhood insane. The police were useless in that situation. They never cared about noise complaints. Basically if the state doesn't take care of these problems, people will. And when they do, it's not pretty.
    - x220 7y ago
      That's why police exist in the first place (if you're not thinking too cynically about it). The main job of police is to reduce vigilante justice and mob violence. If the police don't shut up someone's dog, convict a blatant rapist, or punish a murderer, expect the people to take it into their own hands.
      - TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
        > convict ... punish The police shouldn't be, and aren't, tasked with, those things.
hunterloftis 7y ago
I had the very same experience and also sold my house because of it. The previous owners had sold it to me without disclosing the issue, but for the same reason (we disclosed it to our buyers). The part of the article that resonated with me most was the feeling of helplessness, of impotence, of being assaulted and being unable to do anything to defend yourself. I decided to sell the house when I started hating the dogs themselves. It wasn’t their fault, it was their awful owner, but after months of rough sleep in my guest bedroom (further away than the master) with earplugs in, I hated it all equally.
arpa 7y ago
Dogs... I can relate, but in the house it's not that bad. Heavy curtains/external blinds over windows usually are enough to filter out their barks, howls and whines. Now people with subwoofers - that's something much much much worse. You see high frequency filters well. Low frequency just goes straight through the walls and into your head and after hours of whomp whomp whomp you just want to go grab a canister of gasoline and burn the partying fuckers alive together with their whole sound setup from hell. I live in a picturesque area, so it's usually assholes in cars coming to enjoy the views with extra bass, and while noise complaints to the police has remedied the situation quite a bit, it still randomly occurs. I've learned to really welcome bad weather, because that most often means a peaceful evening without the impotent rage.
ehnto 7y ago
I live with an endless barking dog. It isn't mine, but it wakes me constantly. If there has been peace for a while and it barks, I can feel my entire body change "mode" to stressed. It is uncanny. Even if mentally it hasn't bothered me, my body still goes into battle mode.
- sak5sk 7y ago
  I have the same reaction (physical) to a screaming kid. It has made raising my baby incredibly difficult (especially the first year). Mentally, I understand that it's just a crying baby and that's what they do, but physically I was shutting down - body tensing, a surge of extremely stressful energy rushing through my body and ultimately being left unable to function. My wife thought I was nuts and was just faking it. I tried searching for a medical explanation but came up short. The closest I would describe it as something I hear chronic fatigue people say -- not having energy to get up, no matter their mental state. I would sit there, practically paralyzed by stress, or whatever that stress induced.
  - johnchristopher 7y ago
    I don't know about the paralysis but I once read an internet fact that stated our brains are innately wired to react to babies and children's screams in order to ward off potential threats to our retirement plans.
    - germinalphrase 7y ago
      I believe it. I work in an environment that many people would consider stress inducing; I engage in amateur combat sports; however, when my six month old loses it, I absolutely get an immediate pulse raising stress reaction.
      - scandinavegan 7y ago
        I've read articles that say that when they stress-test fighter pilots by having them do cognitive test while wearing headphones with different sounds, they usually mix in infants crying. It's one of the most distracting things for a person to hear. For me, it wasn't when the kids started crying that was the most stressful, but when they wouldn't stop. You check their diapers, you check if they're hungry, you rock them gently, and even then sometimes they just wouldn't stop crying. After a while the noise would be so bad that I had to hand them off to my wife, and she did the same when she became too frustrated. Funnily enough, it made me immune to other kids crying. Before I had kids I would get very irritated at noisy kids or crying infants in the subway. Now, I'm just happy it's not my kids and that it's someone else's problem!
vonseel 7y ago
People like that should really not own dogs. Everyone wants to get a dog when it’s cute and adorable as a puppy then they move on in life and have kids and other responsibilities and the dog just becomes a burden. There are definitely good dog owners, but there’s a ton of people who just have them and don’t really do anything with them besides feed them - dogs need exercise. I’ll admit I surrendered the only dog I ever had after having her 6 years from when I was a college student until about 3 years after graduation. People usually think this is something to be ashamed of, but I knew the lifestyle I was living at the time was not good for an active dog (golden retriever). At that point in my life I was spending full days in an office and working out at the gym 1-2 hours per day, on top of sitting in traffic an hour or two, and I was moving into a one bedroom apartment after living in houses for most of the time I had a dog. I knew I would be subjecting the dog to a life of boredom and sleeping on the couch if I kept her. Fortunately, for dogs like Goldens it is quite easy to find great homes through breed specific rescue societies, especially here in Austin (many thanks to Gold Ribbon Rescue).

petre 7y ago

In Bavaria if your dog barks more than 30 minutes per day, the neighbours can record it on video, call the police and you will get fined. At first I thought this is astupid law but after reading your story I changed my mind.

reddotX 7y ago
in Bulgaria people will poison your dogs
- rhacker 7y ago
  Oh you know that happens in everywhere right?
  - blub 7y ago
    Apparently not in the US, or not often enough to have an effect.
    - cgriswald 7y ago
      It happens here in the US, too[0]. The consequences, both criminal and civil, are generally not very severe. It may not be happening frequently enough to have an effect, or it may not be happening publicly enough to become a concern for owners. Plus, generally, the owners who are problems are already not very concerned about their dogs. [0] - https://gazette.com/news/colorado-springs-woman-pleads-guilty-after-trying-to-poison-neighbor/article_e6b0209e-a9c9-11e9-ac83-4f3cd9884b34.html https://gazette.com/news/colorado-springs-woman-pleads-guilt...
- dsego 7y ago
  I remember hearing about people putting sharp objects in food, like broken glass or blades.
- _0ffh 7y ago
  Same in Belize, I hear from J.McA.
  - slap 7y ago
    It's didn't go so well for the dog killer.
- petre 7y ago
  In most places without sensible regulation they'd poison the dog, which opens the slippery slope to escalation. Bavarian law prevents that.

rhacker 7y ago

This saddens me to hear this. I see in Zillow sooo many instances of a Yellow dot (sold, say 1/2018) then a red dot shows up as of 5/2018 and just sits on the market. The problem? the new neighbors. After analysis my wife and I have concluded, after seeing hundreds of homes (even with acreage) that neighbors are far far far the #1 reason a house goes for sale. It might be kids, dogs or music.

crooked-v 7y ago

...and now you know why nosy HOAs are so common even though people always talk about hating them.

AnthonyMouse 7y ago
It should be possible to have a simple rule requiring noise not to cross into a neighbor's residential property, without having a dedicated organization of busybodies collecting dues and micromanaging everything with a constantly changing set of restrictions.
- leetcrew 7y ago
  this is not very simple. sound doesn't just "stop" at a certain point; it dissipates until a specific sound can't be heard over the noise floor. the only realistic approach is to set a dB level that can't be exceeded for a sustained duration. this is how the law already works in most localities; it just isn't enforced unless you really nag the police.
  - AnthonyMouse 7y ago
    You can litigate everything forever if you want to be sufficiently pedantic, but that's missing the point. It's not that you don't at some point have to make a decision about how loud is too loud. It's that you can have a noise ordinance without giving anyone the capacity to compel anyone else to use a specific landscaping company or style.
    - leetcrew 7y ago
      > It's that you can have a noise ordinance without giving anyone the capacity to compel anyone else to use a specific landscaping company or style. of course you can, this is how the law already works in most relatively dense places! your original post seemed to imply that you weren't aware of noise ordinances outside of HOA bylaws, apologies if I misunderstood.
- tjalfi 7y ago

chroma 7y ago

Instead of moving, isn't it much less trouble to kill their dogs by throwing some poisoned food over the fence? That's what people usually do with noisy animals and asshole neighbors.

blub 7y ago
What happens if you get caught? The neighbor could also go berserk when finding out, I imagine there's not too many suspects.
- chroma 7y ago
  How could they know who did it? It could be any one of their neighbors, and most lots have 5 adjacent lots. In a place I used to live, there was a rooster that would constantly crow. Someone killed it. I wasn't involved but I'm certainly glad it happened. That rooster was driving the neighborhood insane. The police were useless in that situation. They never cared about noise complaints. Basically if the state doesn't take care of these problems, people will. And when they do, it's not pretty.
  - x220 7y ago
    That's why police exist in the first place (if you're not thinking too cynically about it). The main job of police is to reduce vigilante justice and mob violence. If the police don't shut up someone's dog, convict a blatant rapist, or punish a murderer, expect the people to take it into their own hands.
    - TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
      > convict ... punish The police shouldn't be, and aren't, tasked with, those things.

hunterloftis 7y ago

I had the very same experience and also sold my house because of it. The previous owners had sold it to me without disclosing the issue, but for the same reason (we disclosed it to our buyers). The part of the article that resonated with me most was the feeling of helplessness, of impotence, of being assaulted and being unable to do anything to defend yourself. I decided to sell the house when I started hating the dogs themselves. It wasn’t their fault, it was their awful owner, but after months of rough sleep in my guest bedroom (further away than the master) with earplugs in, I hated it all equally.

arpa 7y ago

Dogs... I can relate, but in the house it's not that bad. Heavy curtains/external blinds over windows usually are enough to filter out their barks, howls and whines. Now people with subwoofers - that's something much much much worse. You see high frequency filters well. Low frequency just goes straight through the walls and into your head and after hours of whomp whomp whomp you just want to go grab a canister of gasoline and burn the partying fuckers alive together with their whole sound setup from hell. I live in a picturesque area, so it's usually assholes in cars coming to enjoy the views with extra bass, and while noise complaints to the police has remedied the situation quite a bit, it still randomly occurs. I've learned to really welcome bad weather, because that most often means a peaceful evening without the impotent rage.

ehnto 7y ago

I live with an endless barking dog. It isn't mine, but it wakes me constantly. If there has been peace for a while and it barks, I can feel my entire body change "mode" to stressed. It is uncanny. Even if mentally it hasn't bothered me, my body still goes into battle mode.

sak5sk 7y ago
I have the same reaction (physical) to a screaming kid. It has made raising my baby incredibly difficult (especially the first year). Mentally, I understand that it's just a crying baby and that's what they do, but physically I was shutting down - body tensing, a surge of extremely stressful energy rushing through my body and ultimately being left unable to function. My wife thought I was nuts and was just faking it. I tried searching for a medical explanation but came up short. The closest I would describe it as something I hear chronic fatigue people say -- not having energy to get up, no matter their mental state. I would sit there, practically paralyzed by stress, or whatever that stress induced.
- johnchristopher 7y ago
  I don't know about the paralysis but I once read an internet fact that stated our brains are innately wired to react to babies and children's screams in order to ward off potential threats to our retirement plans.
  - germinalphrase 7y ago
    I believe it. I work in an environment that many people would consider stress inducing; I engage in amateur combat sports; however, when my six month old loses it, I absolutely get an immediate pulse raising stress reaction.
    - scandinavegan 7y ago
      I've read articles that say that when they stress-test fighter pilots by having them do cognitive test while wearing headphones with different sounds, they usually mix in infants crying. It's one of the most distracting things for a person to hear. For me, it wasn't when the kids started crying that was the most stressful, but when they wouldn't stop. You check their diapers, you check if they're hungry, you rock them gently, and even then sometimes they just wouldn't stop crying. After a while the noise would be so bad that I had to hand them off to my wife, and she did the same when she became too frustrated. Funnily enough, it made me immune to other kids crying. Before I had kids I would get very irritated at noisy kids or crying infants in the subway. Now, I'm just happy it's not my kids and that it's someone else's problem!

vonseel 7y ago

People like that should really not own dogs. Everyone wants to get a dog when it’s cute and adorable as a puppy then they move on in life and have kids and other responsibilities and the dog just becomes a burden. There are definitely good dog owners, but there’s a ton of people who just have them and don’t really do anything with them besides feed them - dogs need exercise. I’ll admit I surrendered the only dog I ever had after having her 6 years from when I was a college student until about 3 years after graduation. People usually think this is something to be ashamed of, but I knew the lifestyle I was living at the time was not good for an active dog (golden retriever). At that point in my life I was spending full days in an office and working out at the gym 1-2 hours per day, on top of sitting in traffic an hour or two, and I was moving into a one bedroom apartment after living in houses for most of the time I had a dog. I knew I would be subjecting the dog to a life of boredom and sleeping on the couch if I kept her. Fortunately, for dogs like Goldens it is quite easy to find great homes through breed specific rescue societies, especially here in Austin (many thanks to Gold Ribbon Rescue).