The neighbor's dog has been barking for 1/2 an hour straight. Don't think that anyone is home. What should I do?

Well…if you don’t have any contact numbers for them, not much you can do. Is the dog outside? If so you can toss him some food or something to divert him, but otherwise….uh, guess you just have to deal with it.

ear plugs

Turn up the TV or radio—loud

This sounds awful, but I typically end up yelling “Shut up!!!” over the fence at a neighbor’s dog. I also know the dog’s name, so my next-door neighbors and I are frequently yelling, Shut up, Chief!” It usually works. For a while anyway.

Gun, meet dog. Dog, meet gun.

When the owners get home let them know that the dog barked all day.
When we first got our dog some 15 years ago, my dog barked all day when I was gone but no one told me. The way I found out was when the homeowners association sent me a letter, and then published that they had sent me a letter in the minuets that went out to the entire community. Needless to say I was pretty pissed at the neighbor that didn’t bother to tell me and just went over my head. Not only was I embarrassed, I was sad that my dog was so distressed all day and I didn’t know it.

You could always try a passive-aggressive note

Perhaps there is something alarming the dog, if it is not an habitual barker. Can you go over, investigate without actually trespassing, and leave a concerned note on the front door?

Unlikely, but what if the owner just had a heart attack?

Dogs behaving in an aberrant fashion may be trying to tell you something rather than simply annoying you. If my neighbor’s burglar alarm were ringing for over half an hour, I’d investigate.

If this happened near me, I’d call the non-emergency police number. Tell them the dog’s been barking for a half hour straight, no one appears to be home and that I’m not willing to listen to it any longer. We have a noise ordinance, so the neighbor’s would get a warning the first time & a ticket the next. Hopefully there wouldn’t be a next time ;)

The dog stopped barking.

Move.

Called animal control and they’re coming out. It started back up. My one neighbor said that it was barking all morning. He said that it’s under a year.

What kind of a dog is it? Westies are famous for barking continuously. One time my neighbor’s Westie was barking at me nonstop for more than an hour while I was doing some concrete block work on my barn about 20 feet from the property line. Finally I couldn’t stand it any more so I went inside got my S&W .38 special with +P rounds and walked right up to the dog. I fired the the gun straight down into the mud when I was about 1 meter away. With that ammo the noise is deafening. That dog did not miss a beat! It just continued to bark at the same rate as if it did not hear a thing! It was incredible! I told my neighbor about it and he laughed. “We can’t get him to shut up either.”
Good thing for the dog that my neighbor and I are friends – and that we don’t live right on top of each other. .

Problem solved. I’m not normally one to call, but this was nuts. I guess that it goes on often when I’m not home, according to the neighbors across the street.

(Kids get off of my lawn!! haha)

So what happened? Did animal control talk to them? Were they fined?

They talked to the girl, yes. She was asleep.

Totally rude behavior by the owner, I would keep bugging them or leaving notes or something until things change.

How does anyone sleep through their dog barking?
When I first got my dog she barked the second she walked out the door and would not quit. She would run from me as I tried to get her in the house to shut her up. I can’t stand a non-stop barking dog. If it’s to alert me about something, then that’s okay. I ended up squirting her with the hose every time she barked and said firmly “no”. She quit after the third day. She still barks if someone walks in front of the house, but only as an alert.

@chyna Basically, she doesn’t give a shit.

Some dog owners suck.

Must be a sound sleeper if she didn’t hear her own dog.

Where I live the houses are very close and I have 2 dogs that go outside and bark. I make sure (or try) that it doesn’t happen after 9pm or before 9am. And I don’t let them go on and on. Usually they stop after a bit. If it goes further, I call them back in. But never goes more than, maybe 5 minutes. Behind me a dog does go on for half hour or so, but he is rarely out back and it only happens during the day-usually when me or a neighbor are in our own yards.

I know dogs bark and I’ve asked my neighbors to be sure they don’t overly bother them. So far so good, been there 13 years.