Must I live next to 16 Siberian Huskies?

You’re pre-complaining and you sound like a paranoid American. I’m sorry. I must sound like a snobby city person but hey, it’s a, “free country.” I believe he has the right to train his dogs on land that he’s purchasing. Maybe this will not last forever? Surely you could tolerate some new company. I’m just saying, give it a shot. And you know where the problem is, so why not invite him over for dinner and talk things over? I’m sure he’d do his best to keep them as quiet as possible.

I wish you the best anyhow, good luck, do the right thing and communicate with the man!

First, it was nice of him to drop by and talk to you.
Second, he probably would not have bought the property without making sure he was in a permissive zone.

Good news is that Huskies are generally not barkers, unless there’s a problem. They tend to “talk” quietly, which is something unique to the breed.

It may not be an issue for you.

I would suggest you change your mindset about it, to me it sounds like fun, I would like that outside my house.

Don’t worry so much about noise, you get used to it. I have lived some very noisy places, and eventually you filter it out and don’t even hear it anymore.

I know you are worried about property value and what not, but really it is just the luck of the draw. There are lots of things that can happen to increase or decrease property values.

You are just going to go with the flow on this one, it is in your best interest.

Think about the benefits too… How many people do you think will be planning to burgle your house, knowing there is a big pack of dogs close by.

You obviously care a lot about your property, but if he has legally purchased it fair and square, then really he should be allowed to do what he likes there. Just make sure nothing invades any land owned by you, or your property is directly affected.

It could be worse, he could be a crazy billionaire who plans on building a giant concrete cube on the land for the lolz.

It is possible that there won’t be so much of a noise issue. At the same time, that must be a really uncomfortable feeling that your main reason for living out there is looking like it might be compromised.

At least this gentleman introduced himself before moving in—that’s a great sign! Nobody does that sort of thing anymore. Perhaps he’s more open to discussing problems and solutions than many people would be.

Would it be possible to build a hedge along the property line? Something thick, fast-growing, and sound-cancelling (and, come to think of it, smell-cancelling too). That might help both you and your new neighbor might feel a little more comfortable.

Huskies don’t howl. Where did you get that from? It sounds like he’s trying to be a good neighbor.

Just a side thought… could there not be something done in the 400ft area in between the houses.

Maybe if you had some kind of sound cones on the trees, you could make it so the sound cant get past. It could be very cheap and permanent depending on the layout of the land.

Property owners are not allowed to turn their property into junkyards if it becomes an eyesore. Even if their junk is not an environmental hazard and poses no threat to the community

I’m saying he will create an ‘earsore’. Noise pollution is becoming a problem, and local governments are becoming more responsive to it.

There’s already a 100 feet of trees and underbrush so thick that it’s nearly impossible to walk through in the summer. That doesn’t attenuate the noise a bit.

Here’s one: http://www.siberian-huskies101.com/personality-of-a-siberian-husky.html
”...huskies typically don’t bark. Instead they talk to one another and their humans in a soft “woo woo woo” sound. They seem to have a language all their own and if more than one is present, howling sessions can be quite common.”

Huskies are good dogs, and make good family pets. But put 16 working dogs together living in a kennel, and they become a noise machine.

@Adirondackwannabe Huskies don’t howl.

I really hope that was sarcasm that went over my head.

I love dogs, but I don’t want 16 of them living next door to me.

I’m not sure why people are saying that these dogs won’t be noisy. They’re huskies… they will be noisy! But the guy has a right to buy property and to own these dogs. I agree that he probably did his homework and is just fine to have these dogs on this property. So, I would advise that you either find a way to live with it, or sell up and find a place that has not… yet… failed to meet your noise requirements. You can not control how your neighbours live.

Personally, I would make friends with the neighbour, and peace with the noise.

I’ve lived in AK and known many people who run sled teams.
They are very smart dogs, they determine their Alpha and work much more cooperatively and quietly than most human committees.

Be thankful your neighbor isn’t raising a pack of hunting hounds.

That would make any neighbor murderous.

@livelaughlove21 Huskies will have occasional howling sessions, but they’re not that common. And I think they sound amazing.

@Adirondackwannabe Wrong. They generally don’t bark much, but they howl more than many other breeds. In fact, it’s how most of them communicate with humans and other dogs. Howling is one of the major complaints of husky owners, especially if they have more than one husky.

Consult an attorney and the SPCA for guidance. Your neighbor does not have the right to make your life miserable or to abuse dogs.

@Adirondackwannabe I lived next door to a husky (in a city). He howled. They do that. I didn’t find it offensive, but I’m also not going to pretend that they are quiet dogs by nature.

@livelaughlove21 all dogs will go into mob-howl occasionally. But, if this is an experienced trainer, he will know how to cut it off and apparently he has a sense of “this might bother my neighbors” and he’ll be on top of cutting it short.

@glacial @livelaughlove21 Individual dogs yes. They’re pack animals after all. Groups of huskies don’t howl as much. They communicate with each other.

@Adirondackwannabe…yes, by howling. This is how they communicate in packs. Howling, and that “woo woo woo” sound, which I’d also consider howling.

However, @Blueroses is correct in that a good trainer knows how to control this.

This may or may not be contributory to the conversation… but aren’t Huskies also notorious fence-jumpers?

Oh, man, I feel for you. I used to live next door to just one dog, who barked non-stop any time he was outside (which was often). It was awful and made enjoying our outdoor space impossible – and indoors wasn’t too great, either.

I’m not sure of the legalities in your situation, but I would be upset about it, too. Depending on the noise laws in your area, you may or may not have some recourse if and when noise becomes a problem.

Thank you all for your responses, even though most of them weren’t what I wanted to hear! You might enjoy the back story. Call it irony, or call it karma.

My wife and I have owned a dog boarding kennel at another location for 33 years; we still operate it. It was an existing business kennel that we bought, so it’s been there a long time. Every few years, a neighbor gets fed up about the noise and makes complaints to any government agency that will listen. Then we get visits from the building department, health department, humane society, sheriff, fire department, fire marshall, and L&I. It doesn’t matter that the complainer told fibs or exaggerated, we get visited. The funny part is that we get new customers from some of the government ‘inspectors’!

During one extra difficult series of complaints, we were told that the noise couldn’t exceed X number of dBs, A weighted, at the property line. So I got a sound level meter and proceeded to monitor the noise level. The kennel employees who were yelling at the dogs to ‘knock it off’ were making louder sounds than the dogs barking!

One of the reasons we bought this 5 acres was so that I could get away from the barking dogs. After 10 years of living there, I just couldn’t tolerate the barking dogs day after day. If I was out in the kennel doing maintenance, I would wear earplugs and earmuffs both. Some days the noise just plain physically hurt.

So now, I will become the complaining neighbor.

Most communities have laws regarding what you can and can’t do on your own property. Maintaining a kennel, a large number of dogs and a racetrack would not be allowed with out a special permit.

OMG! Tons of furry friends. I’d love it.

I’m a city girl. There is so much noise I don’t even hear it, but silence is deafening.

No one is entitled to quietude. So funny. You think pieces of paper and the social contract give a piece of earth to you. No one owns the land and you have no claim to silence.

Why didn’t you ask him questions while he was there? You lost the one and only opportunity to have any influence on the matter. Now you will just be the annoying neighbor.

If the zoning permits it, I would say you have no recourse. I am of the school that huskies can be just as noisy as any other pack of dogs, 16 is a pack. If they go off, by the time the owner got down to them, if he bothered, there would be plent of noise no matter how well they are trained. You know that, you own a kennel! I would immediately start planting trees on the property line between you. Plant quick growing pines and plant them densely. I did that around my kennel and never had any complaints. And there were times when I would have 100 or more dogs and it did indeed get noisy. I was on about 7 acres and built the kennel building as far as possible from the common property lines. I was on the edge of a state park so didn’t have to worry about that side. Sorry for you mate.

I think if you really think it’s going to bother you, then maybe you should think about selling. But seriously I think you should think about giving it a chance, maybe it won’t be as bad as you think, and maybe it will. It’s hard to tell the future but when I really think about it myself I have to think about the fact that you are talking about a pack of the most wolf like dogs living near you in a secluded wooded area..I don’t see how much more like nature you can get! :/ Sometimes nature isn’t quiet. Do you ever get mad at the birds? That’s a serious question…sometimes I do lol

Just imagine your house were to be plunked right in the middle of Yellowstone National Park near the wolves den.

~If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

“The magazine “Scientific American” corroborated the technical aspect of this question, while leaving out the philosophic side, a year later when they asked the question slightly reworded, “If a tree were to fall on an uninhabited island, would there be any sound?” And gave a more technical answer, “Sound is vibration, transmitted to our senses through the mechanism of the ear, and recognized as sound only at our nerve centers. The falling of the tree or any other disturbance will produce vibration of the air. If there be no ears to hear, there will be no sound.”

Maybe you will have to cut off your ears. =-O

Karma, definitely Karma.

And, like “they” say: Karmas’ a Bitch.

Whoops! There goes the neighborhood. ;-)
I get it. When you live in a dead quiet area sound travels long distances. A constantly barking dog can be really annoying even if it is >400 ft from your house.
Now you know how your neighbors must feel.
Do your dogs get quiet if you make a loud noise (like a gun shot into the ground)? That might work.

Adirondackwannabe, I live in Alaska and tho’ I don’t live beside any kennels, do live in an area where there are many, many kennels. Siberian Huskies do howl, as some have noted, but it sounds like you have an owner who wants to do right by you. Most dog yards (and I’ve visited some with over 60+ dogs) are nosiest at feeding time and when the owners go out to work with the dogs. With only sixteen dogs, the owner may have good control over the noise levels, so hopefully, once you get used to the usual husky singing session—can you tell I find their howls amazing—you won’t find yourself too put out. I’ve found regular dogs, as opposed to Siberian huskies, to be far more noisy with sharper, louder barks, so having huskies next door may be a break for your ears. Heck, get to know your new neighbors and maybe they’ll teach you how to mush a team and then you won’t care how noisy it gets cos you’ll be sharing the excitement of the dogs. No, I don’t mush, but have driven a dog team.

We’ll trade. You can have my place. I want a neighbor that cool!

Reading your back story, I can certainly see why you were upset at the prospect. All I can suggest – and it isn’t much help – is that you wait and see how bad it actually is. I was very upset two years ago when the treed lot next to me was sold for a new house that was built cheek by jowl to mine. Turns out the people who bought are a couple with no kids who are only here in the summer. While I’d much prefer the view of a treed lot rather thanmini-McMansion, it has not played out as badly as I thought. Since the guy did come over to talk to you, maybe he can work with you on keeping the dogs quiet at night.

Good luck and give us an update when you can.

I think you should write the guy a letter, especially if you are concerned that his visit was your “public notice”. Something along the lines of…

“Dear…,

I am so appreciative of your visit last week. I have been thinking it over and perhaps I missed an opportunity to tell you how nervous I am to live next to a pack of huskies. You see, my wife and I moved here to escape the noise of my kennel. I was surrounded by so much animal noise for so long that I have developed quite a fear of animal noise near my current home. I hope that I was polite and friendly to you, but since we met I have been anxious about this upcoming change.

I talked to some friends of mine and have decided to let my fear go and welcome you as the friendly neighbor I want to be. I hope we can have many years of neighborly bliss (and look forward to sharing some animal training stories over BBQ in the warm weather!) and I am confident that you will be as open to any of my possible neighborly concerns as I will be to yours.

Sincerely,
Me”

I think you should wait and see before you start to panic. He sounds like a reasonable chap and hopefully he doesn’t want to become the annoying neighbour so will do his best not to piss anyone. I believe that this man and his dogs have as much right to live in the area as you do and, hopefully, he knows what he is and isn’t allowed to do/keep on the land that he has bought. If this is the case then you will probably just have to suck it up but if you do feel that there is an unreasonable amount of noise coming from his land then you should complain to the local authorities and if they feel that there is cause for complaint they will do something about it.

It would drive me nutz and I’m a dog mom, but it is a free country and you could have purchased another 100 acres if you were that opposed to noisy neighbors. Buy ear plugs.

Did he move in? Update please. :-)

Curious to know if you are as miserable as you first thought you would be…

Oh man! I’m so sorry. Anything over two dogs is a pack and that can be dangerous, plus they’re more closely related to wolves than most dogs.

As everyone else said, this was asked in May. Do you have an update for us?