# Barking dogs nuisance!



## cyclequeen

Hi All, I'm sure this must have been spoken about before but is there any legal requirement to keep your barking dogs under control here in Spain? We have recently moved to a lovely house, after being in the town centre, & it's a much smaller town & very peaceful, well most of the time lol The problem is that over the last few nights someone out the back from us has decided to leave their dog outside day & night & it barks on & off all the time. This is very disturbing especially at night when it echos all around the estate, we can't be the only ones hearing this. It's not a new dog as I've heard it before on occasions but now it's just left outside to bark. Just wondered what the situation is as regards the laws before I speak to our landlord.


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## snikpoh

cyclequeen said:


> Hi All, I'm sure this must have been spoken about before but is there any legal requirement to keep your barking dogs under control here in Spain? We have recently moved to a lovely house, after being in the town centre, & it's a much smaller town & very peaceful, well most of the time lol The problem is that over the last few nights someone out the back from us has decided to leave their dog outside day & night & it barks on & off all the time. This is very disturbing especially at night when it echos all around the estate, we can't be the only ones hearing this. It's not a new dog as I've heard it before on occasions but now it's just left outside to bark. Just wondered what the situation is as regards the laws before I speak to our landlord.


Welcome to Spain .....


This is quite common - the Spanish seem to be oblivious to the noise!


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## David1979

Yeah, it's gotten to the point now where I think something is up if I actually get a quiet nights sleep!


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## mrypg9

I sleep alternate nights....first night kept awake by barking dogs, second night I fall asleep through sheer exhaustion. Then it starts again.
In our street every house has at least one dog. Most are out day and night. I think our two are the only ones who sleep indoors on beds all night. One dog starts, the others join in.
A German woman who has lived in Spain for forty years or more and should therefore be used to this kind of thing complained to the police recently about two Spaniels belonging to her neighbour. Result: they were given away to a Spanish guy who lives two doors down from us and he has recently added an Alsatian pup to his tribe.
I did think of ringing his bell at 3 a.m. to complain but then in all fairness I'd have to do that at every house and I'd probably be denounced myself for wandering around in the early hours half-dressed and causing multiple disturbances.
I honestly doubt there's much you can do about this.


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## Alcalaina

It's not illegal for dogs to bark at night, but if they are causing you problems you can denounce the owners. It will cost you a fee, and they will receive a visit from the police and possibly a fine. The procedures for making a denuncia are outlined here: Página oficial de la DGP-Denuncias Comisaría

However it's much better to go and talk to your neighbours, as they may not even be aware there's a problem. As others have said, barking dogs are just part of the landscape here.


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## zenkarma

snikpoh said:


> This is quite common - the Spanish seem to be oblivious to the noise!


Yep, that's Spain alright!

Instead of barking dogs, I get screeching/howling wild feral cats right outside my window! Several times I've looked out the window to see two wild cats having a cat fight, claws out, fur flying—it's not pretty!

The noise levels in Spain are unbelievable. Car/truck horns honking, dogs barking, cats screeching, seagulls screeching and the locals yapping away at the top of their voices.

It's just one of things you have to get used to really.


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## Alcalaina

It's official!

Spain-second-noisiest-country-in-the-world


Relatively peaceful where I am though, right on the edge of the village. There are dogs barking all the time but they are too far away to be a nuisance. Cockerels, frogs, donkeys, mules, owls, goats, nightingales and an old man who comes up the hill on an ancient moped at 8 o´clock every morning.


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## bridlington

We have just returned from 3 years living in Cyprus and it is just the same there. I think all med countries seem to be the same.


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## baldilocks

zenkarma said:


> Yep, that's Spain alright!
> 
> Instead of barking dogs, I get screeching/howling wild feral cats right outside my window! Several times I've looked out the window to see two wild cats having a cat fight, claws out, fur flying—it's not pretty!
> 
> The noise levels in Spain are unbelievable. Car/truck horns honking, dogs barking, cats screeching, seagulls screeching and the locals yapping away at the top of their voices.
> 
> It's just one of things you have to get used to really.


And when I have to get SWMBO to repeat what she says, I'm told to wear my hearing aids - she has got to be joking!


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## Maureen47

I found the same in the area we are moving to , when its quiet its silent and during the night its the dogs , but I am taking my two dogs with me and maybe they will live outside and more than likely they will bark at the wildlife at night but it is the campo , dogs everywhere and earplugs at the ready !


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## baldilocks

w.r.t. dogs - most Spaniards do not accept their living in the house - they should be outside, hence every little noise then they bark which is why most Spaniards who have a dog, keep one - as a burglar deterrent


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## cyclequeen

Ok so basically you are all saying the same thing just get used to it!! or buy some earplugs lol Actually as a footnote to this I did try to speak to this person, but they seem to live in fort knox & no way could I get to the front door. So I wrote them a note in Spanish & English & so far fingers crossed this dog has not been left out since!


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## Lynn R

cyclequeen said:


> Ok so basically you are all saying the same thing just get used to it!! or buy some earplugs lol Actually as a footnote to this I did try to speak to this person, but they seem to live in fort knox & no way could I get to the front door. So I wrote them a note in Spanish & English & so far fingers crossed this dog has not been left out since!


That's good. I must say, on the few occasions I've had cause to speak to any of my neighbours about some nuisance or other, it's always resulted in swift action to resolve whatever it was, and they still speak to me too!

Once a family with 3 teenage/pre-teen sons moved into the street and we were subjected to some anti-social behaviour for a while. I went to the house and spoke to their parents, their mother called the eldest boy on his mobile and ordered them home immediately. She asked the middle boy if it was true that they'd done what we'd said, and to his eternal credit, he fessed up. Each one got a clout round the head as they went into the house and we never had another minute's trouble from any of them.

One Sunday, the teenage son of another family who live 3 houses away brought a cockerel home. On the Monday, when the kids went to school and the parents to work, they left it outside on a windowsill, behind a wire screen! Needless to say it made a hell of a racket all morning long and was driving us mad. I waited for the mother to come home from work at lunchtime and spoke to her about it, I'd hardly got the words out of my mouth before she said she'd already told the children they couldn't keep it, and by that evening it was gone.


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## extranjero

Lynn R said:


> That's good. I must say, on the few occasions I've had cause to speak to any of my neighbours about some nuisance or other, it's always resulted in swift action to resolve whatever it was, and they still speak to me too!
> 
> Once a family with 3 teenage/pre-teen sons moved into the street and we were subjected to some anti-social behaviour for a while. I went to the house and spoke to their parents, their mother called the eldest boy on his mobile and ordered them home immediately. She asked the middle boy if it was true that they'd done what we'd said, and to his eternal credit, he fessed up. Each one got a clout round the head as they went into the house and we never had another minute's trouble from any of them.
> 
> One Sunday, the teenage son of another family who live 3 houses away brought a cockerel home. On the Monday, when the kids went to school and the parents to work, they left it outside on a windowsill, behind a wire screen! Needless to say it made a hell of a racket all morning long and was driving us mad. I waited for the mother to come home from work at lunchtime and spoke to her about it, I'd hardly got the words out of my mouth before she said she'd already told the children they couldn't keep it, and by that evening it was gone.


 Coq au vin for dinner that night?


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## Lynn R

extranjero said:


> Coq au vin for dinner that night?


Quite possibly, I didn't give a damn what it's fate was by that time, I'd happily have wrung it's neck myself!


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## mrypg9

Lynn R said:


> Quite possibly, I didn't give a damn what it's fate was by that time, I'd happily have wrung it's neck myself!


Exactly how I felt about our neighbour's cockerel.

Of late it has been silent....maybe it's now a Monty Python cockerel...


If it is, I had nothing to do with it.

Honest....

The power of thought


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## Alcalaina

Cock-fighting is alive and well here in Andalucia despite being illegal. I suspect coq au vin would have been a kinder fate.


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## baldilocks

This reminds me of the townies in Britain who move to rural parts then complain about the local cockerel, the clucking of the chickens, the mooing of the cows and the smell of the farmyard. It was all there before they were, if they didn't like it, they should never have moved there. 

We get excellent fresh eggs from the chickens local to our house that we hear clucking away and wonderfully fresh goats' cheese as well from the goats that we can smell.


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## jojo

baldilocks said:


> This reminds me of the townies in Britain who move to rural parts then complain about the local cockerel, the clucking of the chickens, the mooing of the cows and the smell of the farmyard. It was all there before they were, if they didn't like it, they should never have moved there.
> 
> We get excellent fresh eggs from the chickens local to our house that we hear clucking away and wonderfully fresh goats' cheese as well from the goats that we can smell.


Well our first house in Spain was great - apart from the house next door kept chicken (a small holding on an urb??). The cockerels went crowed all times of the day and night - which I quite liked and could live with, eventho they would then start neighbouring dogs barking. The worst bit was Sunday mornings. The owner would chase round to catch a few chicken, wring their necks or shoot em and load them on to a lorry to take to... wherever!!! That was shocking! We moved!

Jo xxx


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## scubamike

The dogs next door are creating as I write We have tried numerous times to sort the situation but they seem to think it is funny which does not help my blood pressure We have been told to turn the television up they are only little dogs and called us liars because their dogs don't bark The situation is intolerable if the property market was better we would move


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## mrypg9

baldilocks said:


> This reminds me of the townies in Britain who move to rural parts then complain about the local cockerel, the clucking of the chickens, the mooing of the cows and the smell of the farmyard. It was all there before they were, if they didn't like it, they should never have moved there.
> 
> We get excellent fresh eggs from the chickens local to our house that we hear clucking away and wonderfully fresh goats' cheese as well from the goats that we can smell.


For the first eighteen years of my life I endured crowing cockerels, clucking hens barking dogs and stinky goats. The ringing of church bells and chiming of the church clock was another feature of 'rural tranquility'.
I was surprised at how quiet North London was when I moved there.
We too get fresh eggs from our neighbour but as the noisy cockerel is a fairly recent addition we couldn't have known in advance when we moved in.
Not that it would have made any difference.

When it was decided that we should have chicken for dinner my grandmother would pick out a candidate for the oven and either she or my granddad would catch it and snap its neck. It would then be taken in, after hanging for a while, to be plucked, singed, dráwn and roasted.
I'm a carnivore but not that partial to whole chicken.


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## baldilocks

Here the _asador_ is a great place for Sunday lunch, especially in the summer when you really don't want to heat up the kitchen.


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## gus-lopez

In town , midnight to 7 or 8a.m. dogs must not be outside/barking. It's illegal. Any denuncia is normally followed up even out here on the outskirts of town.
Don't worry about dogs barking if you've ever had a peacock calling for a mate from February-august that lived in a tree at the front of our house. :lol:
It always used to be a problem for me in the UK but here I don't even notice peacocks screeching, donkeys braying , next doors horses neighing or kicking the stalls in ; or the sheep baaaaaaaaaaaing. dogs barking, not a problem ; unless they are mine That unhinges me , I just cannot stand it. I think they must be annoying the neighbours ! :rofl:


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## Lynn R

baldilocks said:


> This reminds me of the townies in Britain who move to rural parts then complain about the local cockerel, the clucking of the chickens, the mooing of the cows and the smell of the farmyard. It was all there before they were, if they didn't like it, they should never have moved there.
> 
> We get excellent fresh eggs from the chickens local to our house that we hear clucking away and wonderfully fresh goats' cheese as well from the goats that we can smell.


Except that I didn't move to rural parts, I moved into the middle of a very large town. Keeping livestock, including chickens, is prohibited by the local bye-laws, and where people do ignore the laws the animals are not kept in proper conditions. Do you think it was a good idea for a cockerel to be kept on a small windowsill in the hot sun, regardless of noise issue it caused for the neighbours?


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## Eubonian

I have been in Coin, Málaga for 9 years, having previously owned a holiday house in the town. I have lived in the campo outside Coín for 4 years and have been driven to despair by three sets of dogs near me that, between them, keep me awake at night and on edge during the day.

The dog ownes all use the same defence, being that they can't control their dogs when they get spooked by something and dog barking is part of campo life.

Absolute BOLLOCKS! They are stupid, selfish people who don't care for their dogs, don't give a damn about their neighbours and can't be bothered to do anything about the problem they are causing. They are just a few of my neighbours who have dogs - the others have well behaved dogs who are secure and happy, and ignore the insecure, fearful barking dogs who are leaderless in their family pack.

Your neghbours need to be told firmly but politely that there is a problem (some genuinely don't know, either because the barking goes on whe they're out during the day - or because they don't hear their dogs when they bark. 

If they are aware you (and your neighbours who don't want to complain) are being disturbed and they don't do anything about it, then you can speak to the police - informally at first, but make conact and elicit some sort of sympathy (don't be a complaining Brit).

It's still not easy and you still might not get any help but you can at least feel you are doing something about your suffering. You might alienate your neighbors but, really, if your they don't care enough to about you to address the problem, you haven't lost anything by raising the issue (in Spain, it might actually earn respect!!).

Oh, one last thing. ALL the problem neighbours are foreign: English, whose dogs bark at me when I open my gate or work on the land next to their house; German, whose dog barks from early night to early morning; and Austrian, who keep dogs in a compound that bark at anything and everything that passes.

It is possible (and necessary) to train dogs to behave well with humans, and it's a delight to come into contact with those who are trained. The problem is not the dogs; not the campo; not even the country. It's the selfish individuals who get hold of one or more dogs and think that that in itself is the end of their responsibility.


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## mrypg9

Eubonian said:


> I have been in Coin, Málaga for 9 years, having previously owned a holiday house in the town. I have lived in the campo outside Coín for 4 years and have been driven to despair by three sets of dogs near me that, between them, keep me awake at night and on edge during the day.
> 
> The dog ownes all use the same defence, being that they can't control their dogs when they get spooked by something and dog barking is part of campo life.
> 
> Absolute BOLLOCKS! They are stupid, selfish people who don't care for their dogs, don't give a damn about their neighbours and can't be bothered to do anything about the problem they are causing. They are just a few of my neighbours who have dogs - the others have well behaved dogs who are secure and happy, and ignore the insecure, fearful barking dogs who are leaderless in their family pack.
> 
> Your neghbours need to be told firmly but politely that there is a problem (some genuinely don't know, either because the barking goes on whe they're out during the day - or because they don't hear their dogs when they bark.
> 
> If they are aware you (and your neighbours who don't want to complain) are being disturbed and they don't do anything about it, then you can speak to the police - informally at first, but make conact and elicit some sort of sympathy (don't be a complaining Brit).
> 
> It's still not easy and you still might not get any help but you can at least feel you are doing something about your suffering. You might alienate your neighbors but, really, if your they don't care enough to about you to address the problem, you haven't lost anything by raising the issue (in Spain, it might actually earn respect!!).
> 
> Oh, one last thing. ALL the problem neighbours are foreign: English, whose dogs bark at me when I open my gate or work on the land next to their house; German, whose dog barks from early night to early morning; and Austrian, who keep dogs in a compound that bark at anything and everything that passes.
> 
> It is possible (and necessary) to train dogs to behave well with humans, and it's a delight to come into contact with those who are trained. The problem is not the dogs; not the campo; not even the country. It's the selfish individuals who get hold of one or more dogs and think that that in itself is the end of their responsibility.


All problems attributed to dogs are problems of their 'owners'.


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## Eubonian

? I thought this forum was for grown ups.


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## jimenato

Eubonian said:


> ? I thought this forum was for grown ups.


Has something changed your mind?


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## andrea1968

I don't think our neighbours are even aware their dogs bark at night because they all live in the equivalent of Fort Knox. The shutters go down and everyone sleeps soundly. The properties are well spread out and we are semi-rural, so I presume it is more for security than pleasure that they have the dogs as they all live outside. My two, a previously timid and extremely quiet border collie and shy bichon frise, have taken to joining in with the evening chorus. So the dogs have integrated a hell of a lot quicker than we have!!! It took a while to get used to but we have. Plus side is no-one complains about any noise, no matter who is making it nor what it is, celebrations at the homes around here are always rowdy affairs and can go on for days, the sound of laughter from happy, contented families, especially the children, is a joy to hear. Like it or not, the Spanish are loud and proud. I love it.


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## mrypg9

Eubonian said:


> ? I thought this forum was for grown ups.


We are all - inclusive. A glance through our threads shows we accommodáte all views, intelligence levels, standards of literacy and encompass all age groups. 
We are very tolerant


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## Pesky Wesky

I live on an urb on the outskirts of a large town. Immediately around me are houses, 2 mins out of the urb there is a road into the town (10 mins walking), a local road going to the nearby towns, some flats and fields with holm oaks and cows/ bulls. We are not in the middle of the country nor are we in an very urban area.
A lot of people have dogs, maybe one third. Out of those I'd say 90% - 95% are indoor dogs. In flats occasionally you'll get a dog left on the balcony all day and sometimes you'll get a dog left in the garden during the day, but due to the great hot/ cold temps we experience here it's not so common. Also it depends on the size. There are quite a few people who don't "tolerate" medium - small dogs and think that big is best. These are the dogs that might be left outside, but not exclusively. The other factor is that this is an area of leishmaniasis, a life threatening disease carried by mosquitos and vets advise owners to keep pets in at night as there are less mosquitos inside the house than out.
Therefore, there isn't too much of a problem of dogs barking at night as most are inside. However, if there is an unhappy dog outside the howling/ barking/ whining echoes down the streets and you'll hear it for miles. There was a dog a few years ago just across from me that howled or barked all day until it made itself hoarse. I was a coward and didn't do anything about it. I'm glad I didn't though as he calmed down (after about 10 months). I see him out for regular walks with his owners, and he seems happy enough, and I didn't make an enemy of the owners.

Just thought I'd give the info from another area of/ lifestyle in Spain.


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## mrypg9

Our rescue dog Xena is a barker. Big boy Azor is the strong and silent type, rarely barks. Both are indoors at night sleeping on soft beds - dogs need warmth and comfort just like human animals. We have managed to curb Xena's barking by taking her for walks, which we don't think ever happened in any of her previous 'homes' and giving her attention, cuddles and stimulation so sheis not bored. Azor doesn't like noise and makes clear his disapproval of her barking. She never barks at night but during the day goes to the gate and barks at the occasional passerby. We don't discourage this as she can look quite fierce.
Happy, contented dogs don't do anti-social behaviour.


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