i kind of missed this one so hopefully not to late...
i had this situation about 3 months ago. someone in my street complained about my dog barking. the first i heard was when i received a letter from council.
so i rang council to sort it out. (redlands shire) they said to me that the dog must bark for more than 6 minutes to be considered a nuisance.
i said ok. and went about making sure my dog didn't bark.
1. i covered the front door sidelight so he didn't bark at people walking there dogs.
2. i got the dog inside after 4.30pm and fed him then let him back out after 7pm. (most barking was between 5 and 7 the letter said)
3. i went outside regularly to scare off the neighbours cats.
4. the family went anmd got him if he barked during the day.
2 weeks later. i got another letter from council with another complaint.
so i rang council again. explained to them that i had done the above to see off the barking and thought the complaint was excessive.
i told council that my dog barked when,
1. people walked past with their dogs,
2. cats were in my front yard
3. when the neighbours hose gardens.
councils response was
1. i should train my dog to desensetise him when people walk past
2. cats are not allowed off their property and shouldn't be in your yard so they can deal with that.
3. people are not allowed to water during the day so they can also dea lwith that.
so they offered to bring around a cat trap to deal with item 2. i agreed and the council officer arrived with a cat trap. when we pointed to where to put the trap there was a cat already there. so the officer picked up the cat and slapped a $350 fine on the owner. while the officer was looking for the owners of the cat they also did a interview of all the neightbours. the response was that my dog is never heard. so things were looking good for me.
unfortunately the fine that started a neighbourhood war.
i then left the cat trap in the yard for a few days. i got approached by some angry cat lovers from up the street. they abused me and so on.
i explained that i had received letters from council, that my hands were tied and that the cats coming into my yard were causing issues. i then let them know that i would systematically remove all cats via the trap until the roaming cats were gone.
anyways. cut a long story short. 3 cats later and the council sent me a third letter to say the complaint had been dropped.
alls fair in love and war. [}:)]
mytchook said...Thanks heaps everyone
I have spoken to the Council again today as none of my other neighbours have found his barking excessive. The Council are going to investigate as to whether or not the Old Farts that are complaining are just doing this to cause trouble.
I went out and came home periodically throughout the day and I didn't hear a thing. I haven't spoken to a Solicitor yet but I will be on Thursday.
There is one guy who lives right next door and he is a shift worker. He sleeps during the day and has said that he has NEVER heard either one of my dogs bark (unless there is someone walking by with another dog), he said that he will write a stat. dec. for me to give to the council to prove this.
Thanks heaps for all of the words of encouragement.
Hopefully Bear is staying with us where he belongs!!!
