Not guilty
Posted on 04/26/2015 3:42:39 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Mike Landie says he doesn’t know what else to do.
He reached out to NBC 7 after, he says, he’s had to live with constant dog barking coming from his neighbor’s home for years now. He says he’s reached out to police, animal services and his homeowner’s association but the problem is still ongoing.
“At night, I’ve had the dogs wake me up at 11, 12, 3 and 5 a.m.,” said Landie, who lives in Otay Ranch.
His neighbor lives up a grassy hill from his home and when our NBC 7 camera was there, two or three dogs could be heard barking.
“We’ve gone through the routine of doing what you have to do to fix the problem. Nothing’s been fixed,” said Landie.
Landie says he reached out to the Chula Vista Police Department who referred him to the Chula Vista Animal Care Facility. He filed a complaint with the facility and ultimately received a letter from the city stating, “unless and until a second person who lives at a separate address within 100 feet of [neighbor’s address] submits a completed and signed Barking Dog Complaint Form, the City may not issue a barking dog citation to the dog owner.”
In the City of Chula Vista, dog owners may be issued citations if he or she violates municipal code section 6.24.040, Barking Dogs, Enforcement Procedure & Nuisance. It requires that two people who are disturbed by the barking dog and who resides in Chula Vista at separate addresses submit completed and signed complaint forms.
“Yes, [my neighbors] did from both sides of me. Both neighbors, signed complaints as well,” said Landie. NBC 7 spoke to one of Landie’s next door neighbors and he said he did submit a signed complaint.
City officials maintain they have one complaint. The letter goes on to state Chula Vista staff members have met with the dogs’ owner several times.
After our e-mails, Landie’s homeowner association said it will contact the dogs’ owner. NBC 7 reached out to the owner, but has not received a response.
Most areas of the county have laws to stop and prevent frequent or long continued noise, including from animals. Each jurisdiction has its own way of dealing with the issue. In San Diego, residents must contact the city’s Noise Abatement Office. Code enforcement officers respond to complaints, although there must be more than one formal complaint from different households before action by the City is taken.
If you are dealing with a dog barking problem, click here to see how your city handles complaints.
Not guilty
Exactly what I was going to post!
Otay, if you tay so.
He simply called the owner up, in the middle of the night and said, "Your dog is barking." And then he hung up.
He only had to repeat the process a couple of times.
Evidently, the guy would let his dog out and then he went back to bed and to sleep before retrieving the dog from the back yard.
Wookin Pa Nub.
“Issues”, too.
This is a serious problem, thinking, listening to music, watching a movie DVD, even phone conversations can become impossible.
I have noticed that in better neighborhoods dogs aren’t a problem, but in areas of more ignorant people, they seem oblivious to their dogs making constant, non-ending noise, and it goes on everyday, and forever, unlike a roofing crew, or someone jack hammering.
Get the dogs!!
But don’t you dare touch any illegal aliens with their obnoxious never ending blowers and weed eaters from 730 a.m. to dusk every day of the week.
I’m surprised I have not heard of some neighbor totally detonating on some of these illegals over this lunacy...
What did the article say?
You did read the article, right? ;)
It says the neighbor with the barking dog lives next door.
The city ordinance says that the second complaint must come from someone who also lives within 100 feet of the barking dog.
He could do what I did when the neighbors cranked up their music to rattle my windows. I went out and sighted in my mini-14 a few times.
Otay!
LOL
It's pronounced "oh-tie"
Bookmark
Everything is OK. They have "Raised it to the next level."
Barking dogs can generate noise levels upwards of 120 dB. Even if the walls of a house are insulated for noise reduction of -35dB, that is still an 85dB bark from inside the house.
During hours of darkness, when many people tend to sleep, their auditory perception becomes more acute. Sharp changes in noise levels are more sensitively perceived in these environments.
Kennel permits, depending upon state and county /authority having jurisdiction, are not uncommonly not permitted for parcels within 770ft to 1320ft of the nearest inhabited building where any person might sleep. The conditions vary considerably, but this also applies to enclosed kennel spaces.
The policies of 2 complaints prior to formal action isn’t uncommon.
Multiple interests arise. The dog owner might have good reason for the pet, such as local security or to alert the owner in unsafe situations. For solitary senior citizens, the pet might be a very valued interest in their family. The disturbed neighbor also has an interest to protect their privacy and right to pursue their own happiness on their property without the nuisance of the barking dog.
One solution is to try and determine the cause of the dog’s alerting and barking. Kennel designs are laid out to avoid exterior traffic from being visible to the dogs or surprising them when unavoidable in order to reduce alerts by the animals.
Training the animal is also helpful, and many of the solutions require the owner’s positive volition to reduce the nuisance.
There also are the ultrasonic freq dog fences, which are advertized to silence dogs, but they frequently require line of sight to the animal.
If the situation is problematic enough to keep neighbors from sleeping, then it isn’t unreasonable to address the issue with the neighboring dog owner, perhaps in a friendly fashion first. IMHO, it isn’t always easily resolved.
The policy
Might not matter.
Here is a quick study on sound transmission.
http://continuingeducation.construction.com/article.php?L=145&C=1141&P=2
Most dwellings are designed to reduce noise by about 35-60dB. If the dog is barking at say 110 dB, even in a luxury home with -55dB STC insulation, the remaining 55dB bark will be as loud as a loud conversation in the house.
If the dog is in your house, then say your avg -35dB insulation and the neighbors -35dB insulation could provide about -70dB reduction in the sound in most frequencied, leaving a 40dB residual, which is about the loudness of soft music.
It also should be noted that loudness is a perception, subjective to each individual. Many people are more sensitive to sound at different frequency spectrums during nighttime hours or when sleeping, so the actual sound pressure levels which are measurable might effect different people differently and even at different times of day and different ‘moods’.
Other techniques used to reduce the dog’s being alerted (cause of its bark) is to mask outside noise sensitive to the dog. White noise to the dog might reduce the barking.
Kennel operators have also noted that even the kennels themselves might cause hearing loss to dogs and their barking is sometimes an alert that their hearing is being damaged by other dogs barking. So yelling at a dog might actually cause it to bark more. Inversely, some dog trainers bark orders at a dog and train the animal not to behave with the bark when it alerts. Very situation dependent issues arise.
Sensitivity also effects the perception during nighttime hours. Some municipal codes require cessation of certain functions between 7pm and 6-8am, thereby reducing the exterior sound environment by 10 dB. Meanwhile, residential noises may increase in these times by 5dB due to occupants residing in their dwellings.
I once lived in a duplex. The neighbors upstairs left their dog behind for the weekend. It was non stop barking for 48 hours. I could not get a hold of the duplex owners. I really wanted to bust the door down to let the animal out.
In the middle of the night, I have been disturbed by dogs at 1/4 mile.
A number of years ago, the neighbor had a beagle that would run circles around my house and bay for hours at a time. I asked him politely to control the animal and after a few months, I went over to his place at 2AM (while the dog was up to its antics), beat on the door until he appeared wiping sleep from his eyes, and told him the next time it happened, I was going hunting.
The next day he had a metal slider line up with the dog tethered to it and it never happened again.
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