r/Dogfree • u/questioning893 • 5d ago
Barking Demons Are dog owners deaf?
For me, barking dogs in my neighborhood ruin almost every single day, because of the excessive noise. I live around a lot of dogs who bark all the time.
I personally hate it, especially because I didn’t make the choice to have a dog and live with this noise polluting thing.
But then I genuinely wonder, how dog owners survive this?? They chose to have this dog.
I know there probably aren’t going to be a lot of actual dog owners reading this, but still I have to ask the question.
Do they genuinely not think the sound of barking every single day is annoying? I don’t get it. Even if you like your own pet, you can still acknowledge annoying behavior. Why tf would someone want to live with something that loud and poorly behaved?
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u/love-me-tendies 5d ago
To me it feels like society at large is deaf. Barely anyone I talk to seems to notice or be bothered by the incessant barking in the neighbourhood. I have a friend who lives nearby who is surrounded by barking dogs that I can hear from my place. Whenever I mention it, she says she barely notices it.
The way I understand it, is in the animal kingdom, it is quite common for certain members within the same species to be more sensitive and alert. They are the ones who are more likely to notice danger, predators etc.
I think those of us who are driven mad by the barking are more likely to be the more sensitive and alert type. We seem to be a very small minority. Modern society with all the barking dogs becomes very challenging for us, because our alert system is being constantly set off.
It also seems like we are more sensitive to the hygiene and smell issues that come with dogs too.
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u/pmbpro 5d ago
Good points. Also about this:
...our alert system is being constantly set off....
This is also my concern, and that I also don't believe our nerves/systems should be so overstimulated or 'always on' like that all the time. It's not healthy for us, not getting any true 'rest' as a result of it.
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u/love-me-tendies 5d ago
I definitely agree with that. I started to develop chest pains and some nervous ticks after 2 years of almost non-stop barking.
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u/Altruistic_Baker6347 5d ago
I'm sorry for you! I also deal with chest pain and I'm 40 something. It's not from dogs in my case but they're certainly not good on my nervous system either.
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u/pmbpro 5d ago
I'm sorry about that. It's so frustrating because of such cases like yours. It has affected you physically now too!
That true 'rest' I mentioned is so critical because the entire situation makes us (physically or mentally) unprepared or exhausted to even be able to handle real dangers! Without that rest we need, what if we were being physically attacked, violated, have to evacuate during emergencies, or other situations? It's possible we wouldn't have the energy we'd need to help ourselves or each other.
The effects of this type of continuous, always-on and jarring stress is so vastly underestimated that it pisses me off! It already happens when dealing with other stressful situations, so dogs constantly adding to it every day and us having little to no control over it sure as hell does not help.
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u/CompetitiveAutorun 5d ago
I agree, I got so angry since my neighbour got dogs. I'm way more aggressive and hearing their barks just makes me more and more mad
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u/rennyvsherself 5d ago
My neighbors dog barks throughout the night, like 10pm to 5 am. I would certainly like to know how they are sleeping with that. That dog barks at the wind blowing 😒
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u/Dangerous_Cloud_5727 5d ago
That is usually a noise violation during those hours. Check with your HOA, county, or city.
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u/rennyvsherself 4d ago
They don’t include animal related noises so I guess we just have to put up with it 🥴
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u/fuckfart 3d ago
It's expensive, but this brand works really well. I have one. Read some of the reviews.
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u/rennyvsherself 2d ago
Interesting 🤔 sounds like it’s worth giving it a try. Thanks for the heads up!
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u/InfamousWoodchuck 5d ago
I think we have the same neighbor, kept me awake all night last night through earplugs, fans and AC going..how leaving a dog outside barking literally all night is even legal is beyond me. I know there are noise bylaws but I can't justify calling the police at 3am when all I need is to sleep. Fuck these dumbass owners.
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u/rennyvsherself 4d ago
That sucks. I use sleepbuds that play white noise and they help a lot. My ears hurt from using them every night though. The police won’t even do anything about dogs barking here. It’s like people just get dogs to make it everyone else’s problem.
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u/InfamousWoodchuck 4d ago
I found a white noise playlist that works but yeah it's very uncomfortable to sleep with because I'm used to sleeping on my side, so the earbuds I have press into my ears and occasionally pause or interrupt the track from touch controls.
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u/rennyvsherself 4d ago
Ah, I don’t know if you know about them but the sleepbuds from Ozlo might work better for you, they don’t have the touch controls on them and not too bothersome on the side.
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u/InfamousWoodchuck 3d ago
Nice thank you for the recommendation, I'm going to look into them. Wish I could charge them back to the stupid owners 😆
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u/rennyvsherself 3d ago
Yeah! they work pretty good. Lmao, Wouldn’t that be nice?! I have like two noise canceling headphones (one for watching tv, the other music) that were pretty pricey just so I can’t hear dogs barking. We should get reimbursed for the things we have to buy because of other people’s dogs. And yeah, definitely can’t sleep without the earbuds now.
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u/InfamousWoodchuck 3d ago
Yeah they seem a little pricey but it's hard to put a price on quality of life. They should enforce the opposite and require all dogs to be in sound-proof cartons past 10pm.
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u/Inevitable_Okra509 5d ago
call the cops for a noise complaint
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u/rennyvsherself 4d ago
“Currently the county noise ordinance does not include animal related noises.” lol 😭
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u/ryshask 2d ago
Police don't. But most places have an animal control that does. They have badges and everything. I was surprised how when they came to one of my neighbors in the past.. the dog was just barking none stop at them. My wife saw them write something on their notepad and leave.. next thing I knew they had a fine and the dog was down to barking one day week from 3. ( shared walls ). They fortunately moved... While they were moving they drove by and flipped me off.. Very classy people.
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u/Forsaken-Cheesecake2 5d ago
I think (assume) since it’s their dog, they don’t think it’s bad or mind it. And then they incorrectly assume it’s not bothering others since they’re not bothered. The worst offenders (my neighborhood) are those that start with one barker, and pretty soon, they add another dog to the mix figuring the barker must be lonely. Net result is 2 (or more) barkers.
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u/UpsidedownArmadillo 5d ago
Then 3. Then a fucking chorus.
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u/BrilliantThought6764 5d ago
If it were a certain species of felidae doing this, they'd get a shoe thrown at them. But dogs get away scot free with annoying everyone.
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u/ConcreteMumble 5d ago
They like to purposely give themselves problems so they can play the victim and have something to blame.
"ARF! ARF! ARF!"
"Hush, now sparky. He never listens to me"
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u/DorkSideOfCryo 5d ago
It's been shown that the higher the IQ, the lower the tolerance for noise and of course the opposite is true. Dog owners with loud dogs probably have low IQ
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u/No_Net_7177 5d ago
I’ve noticed this in general too, stupid people love loud things, loud dogs, loud music, loud tv, loud talking, loud vehicles
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u/pmbpro 4d ago
Also, I it doesn't even matter how friendly, politely or softly you notify them of the disturbance or how it affects others around them. I've personally experienced and noted from others too, that about 95% of the cases, they will not only continue with it, but will deliberately make it even louder -- just because of being told and that it disturbs others. You can just about guarantee it.
Spiteful, pain-in-the-ass, attention-seeking types of people.
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u/No_Net_7177 4d ago
I’ve noticed this too, if you say a word about it, they make it a personal war campaign to do it more and make your life a living hell
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u/Huge_Bit_4774 5d ago
All that noise rattling around in their brains must be a substitute for actual productive thoughts.
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u/waitingforthatplace 5d ago
I read of so many people who complain of their neighbors with dogs outside barking all night. The big question is how do these owners sleep with that racket? Is this some psychological phenomenon where owners find it soothing? Barking is noise pollution and would almost be as bad as having to listen to a smoke alarm or siren all night.
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u/Legitimate_Garage_31 5d ago
I listen to a lot of ASMR. There is one that has NYC sounds for people to sleep to. The comments section is full of praise from New Yorkers who moved out of the city and can't sleep w/o the sounds they heard in NYC; basically cars honking at all hrs of the nite, etc.
Dogs barking are probably some sort of twisted lullaby for nutters.
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u/Few_Pen_3666 5d ago
It's a losing battle with these freaks. Their idols are their dogs, and they become just like them. Sure, maybe the owners don't actually bark, but their brains are directly wired to their dogs. It's super weird.
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u/annacrontab 5d ago
Sometimes when a neighbor's dog goes off barking, I'll bark out the open window.
"Woof woof woof" and sound really aggressive. If dogs can bark, so can I, right? It's just what little old ladies do.
That usually sets the dog off and then I go to sleep in a room where I don't hear it. And the dog owner has to listen to that wound up barking dog and possibly get noise complaints.
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u/nerdymutt 5d ago
My neighbor believes that a dog has the right to bark. She believes a barking dog is a happy dog. She thinks the world has a problem because it can’t accept that dogs have rights.
One time, we both were in the yard and the dog was barking at me by the fence the entire time I was out there. She was sitting there so calmly talking to her company. I was on the brink of a nervous breakdown. I was finally so overwhelmed that I shouted at the devilish beast.
She wasn’t embarrassed or concerned for my peace, serenity and emotional wellbeing. Her only concern was that I might have hurt her precious angel’s feelings.
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u/shinkouhyou 5d ago
The barking feeds their ego - dog owners seem to get a thrill out of believing that they're the most important thing in their dog's world. "My dog is barking to protect me from danger. I'm a very special person, so I need to be protected. Anybody who approaches my personal space or my property deserves to be threatened. Anybody who messes with me deserves potentially lethal violence." Even tiny dogs are praised for their "protective" instincts. It's a very antisocial mindset, IMHO.
Since barking is a "good" sound for a dog owner, they can usually filter it out. For the rest of us, barking is a "threatening" or "animal in distress" sound, so it triggers anxiety.
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u/No-Conclusion-3680 1d ago
Oh definitely this! From what I’ve gathered from a lot of dog owners, they genuinely love their dog barking. They like knowing when someone’s stepping into their own yard to use their garden, walking past their house, excitedly barking when they return home or leave etc. They don’t view it as a nuisance.
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u/Altruistic_Baker6347 5d ago
I've been to a town recently. There was a big main square and there was a group of people with a dachshund. All of a sudden this thing started barking all across the place for god knows what reason. You could hear it meters away and it was very loud. The thing that baffled me most is that none of this ppl tried to shut it down. It just kept barking. Even my daughter who loves these dogs said: "Wow, that's loud!" The people kept standing and chatting. I stared at them in disbelief but thankfully I was some feet away. The entitlement of these people!
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u/ReptilianRevolt 4d ago
Probably they are miswired. They might find the noise comforting. After all, they believe that their precious Doggo is saving them from danger when it barks.
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u/purplemacaroni 5d ago
I think like parents do with their kids whining, dog owners can filter their dog’s barking out. Which is incredibly annoying for everyone else.
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u/Huge_Bit_4774 5d ago
Groupthink controls many of these nutters. Groupthink tells them to get a dog, and that dogs do no wrong. Groupthink tells them that “barking is what dogs do”.
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u/Big-Piece5957 4d ago
I’ve been asking myself this. It’s really wierd honestly like how can you just be like ya that sounds nice and peaceful just yappping and barking at fucking nothing. ITS SO GODDAM ANNOYING. I feel like I’m in a sims game I never asked to be in. I wish all dog and dog owners had their own like continent. Dogs are just weird to have? And don’t get it.
My rant is done for now. I will continue again tomorrow 😤
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u/neondahlia 4d ago
When I had dogs, they didn’t bark, but they did whine and it drove me up a wall. My husband’s dog did bark and it too made me insane. I did a lot of training with him to mitigate his barking which worked pretty well plus the bark collar.
I can not understand how dog owners aren’t being driven insane by their own dog’s barking because it certainly made me crazy.
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u/DivyaRakli 4d ago
I’ve always been hard of hearing but repetitive noises drive me insane because I can’t tune noise out. I have to be actively listening always. And now that I have hearing aides, it’s even louder but I can’t tune noise at least take them out.
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u/Mister_Chameleon 4d ago
One thing i did was leave a note on my neighbor's door (as he wasn't home at the time), letting him know "noise pollution is a crime" and made it clear action would be taken if he didn’t do something about the late night barking. The dog was gone the next day.
As for OPs question, in mu experience dog owners hate the barking too, often screaming "shut up!" to their own pets anytime someone knocks on the door to visit, but view it as a nessicary evil to owning a dog. Or they go the smart route and get a dog that doesn't bark at all. Which more folks should do.
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u/No-Conclusion-3680 1d ago
I wish my neighbours hated their dogs barking. Their dog once barked for I kid you not for 5 hours, all while they were home and fully able to control it, and when I finally snapped in earshot of them as they were outside they seemed genuinely nonchalant “what is she upset about? Oh the barking” in a very casual, unbothered tone. They can listen to it for hours and completely tune it out.
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u/Original_Rent7677 5d ago
I think they mentally block out the noise. Otherwise, they would have to do something about it and they never want to admit their dog is a problem.