How To Report A Barking Dog and Still Remain Civil With Neighbors

I’ve tried everything ?!!  The dog still barks excessively in my HOA!

If you’ve tried all of the proactive approaches to curb dog barking (read our blog post 10 Tips to Stop Barking Dogs), and feel the need to take action, we suggest following the steps below:

 

Suggested Steps to Reporting Dog Barking Nuisance in your HOA:

1) Contact the Dog Owner: You may have done this already if you took the advice of our last “barking dog” blog post, but if you haven’t done so yet, the courteous thing to do is talk to the owner first. Share with them tips to curb dog barking. Discussing calmly with your neighbor can be the fastest and most effective way to handle the situation. Many owners tell animal control that they wished someone had talked to them first before calling in a complaint. If you are hesitant about speaking with the neighbor, animal control suggests leaving them a note on their door with your phone number to discuss the problem.

2) Contact the Homeowners Association: Well, speaking to the neighbor didn’t work. Time to contact the HOA to intervene. The association may have a nuisance provision in its documents or a rule prohibiting dog barking. If it does, the HOA can send a warning letter, notifying the owner of the problem. If the dog owner fails to comply with the letter, and the HOA CC&R’s have a nuisance provision, the owner now can be fined for the violation of it’s CC&R’s after the notice has been sent and an opportunity to be heard is given to the owner.

3) Lastly, contact your City/Town Animal Control: Some homeowners and/or associations have contacted the town animal control or code enforcement to have dog-barking conflicts resolved through mediation programs. For very extreme cases, or repeated problems with several attempts to mediate, owners and associations have called the police.