Help! I can't sleep!

[coquelicot]

...Because of our neighbors' dogs. All of the dogs I'm about to mention are outdoor dogs, never going inside. The neighbor immediately to our left has a dachshund/Rottweiler mix that is constantly chained outside and barks at every little thing, seems like. To the left of them, but facing the cross street, is a neighbor with 3 Rottweilers in a chain-link-fence yard. (They don't have much of a backyard, but have a generous side yard to compensate, thus the dogs can see everything that whizzes by on the street.) These dogs don't bark quite as much, but when they do, EVERYONE hears it. Across the street from them is a couple with three mixed-breed dogs in a chain-link-fence yard, two that are prone to barking. Any of these dogs bark loud enough to wake up DH and me from a dead sleep, and prevent us from going back to sleep.

Anyway, I have asked the immediate neighbor twice to get her dog to stop barking at night. She claims that the Rotties to her left typically get her started, which I KNOW isn't always the case. She has suggested getting a muzzle or putting her in their garage. Since it's hot in garages at night here in the summer, I didn't want to ask her to do that. Now that it's in the 60s and 70s overnight, I'm tempted to.

My question is--what can we do about getting these dogs to stop barking so much, especially overnight? Legally, there's not much we can do, since we don't live in any city limits and don't have a neighborhood association. Thus, no noise ordinance. The dogs aren't roaming free, so I can't get Animal Control involved. Does anyone know of any tricks they've used successfully to get other people's dogs to stop barking? (I've tried the "coins in a jar" thing, no luck.) What about those devices that claim to emit high-pitched waves to annoy the dog into stopping barking?

I'm desperate here. We can't go a week without being interrupted at least one night. I had to go sleep in another bedroom at the opposite end of our house last night to get away from the noise. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Peppy]

This is horrible! Unfortunately, I don't know how you can make them stop. And since you have a number of different neighbors with barking dogs, even if you get one set of dogs to stop, will it help you with the others?

My suggestions won't stop the dogs, but might help you with getting some sleep: earplugs and your other room. Have you tried using earplugs at all? Those can really work wonders. Also, you mentioned going into your other bedroom. I don't know if this is possible, and it does seem extreme, but would it be feasible to change the room you sleep in to this other bedroom? I'm sure that isn't an ideal solution, but if it is the only way you can get sleep, you might want to try it. :(

Perhaps others here have some solutions on how to work with the dogs and their owners, however. Good luck!

[coquelicot]

Peppy--I do have a set of earplugs, but they only seem to work if I put them in before I go to bed. If I don't put them in and get woken up, putting them in at that point does no good because I can still hear the dogs. And sometimes I put them in when I go to bed, but then they fall out in the middle of the night, and I can't find them because they're in the bed somewhere.

As for the other bedroom--we'd be giving up our master suite for something about the size of a standard bedroom (translation: crowded), also going from a queen-sized to a full-sized bed. We really don't want to do that if we can help it, especially since if we have a baby in a couple of years, that would become the nursery. If I'd known this nuisance was going to happen, I would have insisted that our house be flipped around when it was built so that our master suite was on the other side of where it is now. But we were here first, and had no idea these dogs were coming in. (sigh)

[Hello Kitty]

then they fall out in the middle of the night, and I can't find them because they're in the bed somewhere.
They make ones that come on a cord (http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/petrnereearp.html). They are a lot easier to lose that way. I am helpless without my industrial strength earplugs b/c DH snores, and we have a barking neighbor as well. I know that's masking the problem though, and I really hate being dependent on earplugs to sleep anywhere.

On the dog issue - I'm not sure what else you can do, besides try and talk to the seemingly uncooperative neighbors :( again. I keep thinking of something (noise ordinance, taking them inside) and reading your post, and it doesn't sound like there are very many options. Do you know anyone else on your block that is aggrivated enough to complain about the dogs too? Not like you'd gang up on the dog owners, but maybe more than one person would strengthen your cause.