A rather unusual dispute between neighbours in Tilburg has resulted in a court ruling that two dogs are forbidden from having unlimited access to their owners’ back garden. Instead, the canines are only permitted to go outside between midday and 1pm, and 6pm and 7pm. 

Tilburg household take neighbours and their barking dogs to court

We’re all familiar with the feeling: you’re trying to have a lie-in on a Saturday morning, or are working from home and about to hop on an important work call, when all of a sudden the lovely peace and quiet is interrupted by a jarring and incessant noise. 

Whether that noise comes from traffic, construction work, or a rowdy rooster, it’s likely to get on your nerves. One household in Tilburg took their frustrations to the next level, however, after they became fed up with the noise made by their two four-legged neighbours. 

Tensions between neighbours in Tilburg arose as a result of one household’s dogs. The barking of the two White Swiss Shepherds was apparently so unbearable that the next-door neighbours took the pet owners to court in order to settle the dispute. 

Dogs can only be outside from 12pm to 1pm, and 6pm to 7pm

While the two households were initially friendly, things turned sour around five years ago and, according to the AD, had asked the local municipality to intervene on three separate occasions in 2019, as the “barking and aggressive behaviour of the dogs” was “driving them crazy.”

When this proved unsuccessful, the neighbours consulted an agency to measure the level of noise created by the two dogs. Data measured over the course of a three-week period in 2020 revealed that the barking could even be heard from inside the house, at a level of 50 to 60 decibels. Outside, the noise rose to 88 decibels, while the so-called “barking time” lasted for between 30 and 225 seconds per day. 

Armed with this information, the household took their neighbours (and their four-legged friends) to court, where a judge ruled that the two canines were now only permitted to be in the garden for a maximum of two hours per day: between 12pm and 1pm, and between 6pm and 7pm.

Thumb: Eudyptula via Shutterstock.com.