Hi! I need to ask the davesgarden.com community for support.
We are creating an organic farm in Florida where people can eat, play, learn, work, fish, bird watch, swim, hammock rest.
Our plan is to be an agritourism destination with U pick fruits, starting with blueberries.
Our neighbors have broken the county noise ordinances with excessive dog barking most days in the past 17 months. The noise makes it impossible for us to host events, let alone maintain sanity.
The favor I ask of you is to read and comment on the attached blog post. The neighbors track this post. Would like to hear your experience and encouragement. I am happy to reciprocate the support and help your efforts to create peaceful places. My intention is to fight back the abusers with love, while using tools that work.
Things are not looking good for us, but failure is not an option. We could really use some support.
I appreciate your time and consideration and hope to welcome you to our beautiful farm soon.
Leela
Alachua FL
http://www.deepspringfarm.com/clark-barking-dogs/
Rural farm struggling with neighbors barking dogs
Bad neighbors are hell. You have certainly gone way beyond the expected efforts in your attempts to reason with your neighbors. Love won't do it; resort to the law.
Hmm. I'm assuming you live in a more rural part of Florida since you're on a farm? As a dog owner--although my breed, the basenji, doesn't bark--I've got to look at your neighbour's side of things, too: many dog owners move to the country specifically so their pets don't disturb neighbours. They have no control over who's going to move in next to them. Chances are the dogs will stop barking once they become accustomed to the changes in patterns on your side of the fence--dogs react to change, and they ARE doing their job ie. protecting their property.
However, start by being a good neighbour yourself: Be friendly, invite them over for a drink, offer them free organic produce, learn their dogs' names and offer them treats over the fence if the owner says it's ok. As the saying goes, you draw more bees with nectar than vinegar...