Why are THAIS totally oblivious to barking dogs?

[gp2002]

Can anyone answer this for me? Does it NOT bother them?

The people across the street from me have three dogs that bark at ANYTHING 24 hours a day!! It could be a plane flying overhead, a leaf falling off the tree, the wind blowing...........ANYTHING!

The owners do NOTHING about it. When they are at home, the dogs bark continuously and they never come out of the house to get them to stop. I have asked them nicely if there is something they can do and they just 'blew me off'. I had a friend translate a request into Thai and taped it to their gate......still nothing. I spoke to my landlord who in turn spoke to the person in charge of the village.......nothing. I spoke to one of my neighbors and asked her if the barking bothered her and she said YES, yet she refuses to do anything about it.

I own a dog myself and any time he starts to bark at the mailman or meter reader I immediately get him to stop. I keep him in the house when I go out and overnight as well.

Does anyone have a similar problem and if so, what do you do about it?

Cheers

[Costas2008]

My fellow sufferer, I feel so much for you.

I've got a lot of dogs around me, barking and howling all day and night.

Sometimes, nasty ideas come to my mind..........

Not clear if it is about the dogs or the neighbours

Also spoken to them many times, nothing happened.

We are heroes, we are sufferers, hope others never experience this nightmare.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Costas2008

[Beechboy]

Thais just don't notice it, rather as with a floater in the eye, the brain is able to dismiss the intrusion.

The reason is they are used to it is that they were brought up to consider it part of the background to everyday life. We are not and are therefore disturbed more by it.

"Dog? What dog?"

"The one that has been barking incessantly whilst we have been eating our meal."

"Oh yea."

When I am back in England I like to cycle the country lanes and it is silent. Or is it? Because of the lack of any other noise I am now aware of the fact that there is hardly a minute goes by without the sound of an aeroplane humming away high in the sky.

It is distracting for me to a limited extent because I have become aware of it. No doubt this background is there for all the other things I do in the day but I fail to notice it as my brain has obliterated it so to speak.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Beechboy

[Morakot]

Different cultures, different ideas about noise pollution...

Can be a quite annoying at times though.

[adam1]

This is a very tough one.

I am not sure there is much you can do.

The only hope is that the Thais develop their awareness and adapt their social habits. Social behaviour here is generally very well-established and hard to change as you have probably noticed (I am not passing judgment here). Also, often the default tendency is to ignore anything that threatens the sabai of daily routine, especially if it might mean anything involving admitting a mistake/being inconvenienced etc. This probably sums up my own attitude too

That said, there are some super Thais who are flexible and considerate enough to meet-up and find a mutually agreeable way forwards.

I have seen some positive moves in the last 10 years - the Thais have improved their driving; cycling is now considered ok and not a sign of low class; some are now even aware of where they talk on the their phone and how loud it is for others.

I can only emphasise with you and wish you good luck.

[MrWorldwide]

I find Thai people - or at least Isaan people - to be very tolerant of ANY loud noise. They can have a speaker absolutely blaring a couple of feet from their eardrums and still seem unfazed and most of us know how insanely loud many of the nightclubs that cater to Thais are. Totally agree re the dogs though - annoying as hell - but many dog owners seem oblivious to their own mutts barking and can get nasty if you tell them its definitely their dog. If only the problem was restricted to Thailand - IME, its not.

[frimu]

Beechboy made a point.

I grew up next to a lawn with cows, sometimes with bells, and further in the back a train line. I didn't notice those noises anymore.

Could well be the same with barking dogs for Thais.

[garyinhuahin]

What dogs?

[jinners]

Its not just Thais either. I lived in Italy and Spain (amongst other places) and found people there tune the offending racket out, as the Thais are doing. I've also seen UK folks do the same thing. Trying to have a conversation, while the TV is on and there's a dog barking. Bad news but it doesn't bother them, so its your problem.

[Rockhound]

I had that problem - the neighbours had 4 little yappy dogs who kicked off at any excuse. Especially at night. I was seriously thinking of poisoning the little bastards. Fortunately the family left after a couple of years. there used to be lots of cars/bikes parked outside the house some nights and we reckoned there were card games going on and the dogs were the lookouts.

If it happened again I would get a ultrasonic generator to drive them completely crazy.

[masuk]

It's all a matter of training - of the owners!

I was recently living in Suthep, Chiang Mai, and the guy behind me had ten (10!) dogs.

Yet they hardly barked at all. Just once each evening they'd have a joint howl along with every other dog in the neighbourhood, and that was it.

It was totally different from my time in Maejo, where an academic person had 3 dogs who barked at anything that moved, night and day. Requests to control the dogs was met with the suggestion that I return to Australia!

[rgs2001uk]

I can assure you Thais are not oblivious to barking dogs and in some cases are just as pissed off about it as you.

Your problem was pointing out the fact you have a problem with the dogs to the owner.

You have now left yourself open to having fingers pointed at you.

The Thais will say nothing that will draw attention to them, they will take care of the problem Thai style, and no one will be any the wiser as to who did what.

[venturalaw]

I have a friend who lived next door (not in Thailand) to an owner of a dog that would bark all day long. The neighbor worked a night shift and slept during the day. My friend recorded the dog barking and put loud speakers up in his windows facing the neighbor's bedroom and played the recording of the neighbor's dog during the day. The neighbor was at my friend's door when he came home from work complaining about my friend's dog. My friend told him that he didn't have a dog - that it was his (the neighbor's dog). Problem solved. Wish it could be so easy here.

[Sydebolle]

Invoke plan Z. This is using massive ground pepper. Get yourself a 20kgs sack of pepper, ground it/get it ground, and distribute it everywhere.
They will disappear, no longer shitting/pissing on everything, unrigging flowers and barking all night. It's work, yeah but it eventually solves the problem.
In the past we could report to the municipality and they came around to collect them but since nobody knew/knows where the dogs end up we stopped that.
Alternatively move to Laos or Vietnam; there is no barking over those little soup stalls I hear ;-)

[LawrenceN]

We live in a quiet area outside Chiang Mai. Shortly after we moved in three years ago, the five dogs next door barked for about ten minutes one morning around 3am. I know the wife would never forgive me if I "confronted" the neighbors; that's just not the Thai way. So the next morning, I expressed my concern to my (Thai) neighbor. I asked him if he and his family are OK. He looked at me, obviously confused, and I said, "Oh, I thought you were being invaded by burglars, the way the dogs were barking at 3am." He got the hint. The dogs still bark in the middle of the night sometimes, but he's out there in a minute or two telling them to shut up or putting them in their kennel.

You might try this, but might not get the same results. My neighbor is a really nice guy who tries to get along with people. We play golf together, and stay on friendly terms. If your neighbor is a jerk, I don't know what to tell you.

[jko]

It's part of of the 'Amazing' syndrome, and it never fails to mystify farangs.

It's not easy to ignore extraneous Thai noises, but it can be done.

The problem comes when you listen to it - it's like concentrating on a pain. It only amplifies the discomfort, and makes things much worse - including your sense of outrage - why can they not be QUIET!

Living in Thailand with boom-boom-bass-beats, screeching whistles, and assorted decibels of high intensity is not easy, but it's all a part of just being here.

if you can do nothing to solve a noise problem, you simply have to learn to live with it.

Very difficult, but no other way, unless you move to another location. Be thankful at least they don't blow their car horns every few seconds.

Golly - try living in India sahib!

[DeeMockMark]

I have gotten so used to it that I that most times notice when the dogs are barking or not. At least until my Thai wife tells me that she is going crazy because the dogs won't quit barking. Then I consciously notice that they are barking and get annoyed and pretty soon forget again. Either adapt or move. I am happy to say that I am moving. One of the things I am looking for in my new place are a lack of barking dogs.

[laislica]

About six years ago I became single again in Spain. I moved into a rented condo with a large square surrounded by our condos.

The first night was frightful. Noise like I could never have imagined.

Kids squabbling, screaming, loud music, TVs, couples yelling at each other, goings on in various kitchen debating the spices, grinding the coffee, then the guy with the electric happier drill...... Not to mention street noise as yo boss came home all through the night singing and yelling at each other. It was hell but you could hardly hear the dogs.

Well in the morning, I decided that that fact that I could hear all this was simply the fact that I was not dead and that I should ignore it, and I did.

It proved to be a good move, mind over matter because in our Moo Ban, there are combinations of happy and howling dogs and I did notice them but I remembered my Spanish experience and turned my sensitivity down, they don't bother me now.

There are actual techniques that you can use to help you disregard things like intermittent noise.

May I suggest that you have a look at www.mercola.com

Search for a technique called Tapping, it may have the initials EFT or something like that.

Please remember that what you resist will persist.

The more you let it bother you the less power you will have to overcome it.

Good luck.

You can do it I'm sure.

We are made of strong stuff us Farang LOL

I checked, the technique is EFT, go for it.

I used the technique to rid my self of the pain of shingles last year, only needed to do it once, the mind is a powerful tool,

Use it well.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Edited July 7, 2014 by laislica

[gp2002]

When I first moved in last year, they only had one dog. It was so quiet I didn't even know they had a dog. Then they added a little yappy one that would not shut up, so once it started barking, the other one would bark. Then they decided to get a third which literally barks at anything. So once he gets going, the other two join in.

It's kind of hard to block it out when I can't even hear the TV that's 10 feet away.

The sad thing, for the dogs, is that the people do not spend any time with them. I've seen them walk the newest dog ONCE. They sit in the house and the dogs are outside 24 hours a day. Probably why they bark because they want attention.

As I mentioned.......I own a dog so there is no way I would do anything to harm them.

[kevozman1]

Oversensitive westerners, back to suburbansville farangland please.

[laislica]

Oversensitive westerners, back to suburbansville farangland please.

so you really think that it's better somewhere else?

Intermittent noise is very hard to exclude, but it can be done.

Say where you live so I can arrange for you to experience the problem first hand?

Where's you're compassion?

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[gp2002]

Oversensitive westerners, back to suburbansville farangland please.

Thanks so much for your witty reply.

Next time you think about replying to a post..............PLEASE don't.

[petertucker48]

The same way 7Eleven staff are oblivious to irritating noise ever time the door opens !!!!!!!!!!! Grrrrrrr

[Fullstop]

Never mind the dogs. Why are they totally oblivious to EVERYTHING?

[techboy]

I guess after all the whining farangs the barking dogs are relaxing.

[Stradavarius37]

Oversensitive westerners, back to suburbansville farangland please.

Thanks so much for your witty reply.

Next time you think about replying to a post..............PLEASE don't.

His comment was as witty as your rejoinder lmao

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

[gp2002]

Oversensitive westerners, back to suburbansville farangland please.

Thanks so much for your witty reply.

Next time you think about replying to a post..............PLEASE don't.

His comment was as witty as your rejoinder lmao

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

Is the "Gray World" between your ears?

[Fullstop]

Actually..they're not oblivious at all. Deep, deep down in that rudimentary Thai brain, they are SEETHING!

"Krenjai" and and not wanting to make another lose face forces them to put up and shut up.

Eventually though, the build up of unreleased anger explodes in a massive temper tantrum...usually behind the wheel of a vehicle with tinted windows. No need for krenjai when no one can see you.

[soalbundy]

Never mind the dogs. Why are they totally oblivious to EVERYTHING?

Be fair, not everything, let us consider the Thai soapies.

[Gillyflower]

After many years living isolated in the country, I moved into a small town on a river. It took me ages to get used to the sound of the water running at night. In the country a German friend who came to visit, insisted on sleeping on the hay in the grange. After 2 nights he gave in, couldn't stand the noise that the rabbits made during the night. That is in Europe. Next to my GH in CM there is a nice looking house with a DOG. Many nights, but not all, he BARKS non stop. Then there is the wat. They have a rooster. I don't mind that. I'm used to it, but it is that HEN who drives me mad. She tells the whole bl...y world that she is about to produce an ........EGG......And she takes ages over it. One of these days, I'll find her and I will strangle her.