Weddingbee boards

I really don't have great advice because we deal with the same nonsense. Except my neighbors have 3 barking dogs. THREE!!! lol So it goes without saying I'm ready to wrip my hair out. Basically I personally asked them about it ONCE. I told them hey; we get up @ 6:30 for work. I don't mind them barking during the day (which is a lie but hey; pick your battles) I said but @ night it's too hard to sleep. Please if you can keep them in @ night; or @ least bring them in when they bark. She said okay she would bring them in and that's the last time I talked to them personally about it. After that I called the sherriff (we live in a subdivision) I've called probably 3 times. I try not to get too picky because my dog is coming to live with us soon so I give them a little break because I do know how hard it is to control the barking. But I usually only call if they bark for long periods of time when i'm sleeping. They'll get sick of having the sherriff @ their door @ 3 in the morning eventually; so I'd probably keep calling if I were you. As far as their dog being in your yard. THat is a diff story. I would address that with them right away. I'd actually go over and talk to them about it. I would tell them that if it keeps happening you will call the pound. You don't care about what they do on their yard but you dont' want him in your yard because he hurts your child. That is definatly a reason to call the police & make a report.

Dogs do bark and can be uncontrollable at times, but the owners need to be at least TRYING to control things! 

If you think it would do any good, I would go visit them and tell them that the dog getting out of the yard is a problem.  I would try to be sympathic ie-"poor guy sounds so lonely outside in the middle of the night" and "I realize he must be bored to dig under the fence, but I am worried that he will get hit by a car" and then mention that he is teaching your son to be scared of dogs and that he wanders into your house.  I *might* even bring up the analogy of letting your 2 year old run wild in their house.

If that gets you nowhere, tell the same stuff to the local Animal Control officer and call whenever you see him outside the yard.  Usually they will pick him up and the owner will get a fine.  If it happens again, the fine goes up and so forth.

Print out a stack for complaint notices from animal control and everytime you see or hear the dog being a nuisance fill out a complaint and send it off to animal control. Usually it takes repeat complaints for animal control to do anything which is why you need to have a paper trail of problems. Also, if you can, document (take pictures) everytime the dog is off his leash or in your yard.   Animal control is obligated at that point to take action.  Don't worry about what the neighbors think, it is their responsibility to keep their animal under control.