A Camera on My House

[somekind]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Welcome to the Cellar, somekind. Hope the neighbors stop bothering you.

Thanks. I'm trying to deal with it. I live in a peaceful neighborhood that would be quiet if not for 15 neighbors with dogs that bark a lot.

I have been trying to document the problem by videotaping the offending dogs and uploading their barking to the internet. I want to know where the noise is coming from. It could be 2 dogs or 20 and I'd like to know.

Since there has been a duscussion about legality in this thread I'd like to pose some 'expectation of privacy' questions:
(I'm only taping dogs here; no people or inside of houses.)

Is it legal to videotape my neighbor's dog in it's yard from within my yard? I can easily see over the fence (5'). It barks a lot and is annoyingly cute and I have a lot of video of it now.

How about if the fence is taller than I am (6'1") and I stand on a stool or hold my camera over the fence? What if the fence is at the street and I am on the sidewalk holding the videocamera over the fence (I can peek at the LCD display). I'm only taping yard/dog.

I'm going to assume that any dog I can see from the street is fair game to videotape.

My neighbors' dogs bark at each other across my house. I often honk a bicycle horn with the dogs; sometimes it shuts them up (or gets the neighbor to). I'd like to come up with a noise maker to alert them that doesn't jeopardize me. I don't want to be cited for being a nuisance, so I thought about putting my weed whacker next to the dog-fence and running a 100ft cord to my bedroom. That way I can run it briefly when the dog starts barking. I know the neighbors hate that noise. Well, at 8 am on weekends, the barking is a pain, too.

I thought about starting the clarinet, but I'd rather something that takes less effort.

(I don't actually talk to the neighbors about the problem. I wouldn't expect them to react favorably).

Sometimes I just call the police and let them check it out (it's a violation of city code and the owner can be cited, especially if not home when the problem is occurring).