barking dog kept on balkony day and night

Most (if not all) communes have rules about noise from animals disturbing neighbours, and they only get applied if people complain. Check your commune's website.

If it really is causing a nuisance barking all the time, go to the police, who have the authority to get them to stop it.

Yes, check with your borough about noise. But "This has improved in the meantime, but now I'm woken up almost every morning around 5 because the dog starts barking - not for long, but enough to wake me up" is not a good enough reason. If no one interacted with the dog that would be one thing; but if it starts "barking - not for long" that means that its owners are reacting and there's not much you can complain about.

BTW it's "balcony"

Neither the police nor the commune will do anything unless you have talked to the owners of the dog and they have refused to do anything. There is nothing in your post which implies that you have done this yet.

I have a dog who barks we used to put her in our garden in England she was in and out she didn't bark all the time but she is a dog it's what they do. She barked at birds or cats she is a dog it's how they talk woof woof.
The garden was surrounded by houses. One day I got an annoumous "HATE" letter which we think came from someone on a street that backed onto mine saying i was irresponsible and left the dog out all day barking. They said they were ringing the rspca This wasn't the truth we let her in and out. Clearly they heard her through the day and if they looked out there she was but she wasn't out all the time and when she was quiet they didn't look to see that. This person complained they worked nights and my dog disturbed them. What annoyed me most was they didn't pop round ring the bell and say I am sorry to bother you but I work nights and your dog wakes me up. I would have of course apologies and made sure I check their curtains before I put her out. Maybe your neighbour isn't irresponsible but isn't aware that letting the dog at at five is waking you up.
Why not pop round with a smile and politely say sorry to bother you but.... if they are a nice person they will be horrified to hear that the dog wakes you and will rectify this immediately

CC_R....I was going to react to kasseistamper by saying it will be a waste of time talking to the owners because you will just get a load of waffle about it being normal and what dogs do. You then just demonstrated it perfectly. People tend to be oblivious to their dogs in the same way parents seem to be oblivious to how unpleasant their little darling children can be.

On two occasions I have tried to reason with dog owners, on two occasions it was I who was painted as anti social and intolerant, as you have just painted your neighbours.

"" The whole neighbourhood 'benefits' from the dog"".

Yes, that's the thing, eh? In the two cases that I was involved with, every single person for hundreds of meters in every direction "benefitted" from the dog while the owner himself never had the slightest problem because he took the dog in when he was home.

I suggest complaining to the owners will be a complete and utter waste of time. They already know what their dog does and you already know what they have done about it, nothing. That tells you all you need to know.

Save yourself some aggravation and go direct to the police.

"Neither the police nor the commune will do anything unless you have talked to the owners of the dog and they have refused to do anything. There is nothing in your post which implies that you have done this yet."

Sorry, but that's simply not true. And personally I would avoid getting into a confrontation with the owners. Going via the police has the big advantage of being anonymous.

Mike you are completely mistaken I would have done something as would any reasonable person maybe if you spoke to them as you have just spoken to me in a post then that's why you got a rude reaction. A case in point a friend of mine lives in a small apartment block near Woulwe she retired previously she had no issue with the neighbours dog however once she retired and was gone all day more often she discovered that when the neighbour went to work this dog cried and howled for long periods. Being very British she said didn't go round to complai, but one day whilst entering the neighbours adult son saw her and asked her how she was and she mentioned the dog being noisy. She has no idea what the neighbour did but the dog immediately stopped making the noise.

Home not gone autocorrect for you

So I stand by what I said people do hear their dogs but they may or may not recognise that others also do and it's problematic. In out case we didn't hear the dog from the front of our home the neighbour bedroom was out the back and that's why they heard her more.
If it's your apartment block this dog lives in possibly you can also check the paperwork to see if anything is mentioned about this.
Also Nike im not in favour of all dog owners a dog local to us wad constantly running around in the road causing havoc in traffic ripping up bin bags the police had been round several times but the owner did nothing the police issued fines still nothing only once dog got pregnant did they actually decide to stop it roaming again. So the truth is there are responsibly minded and irresponsibly minded people about and until you knock the door and politely mention the issue you don't know which the owner is and tarring all people with one brush isn't helpful in this situation