A seething Upper Hutt home owner says he has lost sleep for eight years because of incessant yapping from his neighbour's two pet Labradors, the Dominion Post reports.

Mr Robertson, an IT manager, has made repeated complaints to dog control officers about neighbour Ian McCulloch's two Labradors and even threatened to shoot his four-legged foes, Cindy, 14, and Lisa, 7, during the protracted standoff.

McCulloch says Robertson simply has a bee in his bonnet. His ageing canine companions - one of which has had two strokes and surgery to remove a tumour - were well behaved and barked no more than the average family dog.

Upper Hutt City Council has issued Mr McCulloch with a dog removal notice. But he appealed against the order and both men squared off at a hearing last week. Mr Robertson has no plans to move house, but he has "thought about double glazing".

He wants Mr McCulloch banned from owning pets - though admitted keeping animals was a basic right, so suggested his neighbour "get a cat".

Mr Robertson had once counted 50 "barks per minute" and admitted using foul language in the heat of the moment.

"Barking dogs do your head in. It's socially irresponsible to allow that sort of thing to happen. Normal people would shut them up." Mr McCulloch, a lawyer, said he had been verbally abused and Mr Robertson once threatened that his dogs "should have a .22 [calibre] bullet between the eyes".

He had now moved their sleeping area to prevent "sporadic" barking causing annoyance but said most complaints were unsubstantiated.

His closest neighbour, a retired district court judge, wrote a submission saying the barking was no problem and a council survey of residents found no other complainants, he said.

"He is a light sleeper and it wakes him up and that's unfortunate. They will bark occasionally. All dogs bark occasionally.

Mr McCulloch would accept the removal order if decreed by the council, but "would not be pleased about it".

Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy had spoken to Mr Robertson, who was "pretty fizzed up".

"Barking dogs can be a nuisance in urban New Zealand. The process is there to make sure people don't have to put up with that."