OP, you are correct to be concerned about noise in The Villages, but your premise that a courtyard villa will increase your potential for dog noise is not correct. When you view houses to buy, look around and rule out those that have a noise issue. Definitely check for traffic noise, pool pumps, and pickleball courts. Whenever I go to an open house, if the agent is playing music, that is a red flag, and I always ask them to turn it off. Good luck.

OP, I completely agree with you.
Earlier this year we went down to look at a home in Caroline . As we exited our vehicles, I could hear a dog yapping. The owner next door was sitting in his lanai with his dog. It did not shut up for the 5 minutes we stood in the driveway. We never even went inside, I told the realtor there was no way I would live there. We decided going forward we would talk with neighbors and visit a home day and night throughout the week to see if a place was for us. I shouldn't hear your dog and you shouldn't hear my gangster rap bass music.

For those that live in CV, do you find them too confining with the walls? We are looking and my DH feels the yards are too small. We want one because we do have 2 small dogs that are used to just being let out and not walked all the time.

barking dogs
 

The constant noise of leaf blowers in patio villas and designer homes is worse than barking dogs in courtyard villas. We very rarely hear a barking dog in our courtyard villa.

Possible the neighbor knew this would happen. Possible the neighbor can't stand the owner of the house, and wanted to make it difficult to sell that house. Possible that dog only barks because people are doing things in close proximity that people don't normally do (like strangers standing in the driveway next door for five minutes).

Also possible that you would've heard nothing, found the house to be perfect, bought it, moved in, and the person next door buys a dog a week later that never shuts up.

Bobcats and birds of prey can easily bypass the CV walls. They eat "small" dogs. If you want your dogs to roam free in the back yard, then you'll need to build a "bird cage" over the yard (that's a huge screen with supports from the house over the yard with a door you can use to come in and out of it).

You totally don't want to leave your small pets in the back yard unattended, at all, ever, if they're not under the relative safety of a bird cage.

Give the neighbor a bark collar.

We do not find them confining at all. Plus, you get the additional feel of a community within a community. Villa communities are defined, and neighbors tend to connect because of it.

I agree. We were in a designer. It had a wall in the back separating us from a CYV behind. I found looking at somebody's roof over that wall to be unpleasant.

We sold the designer and bought a CYV in that neighborhood. Our designer street was more of a through street than a community. Our CYV neighborhood is enclosed (4 streets) and is a very quiet, friendly community.

And because we bought on a side that there's nothing but a not-major street behind us, we are looking at trees and sky over the wall as opposed to someone's roof. We enjoy having the patio, put in a retractable awning and an umbrella.

The dogs go in and out. One barks if a delivery truck arrives, but he's pulled inside immediately. We don't let the dogs outside unless we're home.

Some do have large yards - we almost bought a new one in Lake Denham (especially after The Villages had dropped the price substantially). There are usually at least 2 or 3 per CYV neighborhood. If you look at the "bird's eye view" map on The Villages site, they're pretty easy to spot.

Second LSV our VLS guy put us in a CYV at our request, (1st was PV) we thought it would be our go to vaca home. Private semi noise blocking, with 3 concrete walls. By day 2 of 7 nights of we knew every conversation, music preference, disagreements on the lanai, and yes dogs who weren’t happy their owners left them out.

But our biggest horror was the good size Bobcat that was walking the wall, early one morning, then someone’s dog in desperate need of saving… yep we left on day 5 that sound still haunts me. Not that a bobcat wouldn’t be in any other yard….But the echoes off all the walls that morning, made us rapidly change our CYV decision.

We’ve lived in our current home, a CYV, for five years, and in all that time, I think I’ve heard a dog bark inside the house maybe half a dozen times.

It’s a different story when we’re out walking our dog, though—we’ve probably heard dogs barking a dozen times or so during our walks - twice a year.

Everyone has a different level of tolerance for noise. I’d recommend walking around the neighborhood you’re considering at different times of day. If you hear anything that bothers you, it might be a sign that the area isn’t right for you.

It’s your money and your decision—choose what feels right for you.

Corner lots have pretty big yards.

Truer words were never spoken!

Keep off my lawn!! 🤬🤬🤬