For some excellent advice on how to handle noisy neighbors with or without a barking dog, including the anonymous letter approach, click here:
How to Handle Noisy Neighbors and Their Barking Dogs
If you are a victim of irresponsible dog owners with barking dogs, visit BarkingDogs.net
If you live in Monroe/Union County, NC also see Ordinances and Local Contacts
If you are in a position (e.g., judge, magistrate, law enforcement, city council, county commissioner, etc.) to put an end to nuisance dog barking or to enforce noise nuisance laws but don't view the problem as serious, click here: Why Exposure to Chronic Dog Barking is So Profoundly Debilitating and here: The Deleterious Effect of Exposing People to Noise

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Too Good to Be True...

Damn. I spoke too soon and I've jinxed myself. I shouldn't have gone around telling anyone that life was becoming almost bearable again because Harley's barking had been reduced considerable in the last few weeks. In the back of my brain I suspected it was too good to be true.

I was awakened before 6:15 this morning...I took a Xanax before 8 and I've still been in a foul mood all day with a lingering headache and miserable neck pain. Before this morning I had been in such a good mood, and yesterday I felt so good, and because my neck was not bothering me so much I had looked forward to a good sleep and then sleeping in this morning.

Pissed off and feeling hopeless, I drug myself out to do some grocery shopping and all I could think about was having to listen to that barking again with no hope insight for relief...
Dear Barking Dog Neighbors,

For the last few weeks the barking had diminished so much that I was actually beginning to feel better physically and mentally, I was able to spend time in my yard which I haven’t done for about 2 years due to being barked at continually while I was in my yard (front and back), and to get some good sleep in my bedroom rather than lousy sleep in the living room on the sofa which is where I’ve had to spend most of the last year because of the barking. The barking had diminished so much that I was actually beginning to enjoy being at home again, which I haven’t done for quite some time.

But this morning I was in a deep and good sleep (something which I have not had a lot of in the last couple of years because of Harley’s barking)...and then I was awakened at 6:15 a.m. by the barking of your big white dog. Then, just as I thought I was going to be able to go back to sleep, Harley started barking. It was then 6:38 a.m. Then Harley was barking again a few times after that, and at approximately 7:30 he and the big white dog were both barking so much that I had to get up and put an end to it myself. This is not right. They are not my dogs and I should not have to hear them like this nor get up to make them be quiet just so I can relax, sleep and enjoy my life.

Please, please do not let the dogs bark so early or so frequently again, as you have in the past. If you want to hear what I’ve had to put up with, I have video/sound recordings of the awful racket, and it is unbearable. No one should be forced to listen to this terrible noise as much as I’ve had to.

I can’t take the stress of having to listen to your dogs bark incessantly any longer. Being forced to listen to it for so long has caused me physical pain from the tension. It has cost me a lot of money to seek relief through chiropractors and doctors (including an orthopedic specialist) because the stress and tension it caused me has affected my physical health - severe neck pain and headaches from tension, stomach upsets from the stress - and mental health - anxiety/panic attacks because the barking is so loud, frequent and alarming, and depression because I’m stuck and I can’t just pack up and move to get away from the awful noise – and I’m now, since last November, regularly taking medications to help relieve the physical pain and mental torment that having to listen to this barking for 2+ years has caused me.

Dogs bark, yes, but Harley's barking is a pathological behavior problem. If you don’t want to consult a professional trainer and supervise him when he’s outside, or use a bark collar, please consider medication. I’ve successfully used medication to control one of my cat’s serious behavior problems and the cat is no worse off because of it. In fact he’s better off thanks to the medication. If you don't understand the depth to which this barking has affected me, consider this: I've given thought to euthanizing all my cats so I could jump in my car and just start driving and never come back. You think that's cruel? Well I think it's cruel to torment someone so much that the stress and tension causes them to feel like they are going to have a heart attack or stroke and die, and which causes them think about getting rid of their own pets just to survive. That's what you've done to me by allowing your dog to bark like he has for so long. That should tell you how desperate I am to get away from that barking because you've known me long enough to know how much I love my cats.

I realize that there are a lot of dogs in this neighborhood that bark, but none bark as frequently or a long as Harley does, and none of them are so close to our house that it sounds like it’s right outside the windows or practically inside the house like Harley's barking sounds, and his bark is so loud and shrill that when I'm outside I can't even think and it actually makes my ears hurt; this has also produced a serious ringing problem in my ears that lasts long after I go inside. In fact, the ringing rarely stops now.
Thanks to you, I can't enjoy my home, my yard, or my life. What's left?