One person wrote:
"There is an over-riding moral issue here, namely that inflicting hurt upon a helpless creature is fundamentally wrong. It is not the dog's fault that it is barking so annoyingly. It is the owner's fault entirely, and it's him who should be blasted to Kingdom Come for his selfish, cruel idiocy."Another response to this included:
"...however the other side of that coin is that dogs actually do harm humans and horrible things have resulted to humans because of a dog's noise/threats..."Ironically, I was awakened this morning around 7:30ish (at least that's what time it was when I finally looked at the clock) from a very deep sleep by my neighboring shrill barker. Being in a particularly foul mood over it, I opened the window and yelled for the dog to be shut up which, of course, was a waste of breath and energy. I'm not really sure when the barking began, but I later found out that someone had heard the ruckus around 7 a.m., a half hour earlier than when I finally looked at the clock... man, I was in a really deep sleep and enjoying it because it's not something I've done much of in the last 2 years.
Later my neighbor accused me of hurting her dog by yelling at him ....can you imagine? This accusation after being assaulted by her excruciatingly shrill barker, every day and many nights, for almost 3 years now... Any loud statments I've made (which have been rare) lasted for about 5 seconds if that (and I set off my car alarm probably less than a half dozen times in a 2 week period early in January, and I tried the ultrasonic device about 4 times which had no effect on the dog but freaked out my cats). Not to mention I don't think I can even yell as loud as that dog barks. Certainly if I yelled as much as he barks I'd have dropped dead long ago... And I listened to that awful barking for over 2 years before we ever complained to them about it back in November last year (2009). Why am I even defending myself? Good grief.
Anyway, he continued to bark and so I finally went outside to make him be quiet myself, which I've had to do on many occasions if I wanted peace, although my efforts were not always successful. As soon as I got to the edge of my front porch, I heard my neighbor standing on her screened in porch shaking what sounded like a can of something, I guess to get the dogs attention...but it seemed to me it was making them bark more...hmmm...until they saw me. Then they came running over, wagging their tails! I called to whoever was on the porch (because I coudn't see them) and she answered. I was going to politely (even though I'd already yelled out of the window and wasn't feeling very polite) ask her please not to let the dogs bark like that so early in the morning and inform her that I'd been awakended...blah, blah, blah...like she didn't already know they were waking me up...but she rudely cut in and prodeeded to be belligerant and hostile. In fact, I don't think I was able to finish one sentence without being rudely interupted by her accusations and threats. Actually, the only thing that left her speechless was when I informed her that I had many hours of video/sound recordings of her dog barking, sometimes almost continually for 2-3 hours without anyone checking on him, day & night at all hours. Being so stunned by this revelation of barking evidence, the only thing she could say was another feeble accusation about how she never thought I would ever be such a bad neighbor. Sigh. Ditto.
By the way, all this time her 2 dogs were sitting by the fence quietly looking at me...and wagging their tails. They love me. Sheesh.
Now, I've suffered immeasurable mental and physical pain from being forced to listen to her dog barking, as I'm sure you all can relate to, and have, in the last 6 months, spent several thousand dollars (so far) seeking relief consulting with doctors, a chiropractor, 3 massage therapist, and most recently an orthopedic specialist for relief of my neck and jaw pain caused by tension caused by being forced to listen to the barking, day and night, inside my home and outside in the yard. Many times, in fact I'd say about 95% of the time, when I return home from a massage, chiro, or any other relaxing event, the dog is barking as soon as I pull up into the driveway even before I get out of my car. So much for that $75 massage.
Ultimately I know it will be a waste of money to see all these doctors and therapists if I have to continue to listen to the barking.
Incidentally, the barking is of such a loud & shrill nature that the neighbors on the other side of me can hear the barking in their home, albeit not very loudly (as they are farther away and they have more noise in their home...children and TVs, etc.), but that gives you a clue as to how loud it is in my (formerly) quiet home which, at the closest point, is less than 50 feet away from one of the dog's favorite barking spots.
Then she, my barking dog owner neighbor, said the dog is on his own property (I tried to mention that she was allowing the dog to tresspass on my property and into my home by projecting his voice into my private air space, but it was a one sided conversation and she probably wouldn't get it anyway...duh...) and accused me of being a bad neighbor because I've complained about the loud, shrill, piercing, almost continual traumatic barking that has caused me immeasurable physical & mental pain, not to mention is continuing to cost me a lot of money, and because I've called the police and animal control (who have not been any help...surprise, surprise), and then she accused my cat of instigating the barking, that the dog was probably barking because I let my cat out, and she threatened to trap him and send him to animal control. I was stunned at the sheer nastiness of this person, who I knew from the beginning was a bit...uh...odd, shall we say, but with whom I'd been on good terms for a number of years, but I managed to say, "I just woke up and my cat is still sleeping on my bed." The cat was in the house all night, as usual. If the dog only barked when my cat goes onto their property, I'd have no problem with the barking because it would be so rare. When the cat is outside he doesn't usually go onto their property because I keep an eagle eye on him when he's outside and he's usually following me around, lounging around under a shrub, or looking for rodents (on his own property). He's a fat, middle aged cat, you see. On the rare occasion, usually when I'm trying to get him in the house and he gets fiesty because he doesn't want to go in, he'll run over there and hide under one of their (many) cars so I follow him until I can snatch him up, and if he's ever out of my sight at any other time for one second I hunt him down and bring him in. My other cat rarely wanders from under her favorite bush or the porch at the other side of our yard, and stays within about a 25 foot radius of both when she's outside. On a rare occasion she'll come out and follow me around a bit, but never in front of or at the sides of the house, and never way out behind the garage.
When I first started letting my big tuxedo cat go outside (I tried to force him to stay indoors for a year when he was 3-4 but he was miserable and developed reoccuring urinary tract infections, which stopped when I started letting him out again), I went to both neighbors and asked them if he was bothering them. No one said he was, and so I told them if he was to let me know right away and I'd collect him and put him in. Over the years, I've inquired about this again occasionally, but no one ever said he was bothering them.
However, maybe she did tell me the cat was bothering them. One time, long before I expressed my irritation with the barker, I was asking my barking dog neighbor if the cat was bothering them and she said her husband hates cats and would just as soon shoot them. I asked her if he was going to shoot my cat, and she never did answer. In retrospect, wonder if that was a threat? Her way of telling me the cat was a nuisance? She'd rather pick up a gun than pick up the phone? Scary people. Really, she didn't have to say that. I really didn't think her husband would shoot my cat but if the cat was bothering them all she had to do was say so. I get so tired of people not being straight forward and honest, and having to play guessing games and ending up looking like an idiot beause I can't figure out what the hell they're talking about. Oh, yeah, the dog was barking during this (very brief) conversation and she didn't make any attempt to stop it. And the cat was not there.
Back to today...my other neighbors, the good ones to the right of our house if you are facing it, were having a yard sale so on my way back inside I went over there and asked if they'd heard the barking. Two of them had; my neighbor's husband had actually heard the dog barking at about 7:00 a.m., even earlier than when I'd been awakened, when he was taking things out to the yard for the sale. The other person who heard the barking, a friend of my neighbors' who was over to participate in the yard sale, said she heard the barking and then saw me go out of the front door. She said the barking was so loud it was annoying to her way over there and that there is no way she could tolerate living next to that noise. She is willing to make a statement, if necessary, to support any complaints or court cases, and I already have 3 signed statements about the barking from these "good" neighbors (the 3 adults in the house).
Of course, I already know my barking dog owner neighbor fits right into the disturbed personality profile of the nuisance barking dog owner, but knowing this doesn't make it any less stressful or upsetting for me to be abused by both dog and human like this, and now have to worry about my cats being harmed by the ignorant barking dog owner.
The barking problem had decreased significantly in the last 6 weeks, and I had begun to relax and actually began to feel happy again and like I was healing from the abuse. Even my neck was feeling better, my digestive problems had deminished a good bit, and I was actually feeling back to my old affable self again. But I guess it was just a fluke because this last week the barking has begun to increase again, especially early morning, and now I feel like I'm hopelessly back to square one.
Just venting here, really. Thanks for listening.
