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, March 8, 2011

The Misery of the Barking Dog...

One thing I find extremely annoying, almost as annoying as a barking dog, is a dog owner who thinks everyone should like dogs just because they do. This is an absurd school of thought, and even "responsible" dog owners are guilty of this unfair assumption. I like cats but I know not everyone likes cats and, well, it is what it is. So what. Some people love sky diving but I'll be damned if I'm going to jump out of a perfectly good plane in flight and plunge toward the earth with only a piece of cloth and some strings between me and my demise, and no one is going to convince me that I should.

Even if you like dogs and understand how their neglect can contribute to their chronic barking, at some point during the barking nightmare the dog's own misery becomes irrelevant. What is important is your own survival and anyone who, after knowing that a person is in the midst of suffering from barking dogs and has been for several years, implies that the misery of the barking dog should be at all important is tactless and insensitive and especially so if the person making such a statement has also been the victim of heartless dog owners who allow their barking dogs to ruin other people's lives. One would think that they'd remember how utterly hopeless one feels, how fragile one become both physically and emotionally, and the unmentionable thoughts that go through one's mind when one is forced out of their yard, becomes conditioned by the barking to hate their own home, has panic attacks when nearing their home after being away, suffers from severe sleep deprivation and has anxiety at the mere thought of going to bed, suffers extreme stress, tension, depression...fears for their family's well being...because it seems like there will never be any relief from the awful noise of the barking dog...

I recently had this happen to me on a new barking dog forum that I thought was supposed to be, among other things, a support group for people who are suffering, or have suffered, through the nightmare of having their health and lives ruined from being forced to listen to the interminable, infernal barking of dogs. I was extremely offended by the statement, and what made it even worse was the reaction of the administrator of this new forum, who was also the founder of another online barking dog support group which had actually been a great help to me. Unfortunately that group is now defunct, and has been replaced by this new forum on which the administrator, it seems, does not want anyone to express their true feelings of despair and their fear of meeting their demise due to barking dog, unless they hide their feelings of despise toward the dog for fear of offending dog owners. All I can say is shame on you. I promptly deleted all my posts, deleted myself from the forum and also from the other support group as well as another social network page began by the same person.

Even some of us who like dogs and don't like to see them suffer can't help but feel a certain amount of animosity toward the creature that is causing us so much misery with the awful, unending noise it produces, even knowing that ultimately it is the dog's negligent owner that is responsible for allowing the behavioral problem to develop and continue on to become such a nuisance to everyone within hearing distance...especially those of us right next door.

I've had dogs in the past whose company I really enjoyed, and I know a number of really great dogs that belong to friends, but after having lived so long surrounded by neighbors whose dogs' barking has driven me out of my yard and home and out of my mind, and by the smell of dog feces left to accumulate in their yards that has made it impossible to enjoy my yard or even open doors and windows on a nice day, and having felt great despair at the suffering of some of my neighbors' neglected and abused dogs, I no longer wish to be around dogs, and at this point I feel that I will never want to share my home with another dog. I would never harm a dog, unless of course it was about to attack, and I'll still enjoy visiting my friend's good dogs, but I can no longer enjoy living around dogs. I know that it's not the dog's fault that it has been allowed to become such a negative force, but it is what it is...

"I have often lamented that we cannot close our ears
with as much ease as we can our eyes." 
~Richard Steele

One thing that is unfortunate about all this is I know that if I want to see changes made in the legislation that protects people from the products of irresponsible dog owners I'll have to mingle with people who only want the changes made for the welfare of the dogs and don't really give a crap about people. And this is where, I believe, they will loose support because the numbers would be much larger if dog people would acknowledge that not everyone likes dogs yet everyone can be negatively affected by irresponsible dog owners, weak and non existent laws, and slack law enforcement. But as it is, the dog welfare folks just mostly repell folks for whom dogs are not top priority, but who would also like to see changes made.

3 comments:

  1. It is silly for someone to assume that everyone should like dogs just because they do. The only reason I'm concerned at all about the welfare of dogs is because of how the laws concerning dog welfare and ownership affects humans. I don't hate dogs and I certainly don't condone violence toward them or any animals, but the presence of dogs creates a lot of problems in otherwise decent neighborhoods. In my neighborhood I'm sure there are responsible dog owners and well behaved dogs, but who would ever know with all the problems created by the irresponsible dog owners and the dogs that we hear and smell? Dog owners insist that it's not the dog's fault, which is true, the dog is just being a dog, but one can't help but despise their presence when their owners allow them to pollute the earth with so much noise, odors and toxins.

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  2. @Anonymous - I fully agree, and further more I resent irresponsible dog owners for putting me in the situation which has caused me to resent the presence of dogs. I still like dogs, but I'd rather not have them living around me, thanks to too many irresponsible dog owners. I'd rather visit my friends' dogs; at least I know they are well behaved, and if they do get on my nerves I can just leave.

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  3. I'm not a violent person, have never in 58 years harmed another person or animal, yet my neighbors dog, with a truly torturing bark, almost a shrieking yelp that would go on nonstop for hours, and would penetrate any wall, any earplugs, which nearly had me screaming in fury and frustration, is a truly hellish memory---and the neighbor refused to let me help solve the problem--I'm not ashamed to say I had fantasies of going over and smashing that dog, a wolf hybrid, with a shovel, my mental state became so desperate---those dog owners should be locked in a room and endure that barrage of hideous noise for as long as someone else decides is right--in short, no control, no escape, no recourse

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