Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Is It Love?

How To Stop Your Neighbor's Dog From Barking...

Today I googled the following search terms... "Dog Free Neighborhood."

When you google "dog free neighborhood," the first site that comes up is a message board with the question, "Would you move to a neighborhood that completely banned dogs?"  The second site... is the federal sex offender registry.  Ha - I thought that was funny. 


I respect people's rights to love dogs... and that's fine with me.  I, as some of you well know, am NOT a dog lover.  I'm not going to get into all of the details... and I can be around dogs, but I do not feel the attraction like others do... I just don't.  I mean, I like dogs more than I like snakes... but I am NOT a dog fan.  Weird, I know.

My last community was a townhouse community.  Thus, people really didn't leave their dogs outside in the so-called yard because there really wasn't room for the dogs to exercise.  Thus, we didn't get lots of loud dog barkers just hanging out outside because the dogs were normally either on the leash with the owner or in the house. 

Oh, but there was this one time... I'm soooo rotten... that we had this one family who walked their dog down the street at like MIDNIGHT and their dog would jump and bark and holler like nothing you have ever seen or heard.  They could NOT control this dog and the family was the talk of our street because of this nightly disruption.  This was even worse on nice days when we would sleep with our windows open.  Did the people NOT know that they were walking the dog in front of our bedrooms and letting it bark at the top of its lungs????? Hello???

So, this one night... as the dog was waking up the neighborhood... I put my head ever so slightly in our window (at midnight) and yelled... "People are trying to sleep, you know!"  And, we actually NEVER had the problem again!

Fast forward a few years... I pulled up into our driveway and saw someone walking their dog right past our house (fine).  As I was getting out of my car... the dog walked into my yard and pooped in our grass.  IS IT EVER OKAY TO LET YOUR DOG (or any member of your household) POOP IN SOMEONE ELSE'S YARD... AND RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE HOME OWNER.  I looked at the owner like he had two heads and said, "Do Not Let your Dog Poop In My Yard."  For the love of Pete -- what are people thinking???????  It wasn't on the side of my yard... the dog was clearly up in my yard... Hello???????

Now, we are in a new neighborhood... kinda at the corner of some streets... kinda.  My neighbors let their dog out into their yard every morning at 6:40 and it runs to the edge of the fenced-in yard and stares at Bro's window and barks for like 10 minutes.  Obnoxious!

Readers?????  I really need some help here?  Is it really okay for the dog to be barking at 6:40 a.m.... even on a SUNDAY!!!!!!!???  Is there some way that I can approach this family without offending them.  The way that the street is situated... they are GOING to know that the complainer is MOI.  Drats! 

I did think about slipping them a sweet anonymous note... really... they might not realize how disturbing this is.  I am hoping to bite my tongue for the time being and maybe get to know them in the Spring and then casually make a joke about it one day... hoping that they get the hint.  Maybe??? 

I did some research and in our county the dog barking rules are...
12, Title 4, Subtitle 9-904 Animal Disturbance Prohibited

It is unlawful for a person who owns, keeps, or has possession of an animal to permit the animal to disturb the quiet of a person or neighborhood.
And, apparently this law is pretty general and has been enforced and dog owners do NOT like it.  I really don't want to get into it with my neighbors.  And, I am sure that I won't have to, but at least if push comes to shove... the law is on our side.  :-)

Apparently I could complain anonymously... but I just wish that the dog would do his barking after 7:30 in the morning... is THAT too much to ask???

HELP????  Do you have a barking dog in your neighborhood????  What should I do?  Apparently there aren't any "dog free" neighborhoods to choose from.  I'm looking for some real advice here.  And you can also feel free to tell me to "get over myself."

5 comments:

lisa-marie said...

We have dealt with barking, growling dogs living behind us (luckily we have a good fence!) as well as discovering dog poop on our front lawn (no fence in front). It makes my Mom SO mad to find that. I just think it's dang rude!

SusieQ said...

So get over yourself! (Hehe!!) My dogs run out and bark all the time, but living where I live, who cares... Seriously, the dog has to go out when the household wakes in the morning (sometimes before) and I can't imagine how anyone could make it not bark.. Not the initial barking anyway. They could stop it from just standing there barking.. Maybe your dog will bark back to it when he is out in the yard and how will you go about stopping that? Whatever you do, don't alienate the neighbors right from the start...

Mrs. Bird said...

My dogs are barkers...so I don't put them out for extended periods of time before 10:00am any day of the week or after 9:00pm. They do their business and if we have to leave outside of those hours they go in their indoor kennels. You could get me going on irresponsible and disrespectful dog owners but I went to the chiropractor today and want to stay all loosey goosey :)

fariy grandmother said...

Well, we had a barking dog in our old house...it was across the street...we asked the people a number of times to control their noisy dog to no avail...the people next door to us complained as well...when the dog's owners did nothing our neighbor parked his car right in front of their house and in the middle of the night when the dog disturbed his sleep he simply opened his window reached his hand out with the remote and pushed the button on his remote to sound the alarm...the dog's owners got the message! HaHa!!

SusieQ said...

Oh, how funny!!! I have heard of various circumstances where the car alarm could be useful, but this is a new one!!