Why not get the "authorities" involved?
Many towns have an animal control officer. Call and complain to that
person. Hell you pay taxes, ty to get something for your money.
LB
In my case the "authorities" were part of the problem. Since I lived in the
country it was felt that dogs barking were only natural. The bylaw used the
word "excessive" which is of course is too objective. Depends on who you're
asking doesn't it? In my opinion, a neighbor's dog should not bark and
stand on it's rear legs, tugging on it's chain from the time it spots a
passerby until he is long out of sight. Maybe I'm just a bit too
sensitive???
Speaking to the owners resulted in having a fist shaken in my face and
being told to mind my own f@#$ing business. I set up a camcorder in an upper
bedroom window, connected to a VCR with an 8hr tape and with an external mic
taped to the outside of the glass. I went through the tape and noted every
instance the animal barked, the cause and the duration. I edited the tape
with just the highlights and passed this and the log on to the animal
control officer. This animal barked when someone walked by on the road, (a
full 300 feet from the dog), when I went to my back deck and opened the BBQ
(or caused any other noise for that matter) I'm not talking about just a few
yelps. For a passerby, it would last for 20 minutes.
So I got no results from the 'authorities', I went to the Provincial
ombudsman, who looked into the matter, this pressure resulted in the county
charging the dog's owner. There was a small fine and an undertaking to solve
the problem. The method to solve the problem? Build a fence to make an
enclosed run for the dog! Now, even I know that a dog barks for attention,
put him in a fenced area where he can't see anything won't help. The best
part..they gave him 9 months to built this fence!
The problem persisted, I'd call again and make complaints, but the county
wouldn't do anything because as far as they were concerned, the problem had
been addressed. All this time, I'm thinking I should have just slipped some
poisioned meat into it's reach and never said anything at all. But since I
had made a complaint first, if anything happened to the dog, I'd be the
first suspect no matter who had done it. I began to fear that other
neighbours or even the owner himself would destroy it,knowing I'd be blamed.
Before the nine months were up, I moved, couldn't stand it any longer. About
six months later, I was in the old neighbourhood and noticed that there
still was no fence, so I called the county office about it.
I was told that there since there had been no more complaints in recent
months they would be taking no action on the matter. I thanked the asshole
for all the opurtunities I'd been given for exercise by the endless
run-a-round.