Friday, October 26, 2012

This Week's Barking News Roundup - 10/26/12

This week's edition of the Barking News Roundup is dedicated to the hellhound across the street. Thanks for barking me out of a sound sleep at 6 a.m. this morning. I was hoping to sleep in. Oh, I have the same low opinion of your owner.

Barks vs. sirens dog Washougal

Excerpt: The city has a vested interest in reaching middle ground in the noisy conflict. It owns the property on which the Humane Society is located and acts as the shelter's landlord.

City officials say they hope to clear the air and bring peace between the two neighbors. The shelter has been in the same location for more than a decade. [The tax-paying business next to the barkophony] moved into its building about five months ago.

City officials say the two parties need to reach an understanding both sides can live with.

My take: How about this for an understanding? Keep the dogs quiet so that the employees of the tax-paying business next door can get their work done. You can share your thoughts on this story via Facebook.

Dogs beware: County proposing barking ban

Excerpt: The proposed barking dog ordinance says owners of dogs that howl or bark for more than 10 minutes during any half hour period after midnight and before 6 a.m. are subject to fines of $100 for a first offense. A second offense within 12 months means a $250 fine, and additional offenses after that are subject to $500 fines.

Tip: This story is open for comments. Follow the above link to add yours.

My life, or lack thereof, with dogs

Excerpt: Perhaps someone more Buddhist than I, perhaps someone with more tolerance and generosity of spirit, can put up with spasms of pointless barking throughout the day. But for me, it has the effect of applying a cheese grater to my cerebellum. Not to show my prejudice, but most of the dogs I hear are small dogs and -- I'm pretty sure I read this somewhere -- the barks of "yip dogs" as I call them are scientifically proven to be more deadly to peace of mind than the barks of larger dogs.

Tip: This opinion piece is open for comments via Facebook.

This Week's Barking News Roundup wouldn't be complete without an advice column question. Here goes...

Question: I have new neighbors that moved in up Stairs. They leave their dog alone all day long. The dog is barking non stop, my wife works night shift and it's impossible to sleep. Can they do this, and is there anything I can do? thank you

Found among the answers: I own the place, and people up stairs are renting. I spoke with the owner but it seems they don't care.

To which I say: This is why that oft-heard "talk to your neighbor" advice is so useless. You'll probably have a more productive conversation with a brick wall. Here's what Dr. Craig Mixon, creator of the BarkingDogs.net website, has to say on this subject:

"In my experience, better than 45% of those who maintain noisy dogs are reflexively obstinate people who ignore polite requests and pathetic pleas, and will quiet their dogs only if you hound them for an extended period of time. Incredibly, an equal percentage are dig-in-your-heels, never-give-an-inch, hard core, incorrigibles whose perspective parallels that of Charleton Heston: i.e. you can have quiet when you pry it out of their cold, dead hands.

"At first blush, it doesn't seem possible that the rate of recalcitrance could be that high. After all, if you randomly selected ten people on the street and did a psychological work-up on them, you might find that one or two of them are chronically oppositional. But you would never expect to find that 90% of those whom you randomly evaluated, were predisposed to that kind of behavior. Nonetheless, if you take a close look at those who keep chronically barking dogs, the rate of recalcitrance does indeed seem to be that high."

The Department of Shameless Self-Promotion. Still want to try talking to your neighbor? I didn't think so.  But, on the off chance that they can read, you might want to start walking and driving around with the tee shirts and bumper stickers from the QuietBarkingDogs store. Who knows, they might just get a clue.

5 comments:

  1. "So the company came up with its own novel approach to silencing the barking dogs: Make some noise of its own."

    i tried that. air horns are pretty effective.

    btw, did anyone notice that both photos of dogs in washougal appeared to be pit bull mixes? aren't there any normal dogs left?

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  2. A bit OT: Did you attend the Walk on Saturday? What were your impressions?

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    1. Hey there, Uncontrol! I was at the Walk. It was wonderful.

      And it's part of my latest post, which was inspired by the neighbor's hellhound that kept me awake for the better part of the night. Heading back to bed to see if I can salvage any hope of some sleep.

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  3. Glad to hear that. I was rather worried that the Pit Nuts would cause trouble, but it turns out that they are ALL absolute, total, scum-sucking cowards. No big surprise, there!

    Anyways, glad to hear it went well. This is the beginning of the end of the "bully" dog owners.

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  4. I just moved to a new neighborhood, I do not own any pets and I like my full quite sleep, but I have 2 neighboors next to my house with 3 dogs each, one of the owners have the big dogs so those rarely bark, but the one next door has the little kind (3 of them!!!!) And the stupid dogs go to the backyard every single day at 6:00am or a little earlier maybe to take a crap or something but then I get 5 minutes of barkings that wake me up every day!!!!! And interrupts my sleep, then I feel tired all day, I was looking for solutions but according to the law the dog needs to bark for 15 minutes at least!!! 5 minutes of barking everyday is enough for me to ruin my sleep!!!! Im so frustrated and the owners should have be more responsible about it!! Any ideas that could help me on this problem?

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