Once Again, the Dogs Just Keep on Barking

I just had another of those tiresome, irritating, day-stopping breaks to call animal control because one of my many dog-owning neighbors could not/would not stop his dog from barking incessantly. This one began at about 7 this morning and finally stopped when the cop left the neighbor's house about 9.

I really hate having to report these irresponsible, thoughtless people who should not own dogs, but the alternatives are to bring in the constabulary or go to war with the neighbors. I've tried it both ways and discovered that in most cases, there simply is no way to reasonably expect a neighbor will quiet his dog just because I want him to. It seems to be some kind of Constitutional guarantee that these people can chain their dogs in the back yard on short leashes and let them howl, bark and scream all day and all night without any complaint from neighbors who don't want conflict.

I don't want the conflict, but I don't want the dog barking, either.

It continues to amaze me that the owners don't seem to hear the dogs, like some parents don't hear their screaming children for long minutes at a time while everybody else in the restaurant has their hands over their ears.

We have barking ordinances and general noise ordinances, but the cops who've answered my calls in the past tell me that it is truly difficult to enforce them. You need tapes, videos, corroborating testimony and the like in order to take it to court and even with that, the owner often only gets a warning. I would like it a lot of City Council would update the ordinance to include a warning for the first offense, impoundment of the dog for the second and a big fine and loss of the dog on the third. If the cop found the dog barking, that would be proof enough.