Please help with barking...

Question
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Followup To
Question -
Ms. Cabe,
I have 2 Schipperkees, which I think translates to happy, barky little black dog! About 1 1/2 yrs ago we bought a house with a big back yard. About 4 months later we got a notice from Animal control stating that a neighbor complained about our dogs barking. They gave several suggestions as how to stop it including severing vocal cords! At that time my husband and I were both working,my brother lived with us and worked nites. Between all of us and our daughter the dogs were only outside for 3 1/2 hrs. in the morning and then 1 hr in the afternoon. I stopped working soon after the warning and put the dogs on a tighter schedule.  This has been fine for the past year, when this past week we received an anonymous letter stating that we are disrespectful and disgusting dog owners because our dogs bark unprovoked. They also threatened litigation.  We have made several changes over the last year including, training class, every single time they bark I call them in. We don't let them out but once after 8pm and now we gate them in the kitchen when we go somewhere instead of leaving them outside.  Now we have bought muzzles for them and if they need to go out before 9 am and after 8pm we muzzle them, which they don't like at all. We never leave the muzzle on for more than 20 min. I can't afford the barking specialists at $300. a dog and I will NOT have their vocal cords cut.  They bark at the squirrels, a stray cat and the screaming kids behind us. We have also put up a secondary barrier fence so they don't bark at the dogs behind us. By the way the neighbor that I believe sent the letter has 3 dogs. 2 Scottish terriers and a Dalmation. Of course when they are outside the dogs race the fence due to barrier frustration. My concern is that it seems we have no rights when it comes to having dogs, they must be silent at all times when in the yard. I do not want to be forced to cut their vocal cords if we go to court. Please help me, I just don't know what else to do.  The dogs can be outside for up to an hour or more and never bark, but that is missed by this neighbor. We do not live in a covenant controlled neighborhood so there is only the city codes. Also is there a pet advocacy group that can give me info. about rights? Lastly, Cody was given to us as a puppy by a friend and he has severe seperation anxiety diagnosed by the vet. No puppy prozac yet though. The vet said it wasn't even a good idea to try to crate train him because of self injury. We got Mason as a companion dog, we rescued him from a pet store, he was 6 months old and had been "living" there for 4 months. They only wanted a shot fee of $99 just to take him off their hands or they were going to have him destroyed in 6 days. He had muscle atrophy and was over vaccinated. Other than that they are the most loving dogs. They have no problems with their diet or health. They get checkups every 6months. Cody is 3 yrs and Mason just turned 2 yrs old. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Answer -
Wow, Elena. Some people are just nasty aren't they? Personally, I do not believe in debarking dogs (severing the vocal cords). Not only is it a painful procedure for the dog to have to go through, but barking is one of the ways dogs communicate. In addition, even after being debarked, scar tissue can form on the vocal cords and eventually allow the dog to bark again - sometimes louder and/or more piercing than before. This means the dog must go through another painful and traumatic surgery to cut out the scar tissue so that he cannot bark - again. Not to mention the strain on your pocketbook to pay for the surgeries. I'm with you on that one; don't give in and have the dogs debarked. They don't suggest the same thing for screaming neighbor's children when they're outside in the yard, and often screaming children are worse than barking dogs!

Muzzling them when you let them outside in YOUR YARD is something you shouldn't have to do because you have crappy neighbors. Dogs will bark occasionally, just like kids will yell and holler and scream. It's a given. When a neighbor's dog barks once or twice, it shouldn't elicit a call to Animal Control. Now, if the neighbor's dog is just barking and barking and barking, for 5min or more nonstop; that's a different matter altogether. That signals (to me at least) that the dog's owner isn't outside with the dog, and the dog is most likely barking out of boredom or because he wants to be let back in and his owner isn't paying attention. Also, play barking and barking because of boredom or because the dog sees a rabbit or something are different. Punishing a dog for vocalizing in play is just plain wrong; that would be like spanking a toddler for giggling when playing in the sandbox. MAN I'd like to meet your neighbors! They're getting ME all riled up and it's not even me they're targeting!

Here's what I would do in your situation; you say you have a fence around your backyard. Is it a privacy fence or some type of 'solid' barrier or is it a chainlink- type fence? If it's a chainlink-type fence, I would look into possibly putting up some sort of privacy fence. I believe they make them as short as 4ft, or you can go as high as 7 or 8 feet, but the average height is 6ft. By doing this, not only would the neighbors not be able to see when your dogs were out in the yard (and thus watch them and call Animal Control at the first bark or whatever), but when/if your dogs DID bark, the solid fence would help to keep the sound contained within your yard and not be as loud to the neighbors.

If you can't afford to do the privacy fence, I would suggest that you start documenting every single time you let the dogs out, as well as documenting when they bark. A surveillance camera would help tremendously, and they are pretty cheap. I have an X10 system at my home, and it cost $99 for three black and white wireless cameras, the transmitter, remote, and the receiver that you use to hook it up to the TV or VCR. The X10 website is www.x10.com, or I think Lowe's and Home Depot also sell the one-camera systems fairly cheap. If you have a video recorder, you can just set it up where it can see the entire yard, and turn it on when you let the dogs out. That way might be better because usually the time and date are displayed on the tape and that would serve to back up your written log, as well as catching the neighbor's dogs when they bark or otherwise cause disturbances, and the screaming young'uns as well. ;)


Each and every time you let the dogs out, write down the date and time. If one of the dogs barks, write down which dog, the time, and how many times it barked. If it was barking AT something, write down what it was barking at as well. When you let them back in, write down the time again. Don't forget to turn the camera on and off if you're using just a video recorder. If you have one of the surveillance cameras, you can leave it on all the time, but just remember to change out tapes in the VCR.

This may sound like a lot of work, but if you can provide written documentation, especially with video backup, then you have a far better chance of 'winning' this 'battle' with your neighbor(s). If you have proof of what your dogs are actually doing, then your neighbors simply cannot win if they DO decide to take it to court (which I doubt they will because it really isn't worth the money, time, and effort). Honestly, I think the letter was just a bluff; something to upset you and hopefully make you get rid of your dogs. Unfortunately for them, it isn't going to work that way (I hope!).

I wonder if there's a way to look up your city ordinances on pets online. What city do you live in? Perhaps I can find something for you that talks about nuisance barking. You may also want to look at the ASPCA website (www.aspca.org) and see what they suggest. You could send your question to them as well. I'm SURE they would suggest something other than debarking.

Good luck, and if there's anything else you need, let me know.

Kristen


Dear Kristen,
  Thank you so much for your suggestions and rest assured I will NOT allow my dogs to be debarked or get rid of them.  I plan on fighting this every step of the way.  We share a common 6ft side fence with our neighbor, however it is essentially theirs so we can not change it. The fence slats are alternating, one on one side one on the other, so it is very easy to see into their backyard.  We live in Aurora Colorado and animal control sent me a copy of the barking code when I got my first complaint.  I like the idea about documenting the "outdoor adventures" I was considering this and will now go forward with it.  I hope that the threat of litigation is a bluff, animal control said that it is an option for them. Do you know of any resources I can look into other than the A.S.P.C.A if they can not help me.  Thank you again for all your support I have worried about this till it makes me ill.  

Answer
Hello again, Elena. The ASPCA (www.aspca.org), Humane Society of the US (www.hsus.org), and the Animal Legal Defence Fund (www.aldf.org) would be my first points of reference if I was in your situation.

I went to the website for Aurora, CO, and read the barking dog ordinance.

It says that there must be at least two households in the neighborhood that file a complaint in order for you to have to go to court. It also says that the animal control officer can serve as that second complaintant, but he must be able to see and hear the dogs, and if you have a 6ft high privacy fence, that prevents them from being able to see the dogs inside the fence. So therefore, he would not be able to serve as that second complaintant. It also says that the officer must be able to observe the dogs without the dogs knowing he is there, so they are not barking at him.

It also says that most barking dog complaints are from the dogs barking in the early morning or night-time hours, when the shelter staff is not working, and so as a result, these calls rarely result in an animal control officer coming out to the premisis.

I would suggest going around to all of your neighbors and just asking them if your dogs are a problem to them, and if so, ask them if there's anything that they would have you to do to fix it. Tell them that you've had a complaint filed and you want to try to fix the problem, but you'd like their input. This may help to keep them from agreeing to be that second complaintant, should the original complaintant go around and ask them to sign a document stating that your dogs are a barking nuisance. If they know that you ARE actively trying to remedy the problem, they may be less likely to want to take action against you. Make sense?

Here's the website address for the barking dog ordinance if you're interested. It may be different than what you were given; you never know. It does make reference to documenting the actions of the dogs, so again, if you can already have that information readily available, it will probably help you.

http://www.auroragov.org/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1350&ssSo