Dog Gone It

Hey Trish!

I have a real annoying problem. His name is Hershey. Hershey is me neighbor’s dog. Don’t get me wrong, I like the dog. I just can’t stand his constant barking. In the winter they keep him inside most of the time. But now that Spring is here, Hershey is outside crooning the neighborhood 15 hours a day. He barks at leaves, squirrels, my backyard door opening and shutting, the mailman and the list goes on and on. Other than their dog’s bark my neighbors are fine. We don’t really interact but we really don’t have issues. How do I fix this problem or do I do the opposite of Hershey and keep my mouth shut?

Any advice is appreciated.

Unchained Melody in the backyard of Indiana

Hey Unchained Melody!

Sounds to me like Hershey is like Donald Trump and likes the sound of his own voice. That is a tough one because you know they hear the dog too. I wonder why it does not bug them? Maybe they are like this generation of parents who think their child, or in this case dog, does nothing wrong or is incredibly talented at singing. Either way it is annoying.

The way I see it is you can proceed in several ways. Let’s look at the first way. I will call it the passive aggressive way. Find a really annoying song and play it over and over again for your neighbors. Make sure it is loud enough and plays during very inappropriate times. Not helpful? Ok let’s try option two, the path of least resistance. Do nothing and suck it up. I like to think this is me 90% of the time. The problem is that nothing changes and eventually I get so irritated I refer back to a solution similar to option one. Again, this is not helpful. My final option is one you probably don’t want to do but is the best. Talk to them. Try not to be so direct and confrontational. People love their dogs and neighbors can’t be avoided forever. Take a few times to interact with them without saying anything about the dog unless they bring it up. Once you have built some friendliness, then kindly ask them about the dog. Ease your way into the barking. Ask them if their is a way to limit times when he is out that are really troublesome. These times could be early morning or late at night.

I stand by my grandmas advice. Kill ‘‘em with kindness. Don’t kill the dog, that would be illegal. Just kidding

Trish