Over here in Queensland Australia some of our regional councils (which would be your counties I suppose) have a 6 minute barking dog rule, which, as it suggests, states that if your pet suburban dog barks continuously for more than 6 minutes then it is deemed to be a nuisance and can be removed from your property and you, the owner, can be fined.
Now I have two border collies in my suburban backyard (I think you guys call border collies something else over there?) and as like most collies they are energetic and love to play, and when they do they bark and tell their master to hurry up to keep playing. My trick to shut them up is they must play with a ball in their mouth. They know to find their ball first before they can even begin to play.
However my relative up the road a bit was actually hit hard with the law and their faithful friend and companion was forced to be evicted …it was a sad day, they fought hard with the council challenging every by-law in the book to no avail.
When did society lose its tolerance for a creature they spent thousands of years genetically engineering to be the best friend of humankind? They are the happiest souls ever put on the Earth and have helped us humans out in almost every facet of life but now it seems we as a society are becoming impatient and losing our respect for our four legged friends.
Why is that? In this day and age where we need to have tolerance for others just to live side by side in peace, why can’t that include our dogs as well?
Is there nothing in the ordinance about time of day?
There is a dog near us that barks sporadically all during the night. The dog also barks during the day, so as far as I can tell, it isn’t spending much time indoors nor as a companion to the old woman who lives there. I don’t mind so much during the day, but it can wake me up at night even through a closed window. Not to mention in the summer when the window is open.
In any case, clearly the owner(s) of this animal don’t care much about it, nor about us, the neighbors. This is at least one case where I would welcome such an ordinance.
Barking is a disturbing noise, if you are not involved with the dog and its activities. It’s percussive and, usually, loud. Why do you expect your neighbors to have to put up with it for extended periods, even in the daytime?
Roddy
I agree; but six minutes seems a little harsh. If it’s a real nuisance barking a lot every day, then it seems reasonable to do something about it. Six minutes? I imagine that every dog on the planet does that at some point. That rule would mean no dogs at all.
No, well-trained dogs don’t bark continuously for more than five minutes unless they’re being hurt. I have little sympathy for someone who loses their dog due to this ordinance. Train your farking pet, or lose it. Sounds good to me. Uncontrolled dogs not only bark a lot and disturb their neighbors, but they’re at greater risk for biting people and/or inflicting property damage.
If you want to own an uncontrolled dog and let it bark all day long, don’t live in a suburb! Buy a rural home or farm with the closest neighbors half a mile away. If you can’t be arsed to train your dog, you are lazy or stupid (or both) and should not be allowed to inflict it on your unfortunate neighbors.
I also don’t think time of day is relevant. Dogs (and people) do not just sleep at night. There is *no *time of day when it is reasonable to allow a dog to bark for 6+ minutes straight. What if your neighbor works the graveyard shift? Should your dog be allowed to bark for a solid hour at noon and disturb your neighbor’s sleep? No.
Disclaimer: I don’t like dogs, and I value peace and quiet.
What reasons are there for a well-trained dog to bark for 6+ minutes continuously? Unless the dog is being hurt (or there’s a break-in, of course), I can’t think of a single one.
Wind up a stopwatch. Sit and listen to a recording of continuous barking while 5 minutes go by. If you’re not crazy by the end of it, you must be an android.
Your knowledge of what a well-trained dog does and does not do is belied by the fact that you believe a dog barks when in pain. It does not; it whines.
You clearly do not believe this - but I assure you there is no dog on Planet Earth, well-trained or other, that has not barked for six minutes at one point or other. I realise you don’t like dogs, but such a zero-tolerance rule is effectively a cull on dogs.
As for not being able to think of a single reason, here are a few off the top of my head (I could come up with more if I made an effort):
scared by fireworks
being taunted by a cat up a tree
being teased by the local asshole kids
afraid of low flying aircraft
afraid of thunder
being barked at by another dog
These are not trainable behaviours, by and large. They can be mitigated somewhat, but nobody has 100% control over another living thing. At least not without abusing the dog to the point where its too scared of the consequences of barking.
A former roommate of mine was a pretty crappy dog owner, but not even her dog ever barked for longer than a minute at a time. By the time it hit the 30 second mark, she was scrambling to shut it up. If your dog is being continually teased by passing cats or children, consider crating or thicker curtains.
So here’s a hypothetical situation from the zero-tolerance, kill-the-mutt folks (because that is what "take it away means in the real world - make no mistake; no-kill shelters are rare):
Owners aren’t present at the time (because nobody is present all the time). It’s the 4th of July and the fireworks are scaring the crap out of the poor dog. Or it’s a nasty thunderstorm. He’s barking.
You have him forcibly taken away from his family? And, ultimately, likely killed?
I would have to think that the dog was barking a lot, not just one single episode of barking continuously for six minutes, for someone to complain and have the nuisance barking rule invoked.
I have barky dogs. They bark for lots of reasons, but I’m pretty sure they have never barked for six continuous minutes. I swear my labx (RIP) liked to bark just to hear himself. Or maybe he was barking at that dog a block away that only he could hear - whatever, as soon as he started, I was out there telling him to hush or get in the house. I might let him bark a bit during the day, (it’s a noisy area, anyway), but at night, there was no barking allowed.
I’m pretty sure that my neighbours, on the other hand, have just learned to tune out the screeching yips of their wee fluffballs, and are blissfully unaware of just how annoying it is to other people in the neighbourhood, even those of us with dogs.
It is very sad that your relative had to get rid of their dog. Did their dog bark? Or was this truly a malicious and undeserved enforcement of the rule?
This seems to me like a false argument. If there are fireworks or a thunderstorm, chances are I’m not going to be bothered by barking. I am bothered by barking when it is otherwise quiet.
I don’t know at what or why the dog near us is barking, but I don’t think it can be any normal sort of provocation. It’s just crappy neighbors who don’t give a damn.
For the record, I do not dislike dogs and, although I value peace and quiet, I also recognize that life in a city is a compromise. I would not be in favor of putting down dogs for barking, either. I might be in favor of doing something painful to the owner if this situation doesn’t get better, however.
Roddy
