No shit my dog is barking you dumbass biotch!

The BBQ Pit
1

My apartment manager called me at work to let me know that “Your dog is barking incessantly inside your apartment! It’s really disturbing!”

It’s not like him, and I was very apologetic, and she was very nasal with an “excuse me sir, but you happen to be dealing with a high school gradu-ate” Lily Tomlin officious tone. So I took an hour off work and traipsed home to see what Rufus Oliver’s problem was.

What the Landlord Didn’t Mention

I live in a townhouse apartment. I’m in the end unit so there’s nobody on one side, and the apartment on the other side has been vacant ever since I moved in four months ago. Evidently it was left in a helluva mess because they’re renovating it. While I was there I heard constant hammering, the sound of some type of industrial strength space age drill and workmen speaking in a muffled dialect.

NO SHIT THE DOG WAS BARKING! DOG’S TEND TO DO THAT WHEN THEY THINK YOU’RE TRYING TO KNOCK DOWN THE WALL INTO THEIR SPACE! I’D APPRECIATE A CALL IF PEOPLE WERE BANGING ON THE WALL AND MY DOG DIDN’T BARK BECAUSE THEN I’D KNOW THERE WAS SOMETHING REALLY WRONG WITH HIM!

There’s not a helluva lot I can do other than fit him for earplugs and I’m frankly not going to do that. So I walked into the office and very politely inquired “You do know that they’re banging on the wall next door?”

The landlady, who is actually an assistant who I suspect hasn’t been laid since early in Reagan’s second term and then it was by a homeless guy who she made earn the Susan B. Anthony dollar she gave him, says “Yes Mr. Sampiro- I know. I went to check on their progress and he was barking the entire time, even when they weren’t hammering and drilling.”

Me: Well, I think we’ve solved the case. When they stop he’ll stop and there’s nobody on the other side so I can’t imagine he’s bothering the neighbors…

Dog Hating Bitch: That’s not the point, the lease states pet-owners are required to keep their pets quiet…

Me: And that the management will try to keep the complex peaceful, and I don’t think that is interpreted as hammering and banging. But, I’m reasonable and I understand that this is necessary, but please be reasonable as well and realize that when you bang on a dog’s wall, he will bark. [Getting a bit more smartass than I intended] That’s why people use dogs for protection- it’s because if there’s noise or motion they let you know it- it’s not so that they can dial 911 and apply pressure to arterial sprays if necessary.

Dog hating Bitch: Well he barked even when they stopped hammering for a while…

Me: [up to here with her attitude] Well if you’ll excuse I’m going to go back to work and spend the afternoon trying to get Mike Wallace on the phone because I think this is newsworthy… a dog who barks even between hammerings! Is this complex on an old Indian burial ground by any chance? Or maybe a ch…

Dog hating Biotch: Are you being sarcastic?

Me: No, I’m being detained from the job that pays my rent, your salary and my dog’s deposit for an absolutely asinine reason that will be brought to the attention of your parent company, good-day madame.
I don’t know if I’ll really send a complaint letter, but be honest: is it her or is it me? It’s her, isn’t it? I was furious that I had to leave work for one of the stupidest reasons due to a woman who can’t grasp the concept of cause:effect.

2

Kudos on smacking down your idiot landlady. She’s obviously never owned a dog yet she somehow feels she has the authority to accuse your dog of misbehaving even though the poor thing was probably scared out of its wits with all the banging. What a dumbass.
Oh, and this?

Niiiice :smiley:

3

Its definately her Sampiro, but then I love dogs. Got three myself. Got so tired of problems with landlords I bought a house out in the woods. Damn the commute but the dogs love it. I just wish they were not quite so good at catching skunks.

4

My dogs bark at everyone that comes to the door, which since I’m living alone right now is just fine with me. People don’t have to know they have zero bite, they just hear the loud bark. I was even assured recently by a freecycler who stopped to pick something up that it was a good idea to have dogs that bark at strangers.

That woman is a complete idiot, Sampiro.

5

In the narrow context of “who’s responsible for starting this thread and feeling the way they do?”, well… at the moment it’s you - but to be fair, you’re reacting to stuff which is making you feel defensive.

And I can’t say I blame you either! (smile)

Something to remember though - anger is a normal and healthy response to either a threat, or a sense of injury. My take on things at the moment is that you’re feeling a sense of threat regarding your lease etc due to the fact that your pup is barking above and beyond what is deemed as “acceptable”.

The trick here is to go onto the charm offensive. Write up a series of form letters and put them into your neighbours letterboxes this evening. Be pro-active and assertive. Apologise to your neighbours for the barking. Assure your neighbours that it’s purely due to the noises caused by the renovations next door to your apartment. If you want, include a $5 lottery ticket in each envelope as a form of good will.

In my experience, these incidents are a numbers game. If you have enough neighbours who are on your side, if the matter comes up for discussion at a meeting whether to escalate it or not, your neighbours will tend to stick up for you and let the matter die.

Good will is a funny thing. I find it’s best to pump it out first and hope it’ll come back to me instead of vice versa.

Best of luck my friend!

6

Whenever I’ve lived in apartment buildings thankfully the residents haven’t been allowed to keep pets, so this problem hasn’t arisen.

7

You must send the complaint letter. You already threatened to do so, meaning that she’ll be sure to have her defense ready (and probably already laid out to her boss, but you can’t do anything about that, so don’t worry about it.) Include in this letter an apology for any “intemperate language” you may have used during the initial exchange, explain a step or two that you’ll take if “properly notified of future construction work”, i.e. put the dog in a bathroom, request to be called if the dog barks “in unacceptable levels” (they do that anyway - why not offer it back at them? :wink: ), etc.

But you have to send the letter because you already told her you would. If you don’t, she’ll quite likely view it as your backing down from the fight. Unless that’s the message you do want to send her, of course.

8

That’s good advice too.

9

Once again, I must pop in to say how much I adore you, Sampiro. How come I can actually hear your posts, instead of merely reading them?

You were so much more genteel (even with the thinly disguised sarcasm) than I would have been. It would have been “Aw it’s on NOW, biatch!” or something to that effect, had I had to go home for that.

Dog Hating Bitch must have been bored. She just picked the wrong person to attempt lording over. And yes, you MUST write that letter. It sure wasn’t you.

10

Good lord, I wasn’t even involved in this incident and this one statement alone has my blood at a rapid boil.

She’s either lying about the hammering stoping or she’s too stupid to realize that a dog just isn’t going to stop .002 seconds after the hammering stops. Also even if the hammering did stop; I’m sure the dog could still hear some movement around which he isn’t used to,- * And* which he associates with the “intruders” so to speak.

11

sampiro, first I’m with you. She’s being a twit. If the dog hadn’t been riled up by the hammering the continued presence of the people next door wouldn’t bother it.

Secondly, you should send in the complaint letter. If you don’t DHB will decide you’re a blow-hard, and ignore your complaints in the future. Explain to the management company that you really dislike being called away from your job to deal with a problem that is almost completely beyond your control - renovations will disturb pets, and if they allow dogs, they should realize that there will be some difficulties in this sort of situation. Likewise, add, that you’re not pleased to have been given only part of the problem in the manager’s complaint.

12

Keep an eye on your dog. All this pounding is making him/her very upset and could cause further problems down the road, health wise. Especially if this has been going on for a while. They already have it on file that your dog is barking (to protect you) so if it’s necessary to have to put your dog on meds to calm him down from all this trauma, you can forward the bill to them. There’s nothing in your lease stating you can’t have dogs, so you’ve done nothing wrong. Fight fire with fire. Leasing companies are the devil incarnate. Truly. Which is why we own a house.

:smiley:

13

That’s just - :sniff: - beautiful.

Rufus Oliver is owned by one of the great poets of our day.

Regards,
Shodan

14

When my dad was in the military we lived in PMQ’s in some locations, and we had a large dog.

We got a complaint that he was barking non-stop one day (which he never did) and we wound up having to give him to a farm (we REALLY gave him to a farm - we visited afterwards) because of it.

It turned out that the neighbours house was broken into and ransacked and that’s what he was barking at. Didn’t matter - the dog was barking, he had to go.

Some people are very, very dumb.

(FWIW, he was a lot happer on the farm any way.)