OK, here's a minor ethical dilemma I have to deal with several times a week:
Imagine that your two big dogs are in the backyard, sniffing around, lounging, and generally having a doggy good time, while not barking at all or making any other kind of untoward, neighbor-annoying noise.
Imagine that the next-door neighbor's four big dogs are lined up along their side of the fence, barking at your dogs.
Loudly.
Non-stop.
For half an hour or more.
And the neighbor does not seem inclined to take her dogs inside.
You know that, should you bring your dogs in, the barking will stop and neighbors in a six-block radius will cautiously consider removing their industrial-quality ear protectors.
You are happy to think that you have the means at your disposal to make unhappy neighbors happy.
But your dogs are not the ones barking.
Your dogs are happy in the yard.
Quietly happy in the yard.
What is the responsibility of the dog owner whose dogs are not the barkers, but merely, by their simple presence in their own backyard, the catalyst for the barking?
I just don't know. My dogs are now lounging on the kitchen floor, and all is quiet. But I feel just the teensiest bit resentful.
Posted by Su Penn at February 27, 2004 12:14 PM | TrackBackI think your neighbor is a slovenly dog trainer. We've got a similar problem, where one of the neighbor's dogs (the meanest - they've got 3) rushes with a vicious sound at the fence every time we open our back door. I heard the neighbor reinforce that dog for barking at me once a couple of years ago, and that darn dog hasn't forgotten. I believe he asks to be let outside the moment he hears our door open.
Posted by: Z*lda on March 1, 2004 06:06 PM