So... I met my new neighbor's the other day. We had a short discussion about their large pit bull that barks nonstop day and night.... can you hear it? It's barking right now. I was very polite and only brought it up casually at the end of our introduction. I didn't want to make it a huge issue but I needed to imply I might be going completely insane from lack of sleep and total distraction.

I have been very nice to my new neighbors, friendlily and polite. They seem like really nice people... except for that spawn of satan in the back yard. I tell them very nicely he should have some toys, and a dog house... maybe a chain slightly longer than 6 feet... maybe... just maybe they might walk him once in a while (he never leaves the back yard... ever... ever ever. I am home all day. He is never walked.)

So far nothing. Not one single effort has been made in any way whatsoever. If anything the dog barks even more now. I have the windows shut tight and the air conditioner on, I have 2 computers with fans running right in front of me... I have music blasting... and I still hear the dog loud and clear over all that.

Now the game is getting dirty. They are NOT playing fair.

Today a knock on my door. My neighbor's are celebrating their wedding anniversary and had a cookout and would I like a plate of food? "You've been so patient putting up with our dog." she said.

Foood! Free food! Those bastards!!! That is so unfair, to ply me with hamburgers and potato salad, grilled hotdogs and fresh string beans cooked on the grill.

Then she introduces me to her sweet older mother, and all the cousins. <sigh> I still hate that dog.

I thanked them and told them today was also my birthday. They laughed. Of course I'm sure they realized later that they would be celebrating their wedding anniversary every year on my birthday. Me, the dog hater...

Why do people own dogs? They never play with it. They don't walk it. It never goes in the house. It just barks all day. That is its only purpose in its miserable life. It has that scary crazy look in its eyes as it paces around in circles. It looks insane.

Oh... they have to young children who occasionally go out and tease it so it barks.

p.s.They sell gizmos that send out a subsonic frequency that annoys dogs. It is sound activated and quite small and unobtrusive. It goes off whenever the dog barks. According to the documentation it can take as little as 24 hours to cure a dog of constant barking.

I will bookmark the page as soon as I finish eating this cheeseburger...

-vern

Vern, it being you and all... Well, ya know, I almost didn't read this. As open minded as I may be, donkeys and dogs just aren't on my "preferred activity" list... But with eyes half-closed I read it and... Great story!

When did I ever write about donkeys? I never wrote about donkeys. I don't even like donkeys.

I should get a donkey!

They make more noise than a dog would... it might even kick the dog. I could ride the donkey to the WAWA and save on gas.

-vern

He he!
Wishing you a peaceful birthday, Vern

I feel sorry for the dog. What kind of people are they!? They obviously only own it to protect their house and belongings. How materialistic. Do they even feed it?!? Even pigs going for slaughter get a ball to play with once in a while.

Maybe you could throw a ball over for it and feign that your nephew kicked it over. But then it could strangle itself trying to get to it. Hmmmm.....he wouldn't be barking then though.

Happy Birthday Vern!!

Just remember, dogs are like onions. They have layers... ermm... or was that a donkey that had layers?

No wait, Ogres have layers, donkeys like to make waffels and swap manly stories.

Dogs? Well, dogs keep the cats away.

Al

Happy birthay, vern.

Always a pleasure to read your posts.

You know, you could take a metal fork and put a juicy meatball on it, and pass it thru the fence. Oh, did I forget that the fork is plugged into the AC line?

Reminds me of a story from my youth. We had a motorhome that, when it was parked, was plugged in to AC power. (Did I tell this one?) Unbeknownst to us, the hot side of the AC line had become shorted to the chassis. No fireworks or anything, because the vehicle was up on rubber tires. But there came the day when a dog decided to relieve himself on one of the wheels, which of course were metal and connected to the chassis. The moment that stream of salt water made contact... well, you can imagine the barking and running around in circles. Of all the places to get hit with a jolt...

Seriously, you ought to lodge a complaint with the authorities. You could do it anonymously, unless you're the only neighbor.

I know that you were just kidding about the fork hooked to the power.

Just to be clear, I know that the poor dog is not to blame. Dogs like that are being mistreated. A dog that howls and whines and barks is not happy.

I can make it through the summer.

If the dog doesn't have a proper shelter during the winter time I can assure you I WILL most definitely call the authorities... not for my inconvenience but for the miserable treatment of the poor dog.

The barking is annoying yes... but when I go outside and see the poor things eyes light up when it sees me and wagging its tale its little ears flopping... all he wants is some attention... something to do. He doesn't have a single toy of any kind. Just dirt. I am tempted to buy him a chew toy and throw it over the fence.

And yet those same owners will swear on a stack of bibles that they love that dog like their own children.

Funny Story:

A few years back completely different set of neighbors in the same house with the same situation. A miserable poor dog chained in the back yard 24 hours a day. When he got real loud I would go out there and kind of... talk to him. He was so pathetic and scared of me... as soon as I would go outside he would lower his head and stick his tail between his legs and just sort of shiver. I would just sort of stand out there on my porch and eventually he would calm down.

His owners treated him like absolute crap! You know how they say "You wouldn't treat a dog like that"... well... I guess they would. All they ever did was scream at him and yell at him. His name was Magic.

Once or twice a month Magic would go "walkabout". Some how he would escape. Some time after they moved out I found the little tunnel under the fence he was using to get to MY yard. I didn't have door on my back fence so that was his escape.

So in the middle of the night Magic's masters would go up and down the neighborhood calling out in a sad pathetic voice,

"Magic! Magic, we love you, please come home. Here boy! Magic!"

I'd be laughing to myself. Who were they kidding anyway? I could just see Magic hiding somewhere thinking to himself,

"I ain't falling for that again! They're not going to catch me this time! If I play my cards right maybe I could get on one of them vet shows."

I almost expected to find him in my backyard looking for a place to crash until the heat died down. I could have died his hair, made fake tags. Smuggled him to Mexico or a farm in the midwest.

Sad to say, they always did find him and bring him back.

-vern

Happy Birthday Vern!

I have 3 dogs and now a cat as well I my daughter used to have a Rabbit but thankfully we found a better home for it. Ok dogs barking? I have 2 golden retrievers and one shit-pow (a shit-pow is a cross between and shits-ho and toy poodle) the Golden Retrievers only bark if I am within eye sight or any other friendly person that is not petting them these guys are attention magnets and need attention all the time. I try my best to keep them from barking and have only failed a 1/2 dozen times in about 8 years. One neighbor lost it on me while I had hearing protection on while cutting back grass dogs tied up in front I think kids let them out on lease and they were barking for about an hour until my friendly neighbor cam over yelling at me Once I came to front and was standing beside them they just laid down and fell asleep while my Friend and I was talking about them. I explained that if you just get close to them they are fine just move your chair closer and drink your beer with them and they will be quite if you are out of reach it is torture to them they need to be close to people. My friend looked at sleeping dogs and looked at me and said you treat your dogs better then some people treat there kids! Sad to say my Friend is a Parole officer and has seen alot to things mostly bad the shits-ho barks constantly we only let her out to go bathroom then bring her in see barks and anything that flies

Now I have taken dog training courses and tyeing a dog up like you describe is s sure way to get that dog crazy and enough to hurt someone!! it's torturing the dog and after enough time it well turn on someone and normally a Innocent person not the people torturing the dog like that sad to say

My Dad used to have a dog that would mark his territory on every single lamppost that he passed. Dad couldn't work out how this thing was getting enough fluids to mark as many lampposts as he did. One had the inspection cover missing - Dad didn't see the dog for three days.

what's your sanity worth? ' ' )

a large bag of dog biscuits is under 10 bux.

as long as there's water outside, you could invest in some peanut butter to lengthen the silences between snacks.



-jon

Mark Allen right on the mark with this post. There were so much I didn't know about dogs until I starting reading training manual from my room mates that was taking dog lesson on training them. I did not know that it drives the dog insane to sleep alone, further more outside and alone.

I group a few neighbor, and set a time so all of us would confront the guy with a (Semi-)abuse dog on the howling and barking at night. I gave a guy the doubt that he didn't know. It was a hard thing to convince him, but never heard a peep out of the dog again. I really hope he didn't do the collar electrocution trick. I hate when people decide to own a dog for protection. It's like a guy marrying a woman because he wants to house to be clean and food prepare on the table. Dogs are like children, more time spent on the dog, a look is all you need for discipline.

On keeping dog quiet, I think addressing what the dogs need is far more effective than shutting him up. I think dogs can talk if you listen, they have trouble with the enunciation, but they do try. My cat could say "outside" or "milk" and if I don't understand what she is saying I always acknowledge her that I heard it by talking back. I was born deaf and I can't explain the frustration of not being able to be heard, that I talk to all animals. Thats just me, but I can't bear to think I would do that to any creature with a voice.

My first job was working inside the Veterinarian office. The movie "Pet Semitary" didn't scare me, that movie was just like another job.

Vern you should organize a underground railway for abuse dogs. Seem to have an awful a lot of knowledge on hiding from authority. Just saying!

You are/were deaf Ruscular? I thought I read in another thread that you liked the music done by a poster.

I am 80% deaf, and to the annoyance of my roommates I listen loud on my speakers that I hold in my arms. It is a misconception that deaf people don't like music, see the movie "Mr. Holland Opus" I stated in the other thread that I really like her lyrics, and I appreciate people make the words known, otherwise my hearing is such that I don't understand the word sung, I do listen on the phone thru my a very loud phone adapter for the my hearing loss, that send people on shrill when they answer my phone. I was misdiagnose that I was autistic when I was young which was very common back in the 60's and society have been much better in detecting hearing loss and more aware, and I didn't get my hearing aids until I was 7 and had no idea that there was more to reading other people lips for communication. I like jazz because it has lots of beat and syncopation and not monotone like other music that keeps repeating the same beat throughout the song. If you met me, you would not know that I had any hearing loss at all, as I was raise in a public school system, and if it was in a very loud environment, I would hear better than you, as Steve Sappington would attest to when I met him in a crowded convention in San Diego. The high frequency noise I don't hear much of at all , but low frequency such that of a bass guitar, I can hear almost as well as you, but unfortunately the human voice is rather high in the frequency, and in the range where I can only hear 80% of it. I love Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, and Barry White, and you can guesses why I love them?

There is deaf and there is profound deaf, and I would fall in the category of being deaf. Every year someone new brings this up, and I think it only bring up the point that most states do not integrate deaf people in public schools, and some, but not all people react unknowingly to the situation. Although Ken H, You have been around this forum for a long, long time. I had thought that everyone knew that I was deaf, and there was another deaf person in this forum while back and he was profoundly deaf, and one of the programmer, and he also enjoys music. Even though I should know, but even I can't fathom that notion. I had a profoundly deaf man teaching me how to make a violin. A deaf man that made his living making Violin and his violin were of highest quality and the people who buys them seldom know that he is deaf. Yet he could tell the difference between notes and firmly create 2 pieces of wood that are exactly a note and a half apart from each other. He loves to play the violin resting between his chin. I'm down to the wire to the nitty gritty of all misconception about deaf people. Beethoven created his symphony when he was deaf.

I gotta ask, have you never been around a deaf person? Have you not made friend with a single deaf person in your lifetime? How much do you love music, then ask yourself could you live without it? What would life be without music for you? Well, I am not sure where you are coming from with your line of question, and if it had a point other then sounding insinuating that I couldn't be deaf because I like music. Even though in my post I said I read her lyrics and I thought they were great. But I thought at least you should understand that all people love music and if you had a deaf friend to invite them to a concert with you, maybe and not shut people out because of your mis perception of them. You seem like a nice guy and that maybe you should know this.

I want to make clear that I do not think ill of you asking a question, The best question are the one you don't know the answer to.

One of the best drum and percussion players in the world is Evelyn Glennie, who is deaf.

I learn how to sing by playing a saxophone in High School. I learn the notes thru the vibration of the instrument and then emulate it with voice, ended up in church choir. I wanted to play, and nobody told me I couldn't. I remember a great quote somewhere that says something like "Don't tell anyone what they can't do, because they don't know that they cant do it yet" Well the good news that I don't often hear anyone telling me what I can't do.

I will admit I was a little peeve off for KenH for taking away my value opinion that someone else wrote a great song, as my praises doesn't carry any weight for a deaf person. He been in this forum as long as I have, so I don't know why he made that statement. I thought I give him the benefit of the doubt, and stay cool with it. I understand many people are in the same boat and not know about the deaf community as for many years the deaf were not mainstream with the public school. In the movie they showed a many deaf people enjoying the music at the concert. I thought it was a very beautiful scene and thought everyone should see that. Because the power of music is so universal that even passage in the bible speaks out its importance. Its a gift for humanity and music are traditionally sung in praises for life. As in my praises toward Emma and her song is my gift that I wish to give her and nobody can take what is universal away from me, even if I was born different.