On Fri, 12 May 2006 20:04:24 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

Around here you just call the Authorities. At $600 a crack, it doesn't
take long to get the message across!!!!!!

Warning, this is a bit long.

How I spent my last summer vacation.

The dog across the street, a lovely Lab, was left alone by its owners, who
worked at a local casino from 6pm to 2am. They left at 5 and came home
around 3-4 am. The dog would bark in three barks, wait five seconds, and do
it again, and again, and again for ten hours.

We sent anonymous letters asking that they do something about the dog. No
results.

We called the police who gave us Animal Control's number. They said we
could sign a complaint, but then we would have to go to court as the victim
in order for the thing to proceed, and the neighbor would know who turned
them in. We wanted to keep peace in the neighborhood, and since this guy
looked like a Soprano affiliate, we opted to try something else.

It was evening on the first call to Animal Control, and we got a recording.
After that, we called and called and called every day. We were almost
always channelled to a recording device, and when we did talk to a human,
they said that they had sent out an officer, and the dog was not barking. I
think they used their caller ID to avoid us. When we called in while the
dog was barking, we would walk in front of the house with our phone and say,
"Can you hear this dog barking?" woof, woof, woof ............. woof, woof,
woof ...................... woof, woof, woof .......
(the sound of a Lab barking)

One day, Animal Control called us at 4:30 AM to tell us that they had sent
an officer out there, and the dog was not barking. My wife fielded the
call, and acted just like she was up anyway. She's a light sleeper. Not
sure why they called us at 0430.

The dog kept on. We kept on calling.

Finally, we saw our councilman at church. We told him about the dog, the
0430 call from Animal Control, and the repeated reports. He said, "I will
take care of this," and that was all he said.

The dog stopped barking a couple of days later. I imagine a couple of butts
got chewed at Animal Control. We then got a letter from the DA's office
asking us if we wanted to file a complaint and prosecute. Along with that
question was a long list of things that we should know about before we filed
a complaint, including that we could be prosecuted for filing a false report
if it turned out to be unjustified, and that the people who owned the dog
might sue US for harassment.

But the dog did stop barking.

I own two dogs, but I was having some serious thoughts about doing harm to
that dog.

Steve

I'm glad you didn't harm the dog. It's the owners that are to blame.
A lab can be broken of the barking habit. Been there, done that. My
beloved Charlie fell into that for a little while when she was about
5. I got a couple of friendly complaints. What finally worked was
to duct-tape her mouth shut for about 4 hours on a cool day when
panting wasn't required. Man, she hated that duct tape! After 4
hours of silent solitude and eventual resignation to her misery, the
tape was removed none too gently and then she got a dairy queen as
reward for her (enforced) good behavior. Man, that dog loved her
ice cream cones!

Lesson learned, was never forgotten for the remainder of her 18-year
life. I know labs aren't supposed to live that long, but Charlie
didn't know that.

I don't know for sure that the ultrasonic headache would train a
distant dog, but I kinda think it might. ARF --OW! And so on.