Re: Barking dogs, rant!!
Say raggie,
If you could edit the thread title, you would have gotten many more replies. I think my neighborhood is some kind of 'Devil's Triangle/Bermuda' for the amount of barking dogs, and generally self-absorbed, inconsiderate, selfish, lousy neighbors. It's like there is some unknown force that attracts those kind of people to this area (an X-files phenomena?). Well you know there are nuisance laws, but getting them enforced is not so easy. Suing in small claims court over this nuisance, not always successful. The City of Los Angeles, City Attorney's office now has a pilot project to handle barking dog complaints in the West Los Angeles Division (where I live, woohoo; LOL). TV news crews covering this new program, one of the very 1st cases (they have non-binding alternative dispute resolution mediator try to find a solution between offending dog owners, and suffering neighbors...again, LOL), and the woman complaining was saying she did not have much hope, being that she had already tried to get relief from the courts. Pretty laughable, the offending neighbor; woman and her teenage children show up with her version of the story that "I did not think they (her 2 dogs) were that much of a problem". Yeah, them types of people are absolutely stone deaf!!! How the hell they manage to sleep through all of that barking is beyond me (umm, maybe they have soundproof bedrooms and use ear plugs? while they leave their barking dogs out all night long).
I'm wondering if those high-frequency devices work in noisy city environments, as I live right next to the freeway and there is so much background noise, will the dogs be irritated enough by one of these to stop barking? And if they have such limited range, why don't the manufacturers make one that can put out enough high-frequency sound that reaches 200-ft or so (heck for my neighborhood, I need a minimum range of 1 kilometer, LOL). Why is there not a better built in microphone with adjustable sensitivity for picking up the dogs bark from greater range?
Ah, I know why dog owners don't attend to their noisy beasts that need attention. Umm, well they have now, these services where you can have a professional dog trainer show up at your residence to train the dogs. Only problem is that most of the time it's the lousy, inconsiderate dog's owners that need the training!
There was this hilarious HD movie "Welcome to the Neighborhood" presented at last year's HDfest in Los Angeles, and I think this independent (produced by well known daytime TV soaps writing team) movie got picked up by Showtime or HBO? Anyway, if you ever get the chance to see it on cable, near the end of the multi-story movie, we have a married couple with the wife working on her computer from home, and she practically loses her mind with the barking dog, one street over in the canyon of a Hollywood Hills home.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0291561/
Superbly acted by Tim DeKay (recently seen as Rev. Keyes in Everwood), as the impossibly difficult dog owner. I won't tell you the about the hilarious, 'fooled you' ending scene, in case you ever get the chane to see it.
You get this book by the Nolo press, and it tells you LA has the model of dog barking laws in the country. LOL, easier said than done lengthly bureaucratic process. So this neighbor from hell with the barking dog says the same thing virtually all dog owners say "No my dog does not!" "He only barks when there is something he hears to bark at". Oh yeah, sure; so these dog owners go out for dinner or partying, or whatever and their dogs just light up into non-stop barking sometimes for hours. Some are barking at other sounds, squirrels, birds; but many just bark because they want attention just like a young child/baby. And do they ever howl/cry for attention when their owners are gone, might as well be living around a pack of wolves the howl so loud. Then when the owners come home, there is that happy bark they give. Typical, unconditional love we get from "mans best friend". Yeah, that's why you have pets instead of children. Children are very high maintenance, and you don't get unconditional love from them. Same with other humans, you never get unconditional love from g/f or b/f, or spouses, or humans in general. So we have our pets to fulfill that need of a 'friend' who always gives you unconditional love. Uh, well there are always exceptions like this one, hehe.
Dog Bites Off N.M. Man's Genitals
Right now I have this tall hottie of a Chinese-American (can't speak a word of Chinese, but only associates with her 'own kind') 30' something year old spoiled and pampered princess of a neighbor. She just got this oh so cute lovable little dog just like
Michelle Kwan's & Ginseng/Tofu . Except, when she goes out every night with her b/f or doesn't come home until well after 10PM at night, she sometimes lets the little ******* to roam freely outside in the backyard. It will bark at any sound, but goes berserk when other dogs start barking. Such a little beast with the worst, coarsest sounding (vocal cord damaged?), gravelly bark you could possibly imagine. Think of how painfully annoying a person who intentionally takes their fingernails and scrapes them on a green/black chalkboard sounds. I think I'm going to develop a nervous twitch in my eye! Unfortunately, this particular neighbor and I, have a pre-existing dispute going on, so I can't get into the dog barking with her--- she already knows I hate barking dogs (I mean, during the daytime, if it's not constant; I can put up with some noise, you expect that living in a city environment).
Then there are those neighbors who go on vacation and just leave enough food and water outside for their friggin dogs! Then there was this other, ummm ethically correct, and guy friends of my hottie 'princess' neighbor who have lots of money in the family. They own 2 homes in the neighborhood a block apart. Yet they have abandoned one home, as one property has a brand new home built on it; but the other will sometime in the future be torn down for a new one also. But get this, they leave their friggin dog in the old home (what as security? there was nothing inside of the home to steal, get a silent alarm for security!) with just food and water outside in the backyard. The damned dog barks at cars driving down the street, and people walking, at any sound; but worst of all is that it would howl/cry for attention well past midnight. This went on for 6 months, before they moved it or something. Do these people know that their dogs bark loudly when they are not there. Answer is that they do not care about anyone else other than themselves, hey, they are not there and so the sound does not bother them. Heck, I saw one of the guys working on the back gate to the property and his damned dog was just barking and he does what other stupid dog owner's do. Hell yelled at it "Be quiet!", and of course the dog kept barking...dumbass, the dog is not human, hasn't been trained to not bark, doesn't understand English or Chinese---I mean, what a bonehead!
Seems to me that it's a good idea to make a quality recording of a barking dog, then get a high-power
directional horn speaker, and when the owners of the dog get home to be greeted by their 'unconditionally' loving pet, they also get a nice blast of what you had to put up with when they were out! But then they'd probably get PO'd at you, and sue you in small claims court and win because the administrator or judge is a dog lovin biased fiend. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/Christo_pull_hair.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/duh2.gif