County Proposes Ways To Curb Dog Barking (fines $50 to $100)

[The Straight Story]

County Proposes Ways To Curb Dog Barking

SULLIVAN COUNTY, Tenn. -- Some area dog owners may have to put a muzzle on their pet's barking. We've learned Sullivan County is considering ways to keep noisy dogs from bothering neighbors.

Kayla Malone knows a dog full of energy can be an earful for the entire neighborhood. Her pup, Brinkley, is guilty of barking occasionally, but she tells me some neighbors are worse.

"However many dogs they had, when we first moved here, they barked. It would keep me up all night, like, until I got used to it," Malone told News 5 Friday.

Sullivan County commissioners are starting to get phone calls and emails of similar stories.

...

If the resolution is passed, concerned citizens could take their case to court, where offenders could be fined $50 to $100.

http://www.wcyb.com/news/30153390/detail.html

[customerserviceguy]

1. I wish they'd do that in my neighborhood

It's a development of condo units, and one neighbor has three extremely yappy little dogs. He's always walking them behind my building to crap who knows where (never has a plastic bag, either) instead of the sanctioned dog walking area.

[NMDemDist2]

2. dogs bark because they are bored or lonely

if you leave the dog outside all the time with no attention, it's no wonder they bark.

stupid owners.....

[izquierdista]

3. My neighbors must attend to theirs all day....

.....because the little fucker yaps all night.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

4. +1, same goes for serial chewing, digging and escaping n/t

[Fumesucker]

7. Dogs bark serially because they were bred that way..

Wolves bark but it's not particularly loud and only done singly, not one right after another like a lot of dogs, it's an alert sound to the rest of the pack that something is going on and they should be aware of it.

Dogs were originally bred at least partially as watch animals, they give the alert when they notice anything unusual. I have two fairly small dogs that bark a lot but they don't bark for no reason at all, there's always something that sets them off, a noise, seeing an animal out the window or something along those lines.

[petronius]

5. $50? What dog could possibly afford that much?

[LiberalFighter]

6. Require the dogs to be kept in the home instead of outside?

[Populist_Prole]

8. A previous neighbor had a Dalmation that was literally ruining my life

I was working 3rd shift then, and it was hard enough to get sleep as it was. I was later to learn serial barking was "normal" Dalmation behavior, but this thing barked so loudly, sharply, and endlessly, you'd swear it had to be some sort of mechanical 'borg'. I don't know how it had time to breathe and eat, though his/her vocalizations were accompanied by hyperactive running/jumping around. It did sleep at night though...while I was at work. I came to loathe that animal and wish for its demise in a way that made me guilty and ashamed, since I really like animals of all kinds.

Anyway, after months of getting maybe 3 or 4 hours of sleep out of every 24, I became run down and prone to every cold/flu bug going around, and was so exhausted by "my weekend" that I slept most of my days off trying to nap that I rarely saw my friends and family. After many complaints from myself and others, they brought the dog inside but were really snotty and defensive. You'd hear that thing bark so loud....and sharp...very crescendo-y even when it was inside that it drove them crazy, and back out he went. They finally moved, which was fine since they were very stand-offish sorts anyway. I never took getting 8 hours of sleep for granted again.

They may be popular in dog-centric culture, by they're definitely not a good 1/4 acre suburbia dog.