Open letter to the neighbors

[mrissa]

Dear neighbors:

You need to stop letting your dogs out to barkbarkbark at 5:45 a.m. No, really. You need to stop. It is not a friendly thing to do. It's getting old. Do you know how old it's getting? The last two mornings, my dog has made the exact noise a junior makes in a squirrelly freshman dorm. The, "arrrmmmmmmfffff," noise. The, "Can't you stupid damn kids just go back to sleep?" noise. My dog is bored with your dogs running around barking this early. Dogs never get bored by other dogs running around barking. So there you go: you are tedious about this as well as unpleasant. They are the dogs. You are the monkeys. Deal with it.

Nolove,
mrissa

Comments

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Oh! Ouch! See, in my world, after getting no satisfaction from the dog owners regarding the problem, I would call the police, and the police would either refuse to take a report, take a report while lecturing me about wasting their time, tell me that barking dogs is not a crime, tell me that I have to prove that the dogs are barking before they will take a report, or come out to my place, take MY dogs away, and give me a ticket.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

One of the problems is that I don't know which house it is. There's more than one option. I think it's the people behind us, but it could be Ista's play buddies next door.

Another problem is that I really don't want either set of dogs removed from their owners. I just want them to wait until a quasi-civilized hour to let them run and bark.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're not eager to go out at 5:45 to find out which dog is barking. I think that would technically be a noise violation, not an animal related infraction, so I doubt the dogs are at risk, but unless the owners are real jerks, they would probably respond to a request to keep the early morning barking to a minimum. I'll bet you're not the only one. Maybe you can ask the play buddies next door when you see them. "I heard some dogs barking very early this morning. That wasn't Fluffy and Champ, was it?" If it wasn't them, maybe they know who it was.

I really hate hearing dogs bark in the night. Not only does it disturb my sleep, but I end up feeling bad for the dogs. There is some dog in our neighborhood that is occasionally allowed to be outside barking in the middle of the night. The worst is when they barbarkbarkbark, then silence, then ten minutes later barkbarkbark some more.

I did get a call one day from a neighbor when my dog was barking in the middle of the day. I was ignoring her, and didn't realize the neighbor was trying to sleep. Oops!

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

Do those people leave for work early?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't know which set of neighbors it is. Why?

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

That's the only reason I can think of to let dogs out at that early in the morning, is if they're leaving 15-30 minutes later.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Even then, if your dogs are going to bark, you don't let them out, you take them out. It's annoying to stand in the backyard holding the leash while the dog does what needs doing, but it's the responsibility you take when you buy a dog: that you, not the guy two houses down, will be the one inconvenienced if inconvenience is needed.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

If they are barking, they are done making poo poo and can come back in the house. My guess is the dogs were making a nuisance of themselves indoors and got put out so somebody could go back to sleep.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

That is remarkably close to my First Rule of Parenting.

[selkie-b.livejournal.com]

I know St Paul has ordinances about that sort of thing - you should check Minneapolis. I'll bet it's not legal and what will happen is that the cops will come that early and listen, figure out who it is and cite them for noise. That's what they do here, especially this close to Como Park. Good luck!

[mallory-blog.livejournal.com]

try getting a copy of your local noise ordinance (most begin at 7am) and tape it to their door along with a 5:45am will result in police call note...