In the Dog House

Our dog has problems. He has had a condition known as Separation Anxiety (SA) for as long as we have owned him, which is going on a year and a half now. We suspect his previous owners were pretty shitty, and the shelter system probably didn’t agree with him either, hence he’s a bit off kilter. We have tried many, many things to convince him that it really won’t kill him to be alone for a few hours, including three different prescription drugs and consulting a professional dog trainer. While I like to be optimistic and think that his lack of recent suicidal/escape attempts is a positive sign, I know our neighbors are probably annoyed with the crying and the barking. It’s hard for me to say how bad it really is, as I am never home when he’s making a ruckus. Such is the nature of the beast.

I’ve pretty much resigned myself to keeping up our routine and hoping it would peter out over time with the treatment, and don’t give a whole lot of thought to it any longer because if I did it would drive me insane. But it would appear one our neighbors has a problem. There was an anonymous post near the mailboxes when we came home last night that went something like

WILL THE OWNERS OF THE DOG AT THE END OF THE HALL KEEP HIM FROM BARKING AT ALL HOURS OF THE DAY AND NIGHT

IF THIS DOES NOT STOP WE WILL CALL THE CITY

This is paraphrased from memory, but you get the gist. I understand that my dog may be an annoyance, and I feel badly about that. But this just pissed me off for several reasons:

1. It was anonymous.
I firmly believe that neighbors should talk to each other if they have problems to work out. I know, it’s old fashioned, but I think it just might work if everyone can be adult enough to have a reasonable conversation about whatever is bothering them.

2. It was posted in a public area of the building.
We can only assume it is our dog they were referring to, but our dog is not the only chronic barker in the building. He may be the worst offender for all I know, but we had to guess based on “end of the hall” and the fact that the note appeared when we came home after we were out for the evening. Pathetically, we almost never go anywhere at night, so our neighbors are usually spared the racket during the evening hours. When we do go out, we often place him with our neighbors for dog sitting, but this is not always possible.

3. It’s greatly exaggerated
Our dog only makes noise when we are not home, and I can assure you that is not all hours of the day and night. In fact, Jason is able to be home with Dexter most of the day while I’m at work. Dexter’s alone time is usually limited to a couple of hours a day.

To sum it up, these people chose to post an inflammatory, rude, anonymous note making a threat against their neighbors rather than make themselves and their problem known in a constructive manner. I called my landlady this morning, whom we have a rather good relationship with, and she said no one has contacted her about a barking dog problem in the building, although she did mention that there is a new tenant. I suspect it is the newbie who posted the note. All our other neighbors must be used to whatever it is that Dexter does while we’re gone and it either doesn’t bother them or it doesn’t bother them enough to make a fuss about it because I certainly think they would have done so by now.

While it was tempting to post a snarky retort to the anonymous, threat-making coward, we took the high road and posted a tasteful note explaining that our dog has a condition and that we’re doing all we can to correct it. We signed our names and apartment number and invited whoever had a problem to come and speak to us directly about it.

Whoo, needed to get that off my chest. Rude people suck. Also, Dexter pooped on the carpet yesterday and this morning. I hope he isn’t sick again. Maybe his nerves are getting to him. *sigh*

/rant