When Dogs Bark - Listen

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Both Los Angeles County and Los Angeles City are revising their barking dog ordinances to promote relief and resolution of this "nuisance" and to flesh out factors that animal control can use to analyze the situation.

Why do dogs bark incessantly? Some have separation anxiety which means the dog doesn't bark when you are home, and you don't hear the barking when you are out. It can be fixed once you believe your neighbors who tell you the noise is constant. Some dogs are just tied up outside and bark at everything to relieve the stress of being left alone and/or restrained. This also needs investigating and also can be fixed. Some dogs bark at everyone and everything that passes by. This is not continuous but can be annoying to neighbors and can also be fixed.

The commitment to work with and invest in abating these issues is part of being a responsible pet parent. This helps all dogs as property owners won't insist on "no pet" clauses which allows more people to have pets which reduces the euthanasia rate in your community. Additionally, investigating why a dog is barking can also reveal a cruelty situation and allow the dog to be rescued.

It is absurd to immediately assume these ordinance revisions are a conspiracy to take dogs away and kill them or to allow the dogs to be pawns in neighbor versus neighbor disputes. First, ask yourself why would that be? Second, there have to be factual findings presented to a hearing officer not gibberish and paranoid theories.

Please, if we care for, clean up after, and fulfill our promise to treat our dogs as family members for the rest of their lives, we make it okay to have a dog and we help other homeless dogs find families in the process.

Dogs bark for a reason - let's listen.....