BarkingDogs.net

About This Website

Dear Reader:

As an educational psychologist with a doctorate in behavior modification, managing the behavior of canines is one of my areas of specialty, which led to my decision to create this website. Originally, I wrote most of the pages contained on this site with an eye toward hard-copy publication, but the material somehow morphed into barkingdogs.net, which has since developed into the most comprehensive source on earth for information about chronic barking.

Being the webmaster of the most comprehensive source for information about chronic barking is both more and less impressive than it sounds, given that this site is the only comprehensive source in existence for those seeking advice on how to deal with that type of problem. There simply is no place else where one can go to find accurate, in-depth information on canine barking behavior, its impact on those who are exposed to it, and the art and science of bringing it to an end.

If you were to print out all of the information contained on barkingdogs.net, it would come to several hundred manuscript-style pages, representing thousands of hours of preparation, research and writing. This website also provides information gleaned from thirty-five years of struggle, trying to determine how, in the face of unenforceable "anti-barking" laws, one can go about getting ones neighbors to take responsibility for their backyard barkers.

Therefore, if you have to contend with a barking dog, whether it is in your living room or in the yard next door, you have come to the right place.

The Purpose of This Website

Having noise force-fed into your living quarters can be a devastating, debilitating experience. I hope that by saying so I do not alienate those many loud people who have managed to delude themselves into believing that the sound they are projecting into the homes of others is harmless, but it is time that someone set the record straight in no uncertain terms. If it is difficult for you to understand how something as seemingly trivial as the sound of a barking dog could so thoroughly traumatize a person, just click here for an in-depth explanation of how that works. In any case, the fact is that prolonged exposure to chronic barking, or any number of other noise sources for that mattter, can destroy ones health and the quality of ones existence, and shred the very fabric of life for those who are forced to live in close proximity to it.

It is happening to people everyday in the uncounted millions.

This website is geared to correcting that problem, as well as to addressing the larger issue of noise in general, and how it destroys the health and erodes the well-being of those who suffer with it being forcibly projected into their homes over time.

What You Can Do to Help

One of the most pernicious side effects of the population explosion is the constantly growing number of people who are being crammed together into smaller and smaller dwellings with less and less buffer space between them. Making things worse is the ever burgeoning proliferation, not only of barking dogs, but also of noisy technologies that bring us an enormous assortment of roaring engines and other variations of amplified acoustic filth that is force-fed into the homes of the ever swelling ranks of humanity, who are now trying to carry on the activities of daily life in a swirl of acoustic toxins generated by inconsiderate neighbors who are either sheltering those untrained dogs or activating those noisy gadgets.

The fact is that noise is a dangerous pathogen, and far from protecting us from it, government has sold us out to the deep pockets of special interest groups who know that, for them, the money will keep rolling in, only so long as the noisy products they manufacture remain free of effective regulation.

Therefore, the first thing you can do to move the cause forward is to take a look at your own behavior because, with our politicians on their backs and their legs in the air for big business, we are going to have to address the noise crisis ourselves, if it is to be done at all.

If you have a barking dog, by all means, please quiet the animal. And if you have neighbors, then, before you blow that car horn or thump that basketball in your driveway, and before you buy that really throaty vehicle or crank-up your music system past the point of reason, stop to ask yourself, is this sound going to carry into my neighbor's home and, if so, how is that going to affect them.

That's the first thing that each of us needs to do then, is to examine our own behavior and to adjust our actions accordingly, so that we ourselves our not guilty of force-feeding our noise into someone else's home. Each of us has that responsibility, and we all owe each other at least that much.

In addition, if you would like to help further the quiet homes movement, then, consider taking a look at the Activist Section of this website to learn why noise is endemic, and what you can do to help combat the problem.

If your noise issue is with barking dogs in particular be sure to read The Barking Laws, and The Root Cause of Our Chronic Barking Epidemic, and get clear on why it is that, as a society, we are inundated with a deluge of dog-related noise. You may be surprised to learn that there are no dogs on the list of those who are to blame.

Perhaps the single best service you can render would be for you to personally take on the task of speaking the truth to your local movers and shakers, because there can be no hope of meaningful reform until those in authority are confronted with the fact that noise is a dangerous toxin.

This website features a chart called The Symptoms and Side Effects of Force-Feeding Noise Into the Domestic Environment, which lists the dangers of noise exposure in a way that will allow the reader to come to a quick understanding of what intrusive noise does to people who must contend with it being force-fed into their homes from without.

The chart will soon be available at a modest price both in both a hand-held size as well as in a two-by-three-foot version that is suitable for mounting on the wall.

You can do a great deal to educate your fellow citizens and promote meaningful changes in the noise laws by making sure that your local politicians and the people who vote them into office become familiar with the Symptoms and Side Effects chart. There are no similar charts in existence, and there may be no more efficient means of bringing the uninformed to an understanding of the dangers of forcibly projecting noise into someone's home.

We suggest that you consider making a gift of the noise poster to any businesses or institutions in your town that might be willing to display it publicly. Just getting one chart posted on the wall of your local library could conceivably alert thousands to the dangers of noise, and among those you educate with your gift could be one of the future lynchpins of the anti-noise movement, who will eventually lead us in to a quieter tomorrow. You might also want to make gifts of the poster to your local health department and the police department, as well as to animal control. The smaller hand-held version of the chart is the right size to be left in a councilman's message box at city hall, or left under the windshield wiper of a noisy neighbor.

All profits from the sale of the noise chart will go to support this website and further the goals of the quiet homes movement.

The Barking Dogs Forum provides space in which you can describe your own personal experiences with chronic barking. By creating a public record of your ordeal online, you will help to erode the myth that exposing people to chronic barking and other sources of intrusive noise causes no real harm.

Also, if you want to see things change, you might want to link up with the folks at Barking Dogs Yahoo, which is an international online group linked together by email. Some of the leading experts on noise and some of the world's most knowledgeable anti-noise activists belong to that group. The ideas that you sow there could well take root across the planet.

It would also help move forward the work of this organization if you would take the time to create a link going from your website to barkingdogs.net. Even if the public seldom sees your website, just the fact that you have created a link will make this site more visible to the search engines. Therefore, by linking to us you will increase the number of people entering this site, which is, perhaps, one of the most effective things you can do to help bring an end to the noise inundation now washing through the habitat of humanity.

If you are a dog lover, please be sure to visit our sister site, New Animal Control.Org, where we lay-out a plan for animal control reform that will increase the privileges extended to responsible dog owners while bringing an end to our worldwide epidemics of canine barking and biting.

Finally, if this site has been of benefit to you, please drop us a line and let us know. Hearing from the readers is what makes the effort worthwhile. To contact us in private, send an email to quiet@barkingdogs.net. If you would like your message shared with the readers of the Barking Dogs Forum, email your remarks to forum@barkingdogs.net.

Thank you.

Hoping that your dog is socialized, your neighbor is civilized, your house is quiet, and your sleep is undisturbed.

Craig Mixon, Ed.D.

This page is the index of Section Fourteen:
the About This Website section of barkingdogs.net