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Page Five of a seven-page article:
How to persuade your neighbors to quiet their chronically barking dogs

Making Arrangements with Malicious and Recalcitrant Dog Owners

A truly pathological dog owner will almost always adopt a strategy of attempting to provoke you into behaving like the belligerent aggressor he wants everybody to believe you are. He will belittle you, insult you, and do everything he can think of to upset, incite, and draw you into an ugly battle of personalities in which you alternately lash-out at one another in angry conflict. That's what he wants.

Remember, if the dog owner can provoke you into participating in reciprocal acts of belligerence, it will work to his advantage. Because it doesn't take much in the way of tit for tat retaliatory strikes before the waters become so muddied that outside parties, like the police, can no longer tell if the problem is a rogue dog owner victimizing his neighbor, or two equally combative neighbors feuding for reasons that can't be clearly determined.

Therefore, it is critical that you remain calm and polite. Don't allow yourself to be sucked into an orgy of hostility in which you alternately lash out at one another. If you allow him to provoke you into lashing out even once, he will forever cite your act of aggression as evidence that the real essence of the problem is that you are out to get him.

With that in mind, don't threaten physical harm, or scream at your neighbor, or swear at him or call him names. Don't insult him or vandalize his property, and certainly don't harm his dog. If you do any of those things, you will play right into his hands by lending credibility to his contention that you are waging a totally unjustified vendetta against him, as opposed to pursuing the only option whereby you can free your home and family from the stress of a never-ending flow of noxious noise. You should instead focus your attention on making arrangements with the dog owner.

The malicious or irresponsible owner has created a situation in which you cannot sleep in your own home without first making arrangements with him. So when any member of your family wants to take a nap, telephone the neighbor or go over in person if necessary, and ask the dog owner to take the dog in until naptime is over. If you need to study, or work, or think or relax, or make an important telephone call, or go to bed for the night, or whatever, go over and ask him to keep the dog quiet until you are done. After all, if he has a right to create a situation in which you cannot use the inside of your own home without first making arrangements with him, then most certainly you have a free speech right to attempt to make the arrangements he has forced on you. Whether or not he actually ever complies with your request is beside the point. Just keep making your request. That's the key to bringing recalcitrant dog owners into compliance with the standards of human decency.

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This page on Persuading Your Neighbors is part of Section Two:
the Your Neighbor's Dog section of barkingdogs.net