Do You Like Dogs? Do You Like Barking Dogs?

Here's a short story about a Florida city looking to put the bite on dogs that bark too much.

I love dogs, they're great. But it does annoy me when people who live in close quarters have dogs, especially unattended dogs, that bark nonstop at all hours of the day and night.

To me, it's common sense: If you live where people are right on top of each other, don't have a dog, because it's cruel to the animal and annoying to your neighbors.

My upstairs neighbors have a dog, and it's the cutest little thing, but it's inside too much and barks at everything -- passers-by, traffic, the UPS guy, wind --and it's really irritating. An apartment, especially a 2nd-floor apartment, isn't really the place to keep a dog.

When the dog does get taken outside, it seems to enjoy standing outside my bedroom window and barking like mad while I'm trying to sleep. That's always a joyous way to be woken up.

I don't want people to have to get rid of their pets -- but use a little common sense, folks. If you have to live in a limited-space community, and you want to have a dog, you should be the ones to adapt your lifestyle to the fact that you have a dog. This means you should look for a first-floor apartment, or buildings where other tenants have dogs; it also means that you should expect to have to tell your dog to be quiet if they go off on a tear. If your dog is barking at nothing over and over and over, tell it to shut up -- they understand. If your kid just stood there screaming over and over, wouldn't you tell it to clam up?