Bloodless Coup

He's at it again. That poor animal. If I posted here every time his idiot people left him like this, it would be perpetually the top comment.

what would you do, let all the dogs run free?

just curious.

No, I would not. Free in the house? Perhaps. These people have a 3 story house and a fenced in yard. He's a full grown Weimareiner, not a toy poodle. That they shut him up in a tiny bathroom (again, judging by where he is barking from) where he is miserable all day long is unkind at the least. Perhaps they should have properly crate-trained him, then he would be content. It's not just that he's inside, it's that he's inside in a way that is very obviously driving him (and me) crazy.

As you know, I have dogs myself, including one who adores a crate and puts himself to bed and will happily hang out there for hours. That's because I took the time to teach him that it was a nice place, praised him when he went, gave him time to adjust etc. My suspicion about the dog next door is that what he knows is that he gets shoved away when his people go, and he hates it, and there is nothing that has ever been good about him being where he is. Otherwise, he is a perfectly nice dog when he is outside (and don't get me started on that, because said idiots let him "go" in everyone's yard but theirs, and they don't scoop either). Again, it's not necessarily the "shut up in small place" thing, but the manner in which he has (not) been trained.

ah, now i understand. and concur.

Sweet relief. After 3+ hours of solid barking, he has stopped. Thank the powers of dog appeasement! I swear I could post about this every day (not that I would want to, or that the rest of your would want me to). Poor animal. Poor my concentration!

Shit. I spoke too soon. He's at it again. :(

So, stealing an idea from baltar, today I will "live blog" the barking dog.

He started at 9am. His barking is only semi-desperate. Rich and throaty, with a full head of steam. It seems he rested well last night, and is full of energy for a day of tormenting me.

The dog's people have been gone for about half and hour now. The frequency of the barks has increased, and the pitch has become somewhat higher. He is beginning to enter what I think of as the "holy shit! my people really have left me stage." He'll stay at this (what, terror alert level yellow?) until the mail comes, around 10:30, when he gets to actually bark at someone.

An early transition today, before the arrival of the mailman. Dog has moved into the "pause-pause- plaintive bark bark - pause pause - plaintive bark" phase. Usually he gets to this later. It's both more and less annoying, less because it is not quite to incessantly rhythmic and high pitched, but more because just when you think he has stopped, you realize it is only a pause.

Back to code yellow: high pitched, rapid, desperate.

After a brief rest period, dog is into an alternating cycle of regular, strong and paced barking intermixed with short periods of code yellow" barking. No mailman yet today, perhaps this has subtly influenced the normal barking schedule.

Que milagro es! Sweet silence! Maybe this means Idiot Neighbor is home for lunch, and the poor misguided beast is actually happy to see his master. Either that or he's worn himself out from the last 3 hours of solid barking, and is taking a pep-me-up nap.

It was the nap/pep-me-up. Darn.

Just like the energizer bunny: still going.

Alas, I must interrupt my chronicle to go run eight miles. Even that sounds better than sitting here listening to the barking.

Just in case you were wondering, he's doing it again today (as I suspect he does every day, even when i am not here to chronicle).