Barking Dogs & Solutions

We are in our second round of dealing with
An untrained, incessant barking dog.
She’s a boxer
Our neighbors are really nice and we like them.
After I returned from the states in November,
John informed me
That we have another barker on the street.

The Dog barked on and off,
But not nearly as bad as the first dog was.
As the weeks have gone by
She’s gotten worse,
barking all day when she is out
AND all night.

Yesterday, I went over in the morning
And asked Senora Juana
If it was possible to bring her dog in at night.
We couldn’t sleep with the barking until 4am
Juana was very polite, and said she would see
If something could be done.
3:30pm the barking begins in earnest
It has not stopped at 7:30pm

John and I are looking at each other
Trying not to have the conversation
We always have – how do they stand it?
I forgot to mention
That we have two dog off machines
Ultra sound that goes on when a dog barks
Stops when the dog stops.
Both are mounted on our terraza
Pointing at the dog, who is visible
But perhaps slightly out of range,
which is 200 feet or less.

In case you don’t know about these machines, there are several
The Good Life Bark off machine (we have this, it works)

The Bark Free machine (we have this, it works)

And the hand held version you can carry around
We have this, and it works!

At 7:30, we knocked on their door again
The son answers, we ask for his father, Eutimio
Eutimio is at the rancho
When will he be back?
Quien Sabe?
Oh boy, here we go.
We ask him about the dog
He says the dog to protect the house from robbers

Our previous dog incident
They said the same thing – an 8 pound dog
A white fluffy jumper was protecting them.
24 hours a day on the roof barking
Can a dog that small protect the house?

I’m digressing. Eutimio’s son
Although never animated, talks
In some dialect we can’t understand
I am sure he is doing it on purpose.
No entiendo, I say about 100 times
In between, we figure that the dog
Is protecting the house
Who knows if the problem can be solved
Who knows when his father will return
Juana comes to the door and retreats
Hoping we haven’t seen her.

We go home discouraged, and this
Is when I put the second of our dog machines
Above the other one, on the roof.
It makes me feel better
But doesn’t really solve the problem
Sound waves are going everywhere
But where they belong.
The dog is barking like crazy
Eutimios son and girlfriend
Are sitting on the front stoop,
Making out
They could care less, and I don’t blame them.

At 9pm, the barking stops
I take a bath, and go to bed
It’s quiet for the first time in a week
I am loving it, and think we’ve made progress
At 12:30 am, it begins again, and doesn’t stop
This time, I put in my earplugs
Peace
For the rest of the night.

At 5pm today, the barking begins again.
I go across to my neighbor Petra’s house
Tell her my problem, and ask
If we can put our bark off machine on her roof
No Puedo – no tenemos electricidad arriba.
No electricity above.
I tell her the cord is 25 meters
She shakes her head.
She’s friends with Juana,
Oh well – it was worth a try.

We go up on our terraza
To plan the next attack.
Let’s put it on the end of the front of the house
Attach it to the rebar
Pull that 25 meters of cord into the house.
That will bring us 50 feet closer to the problem.

While we are up there
We see Eutimio go in his house.
Should we quietly sneak out on the front of the house
Put up the bark free machine
Or should we talk to Eutimio.
While we are agonizing over the solution
We are also trying not to talk about getting a denuncia
With the Departamento de Ecologia,
Eutimio leaves his house.
We run downstairs, to catch him
But he’s half way up the street,
Going around the corner.

Do we run to catch up with him?
Do we pretend we are on a walk
That we’ve just happened to run into him?
I feel ridiculous.
He happens to stop at the little tienda
And is talking to the owner
This is good luck!
We walk faster to catch up
He says goodbye  to his friend and starts walking
As we arrive and I say buenas tardes Eutimio!

He’s caught!
We ask about his new house he is building
Have a few minutes of small talk about taking walks
Exercise, his feet, and little things
Until we reach the corner
Which he plans to take.
Oh god, now what.
I have no idea why this makes me so nervous.

I tell him I have a question.
He says his family told him about the dog
He is thinking of a solution.
Then tells us that Mexicans are very patient
I ask him if the barking bothers him
He shakes his head and says, yes,
He doesn’t like it.
Now we’re getting somehwere
But the dog is for protection
How can you argue with that?
Well, for one,
I tell him a dog will bark
If someone comes over the wall
Even if it doesn’t bark all day.
Logical to me

I haven’t met a local
who understands about dog training.
They think that barking is the price you pay
For security and protection.

He tells me that some people do denuncias
Then something is done about it.
Oh boy, just what I didn’t need to hear
Because I don’t want to do that.
He tells me all the neighbors were patient
When we remodeled our house
That they had to listen to the noise we made.
The arguments go anywhere but to the dog.
I reminded him, it was during the day
And we didn’t have a barking dog
And that he is now building a house
That we are being very patient with the noise
He is making.

I told him that I have a machine
That helps to train barking dogs
They don’t like the sound
But it won’t stop her from barking
If someone comes over the wall.

His eyes light up!
Here I am infiltrating the enemy directly
This is looking good
He’s interested, says he’d like to try it
I’m sure he doesn’t completely understand
He thinks I don’t understand
He wants to tell me more
About what I don’t understand
I tell him I do understand he needs protection
He tells me he understands we need peace
I tell him the barking
Is like a nail in my head
He laughs and says he will try the machine
And begins to walk away.

I say “tomorrow?”
He says, “maybe, I go back to the rancho tomorrow”
I say “this week?”
He says “Mexicans are very patient”
I’m going to take that as a yes
And be patient along with my earplugs
Until I see what happens.