By Rizona M. Jeschke
In my beloved Shillong, there are a lot of things to complain about, like the condition of our roads and the traffic jams, but many of our problems are so vast there are no simple solutions, so complaining about them produces no immediate results. However, there is one insidious, endemic problem here that affects us all, even if we don’t realize it, which can be solved at no cost, simply by one neighbour politely complaining to another neighbour, and then that offending neighbour doing the right thing. That problem is barking dogs.
We all know that “noise” is sound which is unwanted, unpleasant, distracting and disturbing, and that loud or annoying noise is a “nuisance.” We also know that noise can cause stress and stress can lead to illness and social problems. Since the barking of dogs is noise, annoying loud barking is a nuisance, and annoying nuisances lead to elevated stress levels, and since most localities clearly instruct their residents and visitors to “make no nuisance,” then dog owners, especially in urban localities, are expected to, indeed obligated to, tightly control and limit their dogs’ barking.
Sadly though, dogs here are too often allowed to be nuisances, barking incessantly – for attention from their owners- at passersby and even the smallest school children, at other dogs, or for no apparent reason. So, I have tried lately to make my locality a better place by complaining to my neighbours and asking them to quieten their barking dogs. I must say that this has not made me popular. But I am getting results as most people understand in their hearts that I am right to complain and that they are wrong to allow their dogs to disturb the locality.
Dog owners get very defensive when asked to quieten their dogs and I have had telephones rudely hung up on me and suffered irrational responses, such as, “This is India and we can do anything we want!” and “You should go to Bombay or Kolkata if you think this dog noise is bad!” (For the record, my father was Rangbah Shnong of Lumpyngad and I was raised there in the 1950s, and since my family moved the several hundred meters in 1973 from Lumpyngad to Motinagar (now Lumdiengsoh) we have lived in the very same house at Motinagar West Road, so I know India. And I have been all around the world too and visited many great cities, including all the big cities of India, and one reason I live here in Shillong is precisely because this is NOT Kolkata.)
The most common response is “Everyone else’s dogs are barking,” but that is a very weak excuse. Would that logic, or legal defense, hold up if you were caught littering or drunk driving? Of course it wouldn’t.
There is some truth to the response “My dog is barking at stray dogs passing by!” However, that excuse explains only a small fraction of all the barking that occurs, and it is nonetheless useless, annoying noise which needs to stop because it does not prevent the stray dogs from passing by! The stray dog problem can be solved, but requires an entire community’s efforts.
Some people don’t even respond when asked to silence their dogs. A while ago, my neighbour’s dogs, who are up on a second floor porch and whose loud barking radiates out across the entire neighborhood, were creating such an awful nuisance for so long that my husband, who was trying to concentrate on something, went up the street and called out to the neighbours to keep their dogs quiet. No response. He called out again. No response. Finally in frustration he shouted out that he was going to call the police, whereupon a woman quickly came out on the porch and waved her arm. The dogs vanished inside the house, as did she, and the awful noise instantly stopped. She could have come out and effortlessly waved the dogs inside an hour before when they first started their commotion, but for some reason she let it get to the point where she was threatened with a visit from the police before doing the simple, easy, no-cost, right thing for her locality.
I can think of only two legitimate reasons to own a dog in an urban environment: companionship and security. Dogs can be the greatest companions; we all know that, and a barking dog can warn of danger. Your dog can alert you to intruders, or, neighbours hearing your dog bark might become concerned for your safety and come to your aid. However, if you have a dog which barks incessantly at no threat, then neither you nor your neighbours will know when you are in actual danger. Certainly, no one should ever abandon their dog to bark for attention – that’s cruel – so if you don’t have time for a dog, or if you intend to own a dog as a status symbol or fashion accessory, you should probably re-consider dog ownership.
The problem of nuisance dog barking can be simply solved if all dog owners stopped being so defensive, took a deep breath and followed these basic guiding principles:
Take Personal Responsibility: If you own a dog then it is your personal responsibility to take care of it, to spend time with it and to train it not to be a danger or a nuisance. Dogs can be trained to lead the blind, diagnose disease and climb ladders, so they can easily be trained to be quiet! If you own rental units and you allow your renters to keep dogs then it is your responsibility to insure those renters’ dogs aren’t a nuisance. If you have servants, instruct them to keep your dogs quiet when you are away, and train your dogs to obey your servants.
Respect Your Neighbours: Do you throw garbage or empty your sewage into your neighbour’s yard? Of course not! Then why would you let your dogs spew hazardous noise pollution into your neighbour’s yard at 3 AM, or at any time of the day for that matter, or bark incessantly into the street to harass and annoy innocent passersby?
Take Pride in Your Locality: Quiet is the absence of noise, and quiet is the one quality which is always listed when describing the very best neighbourhoods, anywhere you go in the world.
I would love to say with pride that my locality is the quietest locality in all of Shillong, but I can’t, at least not yet. Although I have made progress, there is still work to do. More of my neighbours, and your neighbours too if they have nuisance dogs, should consider the guiding principles listed above and recognize the negative impacts their dogs’ incessant, unwanted and annoying barking has on their locality and on their neighbours’ health, and how very disrespectful it is. Then they should quieten their dogs by giving them the attention they crave and the training they require.