When your sleep has gone to the dogs

Torturous. That's how I would describe my current predicament: What do you do when your neighbour's dogs will not stop barking, 24/7? Well, you lose sleep over it, of course. The culprits are two large labradoodles who happen to live very close to my bedroom window. They spend the best part of the day on top of a high veranda, and their barks go right through into our house, so that we might as well be right next to them for all the noise they make.

Why do they bark so much? Basically because they are big dogs, and they need exercise, but don't get walked at all. They're bored, and cold, since winter is coming on quickly here now (and their coats have been shaved).

So I rang the local council. Not so much because I want to cause the owner trouble, but more because I'm worried that the other neighbours might do something nasty to the dogs. Why? Because all of us are incredibly frustrated, tortured by the never-ceasing barking, and sleep-deprived people can do some crazy things when pushed hard enough.

The process with our local council is that they will first send a letter to our neighbour, asking her to keep the dogs quiet. After that, if there is still no action, we have to ring them again and complain. Then we will be asked to keep a 'bark diary', noting the times when the dogs are noisy. Mum tried this today, and so far the dogs have barked more than 72 times. If there is still no action, the council may take our neighbour to court over it. Then she'll have to do something.

Tonight I'm going to sleep in my sister's room, because after five nights in a row I'm sick of getting no sleep. I'll let you know how all this goes.

Two dog posts in a row... Mongrel, aren't I? ;)