Oh, for fuck's sake. Don't let your damn dogs out.

Seriously, this is driving me up a wall.

We have a couple of neighbors who have bigger dogs. Bigger dogs frequently have energy that can't be expended in the confines of a 1600 -2000 sq ft townhouse and patio. We all share courtyards. Now these neighbors simply open the door and let their big dogs out to pee/poop and run around.

This is against HOA policy, which requires pets to be leashed at all times. Now, I don't complain, because we like to let Jonah the Doggie go run with them every few days. He has a girlfriend, Zoe, who lives a couple of houses down and they love to play. Zoe knows our house and comes and flings herself at the door and window to get Jonah's attention. She's actually come into our house looking for him and made herself at home. It's sort of cute.

But the problem is that we refuse to let Jonah out unattended. Even if one of the other owners is out there - he is our responsibility and he barely obeys us, he'll flat ignore someone else. These owners just open their front doors and 20-30 minutes later, call them back. Well, Jonah wants to go play. He's attuned to the sounds of the other dogs and he gets frantic when we won't let them out. And he barks to get their attention and he whines and he begs to go out and it's an awful struggle. He's barky when he sees a cat or squirrel that he believes will play with him. But the dogs that actually do play with him and his girlfriend Zoe? OH GOD LET ME OUT PLEASE MOM PLEASE LET ME OUT OH MY GOD HI BUDDY HI THOMAS HI ZOE PLEASE LET ME OUT MOM THEY ARE OUT THERE AND I WANT TO GO PLAY AND HI ZOE PLEASE LET ME PLAY THEY ARE OUTSIDE WITHOUT ME MOM PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

Just like that. Only it aaaalllllllllll in high pitched loud barks that echo echo echo until I want to scream and he doesn't stop until 15 mintues after they've gone inside. We've tried just about everything and very little is helping and I'm starting to investigate bark collars because traditional methods don't help or he thinks they are games. It's embarrassing, because you can hear and see him from anywhere in the courtyard, and because he does it regardless of the hour (and why the fuck are people letting their dogs run for half an hour at midnight?!). Even if he's crated, he barks.

I feel like bark collars are inhumane, but I'm at my wits end. We can't have this when we have kids and I don't want it now. I think the only way to fix this apart from bark collars is to contact the HOA and complain. But that opens the door to people complaining about Barky Von Schnauzer barking at all hours and will probably curtail the running activities that exist. We tried to get approval to have a designated time for dogs to run every other day for an hour (they did during the hurricane and it was great - for the dogs and to promote friendliness with the neighbors), but the crotchety old people voted it down, which was dumb because it clearly happens anyway.

It is driving me nuts and right now poor Jojo is glaring at me unhappily. First, I left him and then I drove his daddy away (because he left without me) and I came home and made him sit in his box for an extra half hour while I ate dinner in front of him. Then I add insult to injury by not letting him try and bark out the glass to get to his friends and I made him go out on the patio until they went away, and he hasn't had a chance to be alone with Zoe since last weekend. I am such a bitch.

Did I mention that these people (and I do like Zoe's owner John a lot, so it's not just bitching about my neighbors) never, ever clean up their dog's poop? While we clean it up immediately? Gross.