DMT: If your dog barks all day while you're at work, your neighbors shouldn't have to live with the consequences.

There's a dog a couple of houses down that barks for hours after its owner leaves for work. It happens almost every weekday. I doubt the owner even realizes how bad it gets.

Dogs bark. Nobody expects them to be silent all day, and I'm not saying people shouldn't have pets. There's a difference between a dog barking at something outside and one making noise for hours on end while everyone else has to listen to it.

If your neighbor played loud music all day, you'd expect them to do something about it. A dog shouldn't get a free pass just because it's a dog. Depending on where you live, excessive barking can even violate local noise rules.

The owner might not be doing it on purpose, but that doesn't mean it's not their responsibility to fix it. Figure out what's causing it, bring the dog inside, get help with the behavior, whatever actually works. The neighbors shouldn't have to spend their workday listening to a problem they didn't sign up for.

Having a dog is a choice. Making the rest of the street deal with its barking shouldn't be.