Property values affected and nothing you can do about it

I just read a post on Facebook from a friend that is not sleeping well at night because of the neighbor's dog barking. 

Have you ever experienced that?  I have.  When I lived in the same small town my friend lives in, I had a neighbor with 4 dogs that barked all night long.  It was impossible to sleep.  My neighbor was not interested in my sleeping.  He was so hard of hearing it did not bother him.  The town was unincorporated and there were no animal control laws in place to take care of the situation.  Basically, there was nothing I could do short of killing his dogs.  For me, that was not an option.  So, I moved.

I moved to a lovely home with small acreage, so happy to be away from the dogs.  Sleeping there was great until about 6 months later. One night , I was awakened by yelping.  Where was that coming from, I thought.  Behind my house was a steep drop off and more acreage where the deer bedded down at night.  The deer were so wonderful to watch during the day.  I would feed them and take pictures.  It was a delight to have them in my yard.

At night, however, the neighbor had decided to let her beagle out to chase them away from her yard.  Yelp, yelp, yelp!  The dog was always closer to my bedroom window than to hers.  She said she could not hear it and therefore, it must not be her dog.

After months and months of this, I decided to call her every time I was awakened at 3:00 in the morning.  This did not make for good neighbor relations, needless to say. 

Why in the world do dog owners think they have the right to keep their neighbors from sleeping at night?  You may love your dog but your neighbors do not, if they are keeping them awake at night.  People cannot work the next day without sleep.  Sleep deprivation makes people sick and can drive them crazy.

If you have a dog, keep it inside at night or make sure it is not keeping your neighbors awake at night.  Even during the day, some people tie their animals up, leave them outside and go to work.  I hear neighbors complain about this often.

When selling real estate, a barking dog will ruin the sale.  There have been times when I drove up to a home, the dogs next door barked so much, the buyers said "Forget this one!"   Othertimes, the owner's dogs have ruined the sale.  This happens all the time and every agent out there knows what I'm talking about.  Talking to your sellers sometimes is not easy.  That dog is their little angel and it will cost them a sale and oftentimes, lots of money!