Can't I have considerate neighbors?

This is my beautiful dog Momo. She is a Shiba Inu and is 12 years old. (looking pretty great for 84, don't you think?) She is a quite dog and pretty much only barks when someone knocks at the door. Sometimes she does an "alert bark" which is one small "bark" (if you can call it that) which means-"I want to go outside, I want to go for a walk, or I want to eat)

My favorite is when I walk by her bowl and she look at me, makes eye contact, then looks at her bowl, then back to me. I say "it's not time to eat yet"!

Our past dogs, Siberian Huskies, were even less barkers than Momo. This means they virtually NEVER barked. You can see Aurora howling (sort of....she was old) here. The huskies wouldn't even bark if someone came to the door. They weren't really friendly but would go with anyone, if you know what I mean. They could give or take you. Pretty much all you (the human) are good for in their eyes, is feeding them! But we struggled through with 3 different huskies over almost 20 years.

I'm struck when I look at that picture how much Momo looks like these dogs. Maybe that is why people think she is a puppy. In reality, Momo is about 1/3 the size of these dogs. These dogs weighed about 60 pounds.

Then there are my neighbor dogs....

The one Momo is looking at here. Mind you, Momo doesn't bark...but this little dog (smaller than Momo-who is 22 pounds and about 16" high) barks A LOT! Not constant, but a lot. Her run just happens to be on the side of the house that CJ's room is located. I get so upset when CJ is napping and that dog starts barking. It usually only barks if something is happening -like the UPS man, bottled water guy, mail man, you name it.....The only problem is that it gets into a barking fit and just won't stop. Since the family is mostly not at home during the day, they seem to not know or care. They will yell at it if they are home and it is barking at me doing yard work.

Then there is this dog...

Doesn't he look nice mean? He lives behind us in a huge 2 story home. He is left to himself a lot, from what I can tell. This weekend especially he was really annoying and scary. He goes up the stairs to the 2nd floor balcony and glares into our yard. EVERY time we go outside he barks like crazy.

Looking just like that!

And when Momo goes outside he starts tearing up his blanket that is up there


He just tears into it. Then just stares back at me. I think he would tear me apart if he could. Pretty scary.

Which leads me to my question. Why can't I have considerate neighbors? I mean, why have a dog if you don't want to have it part of your life? Why not deal with it? Why let it bark and annoy your neighbors all day long? I am always amazed that people have pets and then just leave them in their back yards. Hey, it's hot and miserable right now.

But, I guess, every dog can't be as pampered as mine!