I must admit I find this bit extremely fishy! In her letter she said that she had joked about poisoning your dog to I think she said her friends (or neighbours, not got it in front of me) - WHY would anyone say that/admit to it after getting your letter?

I suspect she is either very scared and innocent, and got herself into knots, (which could be the case) OR, and I am sorry to say this but I think this is more likely, has mentioned the poisoning because she is, yes, protesting too much.

If a person was innocent, they'd not say they'd occasionally joked about poisoning a dog!

But I'd not totally assume because you never know, she could be innocent and just becoming across very badly, as sometimes we all do. I think she should be given the benefit of the doubt, but with caution ...

It's difficult in this sort of situation. I've had neighbours claim my dogs were barking in the past (I knew which neighbours) and I tried to speak to them nicely and in a friendly manner (which I am good at doing) but to be honest there are some people that you cannot speak to, because they will ignore/shout/be threatening etc. Until I experienced this, I had always thougt that one could sort most things by discussion and being polite! If only!

One of them got up a petition behind my back and went round all the other neighbours, trying to get them to sign it, and I knew nothing about it at all until another neighbour told me Thankfully now I am in another neighbourhood where all my lovely neighbours are totally fine with my dog. Phew!

Good luck.

Wys
x

I imagine she's mentioned the jokes about poisoning because she thinks word of the jokes has got back to the OP and that's why he suspects her.

She's saying "Yes, I'll admit your dogs bother me and I've joked about poisoning them but I'm obviously not going to act on it."

Exactly what I thought larrabee. She probably has joked about it and is worried sick that it might have got back to the owner.

One thing you can be sure of where dogs who bark when they are left alone is this - the only person they cannot possibly be annoying is the owner who left them alone!

I would just not be able to relax if my dog kept barking. It would be worse for me than to have to put up with other dogs barking.

This is the problem that should be concentrated on - not finding out whoever it was that issued the anonymous threat. People who have really bad intentions to harm that they intend to carry out do not usually broadcast them beforehand.

It could turn out to be a good thing that this original nasty letter was received. It has focussed attention on the problem of the dog barking driving at least one person potty. And something can be done about stopping it before anyone is tempted to take the law into their own hands and harm the dog.

It's not nice to get nasty anonymous letters, but surely better to be aware of this than to have a summons drop on your mat one day or worse - come home and find someone has harmed your dog.

Hey, there is a woman opposite me where I live here who leaves her Cyprus Poodle out on the verandah all the time she is at work. The dog barks occasionally while she is away. However, it goes BERSERK when she comes home. Then, instead of immediately letting it come in and taking it out for a walk - she gets on with a bit of housework and food prep and what have you THEN takes the dog out.

Now I confess I have said on more than one occasion 'I COULD MURDER THAT WOMAN! That poor dog has been on its own all day and is desperate to see her leaping up at the windows and barking mad and she is just making it wait'

But ... if that woman is found dead one day - I do hope I am not in the frame because several neighbours have heard me say that!

In the case of the woman who confessed that she had joked about poisoning the barking dog, I would say that is a good pointer to it being very likely that quite a few neighbours have moaned about the dog to each other - otherwise why would the woman feel it necessary to say she had joked about it? More than likely because she is worried that one of those she has said it to has mentioned it.

I ignore my dogs when I come home, until they are calm and have ceased boinging around like crazy, then they get my attention. Its worked very well for reducing the length of 'crazy time'. Isn't that what most trainers recommend?

I don't know what trainers recommend and have never left dogs all day myself.

I do know that ignoring this dog going berserk when she gets home has not reduced the barking and yelping and manic leaping at the doors.

Poor thing left outside all day on its own and then ignored as soon as someone is home. I am quite sure this lady isn't following any 'trainer' advice.

This reminds me of when I attended a stop smoke course some years ago. There were rules about confidentiality that were explained to everyone attending. An instance where confidentiality would not apply was if someone were to make a threat of violence to someone or themselves it would be acted on. The person running the group then made it clear that common sense would prevail and if someone said something like - god I could kill my neighbour in conversation, of course, it would not be taken out of context and reported!

A statement such as " I could kill that dog" or " could throttle that kid" would not be taken literally, usually.

"I have a good mind to poison that dog," or "I feel like throwing some poisoned meat for that dog," to me suggests an element of premeditation that is not something that would occur to me to say in frustration and certainly it is not a joke. But maybe that's just me.

Whether this woman really did say it and mean it or not we do not know but I just think it is a strange that she remembers and told her neighbour in a letter! On the other hand it is not grounds for accusation either.