The dogs that are driving us barking mad

OBVIOUSLY we are horrified by the appalling behaviour of Stephen Woodhouse who, driven to distraction by the incessant barking of his neighbour’s dog, drowned the animal in a water butt.

However, the problem of barking dogs is incendiary. Discussing it on my BBC radio show I was inundated with callers describing their misery caused by interminable barking. Some were woken several times every night. Some had babies roused repeatedly. Some couldn’t hear their own TV sets. All had tried remonstrating with the dogs’ owners and contacting the local council. Most were at their wits’ end.

Dogs bark because it is their form of communication but they only do so relentlessly if they are bored, lonely, understimulated or poorly trained. Owners take note.