Barking Dogs Anything but Best Friends to Neighbors : Noise: While most complaints to county animal control officers are settled quietly, some end up in court. And violence can result, to people or pets.

Nancy Filbert almost couldn’t lead a normal life because of her neighbor’s barking dogs.

For two years, only a back-yard wall buffeted her Medina Street home from the incessant barks of the three canines. They barked whenever she opened her back door. They barked when she walked across her grass. A back-yard barbecue was out of the question.

Finally, in January, 1991, long-simmering ill will led to an unneighborly confrontation. After a brief shouting match, Filbert said she was attacked by the dog owner’s sister and doused with a nasty pail full of water mixed with dog doo. Then she was hit on the head with the empty bucket, opening a cut that required 10 stitches.

The ceaseless barking finally led to a civil suit in Superior Court, where a jury on Friday concluded that the dogs had been a nuisance and awarded Filbert $1,500 in damages.

If Filbert’s experience was bad, consider what happened in Fullerton last week, when this time an animal was assaulted.

After months of anonymous telephone threats over a barking golden retriever, someone sneaked over a fence and taped the dog’s mouth closed on a hot day, shutting down the dog’s natural cooling system. The dog’s temperature reached 108 degrees in only two hours before it died of heat stroke.

Although these two cases are extreme, animal control officials say conflicts over barking dogs happen needlessly and often.

“These things get extremely inflammatory sometimes,” said Marie Hulett-Curtner, an officer with the Orange County Animal Shelter who is often called into the middle of the fight. “People get really emotional, especially if someone is losing sleep over it.”

While stringent laws exist and cruelty to animals can be a felony, Fullerton police acknowledge that finding the culprit in a case like the one involving the golden retriever is a long shot. Without a witness, there is little the police can do.

“Unless a witness comes forward, the case will probably remain inactive,” said Sgt. Ron Gillett.

Statistics from Orange County Animal Control and Animal Shelter Services show that the majority of barking dog problems are solved quietly and felony charges are extremely rare.

Still, out of the average 5,500 yearly reports of noisy dogs in Orange County, about 60 reports end up with misdemeanor charges being filed, carrying a maximum penalty of one year in jail or a $500 fine and informal probation, according to animal control officials.

The best answer to a barking dog or a squalling cat is to confront the problem early and talk to the pet’s owner, officials say.

“Sometimes just getting the parties together is the answer,” said Ava Park, founder of Orange County People for Animals, who alone receives five or 10 calls a month about barking dogs. “When people get to know each other, the barking often bothers them less.”

Without the talking, however, violence can result, Park said.

“I have seen these things escalate into virtual wars, the Hatfields versus the McCoys,” Park said. “It’s awful when that happens.”

Hulett-Curtner’s advice is “be neighborly.”

“Don’t go over and talk to the dog’s owner in an angry way. Go over on neighborly terms,” she said. “That’s the best way to deal with these things.”

Although that advice works in most cases, it did not work for Filbert, who maintains that the neighbor’s two 50-pound chows and a cocker spaniel in one small, cement-lined back yard were too much.

“Dogs are going to bark. They are vocal, social animals. It’s their nature,” said Filbert, the supervisor of animal entertainment at Knott’s Berry Farm and a former director of the Orange County Zoo in Irvine Park. “I was trying to accept it, but after you hear it for so long, you start getting agitated. You can’t help it.”

The answer for Filbert and her roommate was to move to Anaheim, away from the dogs. Other people with complaints against pets are not as understanding as she was, said Dr. Richard H. Evans, chief veterinarian at the county shelter.

“We see our share of animal abuse and it’s unfortunate,” Evans said. “People wait until they are exasperated and then take the law into their own hands.”

Evans has treated dogs that have been shot, poisoned and “slam-dunked in dumpsters.” Dogs have had rubber bands or ropes tied around their necks or other parts.

Perhaps the saddest part of the story is that dogs bark because they are lonely, Hulett-Curtner said.

“Studies show that adult wild dogs rarely bark,” Hulett-Curtner said. “Dogs bark out of boredom. . . . Through domestication, we have trapped some dogs in a teen-age state. It’s the dogs that don’t get enough attention that bark.”

Dogs can be taught not to bark, Hulett-Curtner said. “There are all kinds of humane methods of training a dog not to bark,” she said.

For example, one effective method is to fill an aluminum can full of 20 pennies and shake it at a dog whenever it barks, saying “No” at the same time, Hulett-Curtner said. The dog usually soon learns that the barking is causing the disturbing noise and making its owner mad, she said.

If the problem persists after a disturbed neighbor has talked to the owner of a barking dog, the next step is to contact animal control officers, who will go out to the home. If that doesn’t work, animal control will send a form letter advising of laws against barking dogs that disturb the peace.

No dogs or cats are ever taken away from their owners in Orange County, however, Hulett-Curtner said.