Dear PoPville – Every Sat. Morning a Dog in Mt. P Wakes up the Entire Block!

Not the dog in question, this dog was actually very chill

“Dear PoP,

I’m trying my best to come up with a diplomatic solution to this problem and I hope you can help by posting this letter!

I live right in Mt. Pleasant, with my bedroom window directly facing Heller’s Bakery. For the past several months, every Saturday morning someone goes into Heller’s and ties his or her dog out front–and leaves it out there all alone for sometimes up to an hour. The dog get very upset and yelps and yelps and yelps at the top of its little canine lungs.

Two things: don’t you think this is cruel to the animal? This isn’t a temper tantrum this dog is having–my friend says it just wants a donut!–it’s a fit of pain and sadness that its tied to some poll while its owner sits inside, apparently deaf to its cries.

On a more selfish note, this dog is waking up the entire neighborhood. I sit here writing this now [Sat.] at 10:30 am which isn’t an unreasonable time to be awakened, but sometimes it’s 8:30 or 9 am, which is a bit much on a Saturday morning when sometimes all you want is to wake up naturally at a later hour after a long hard workweek, don’t you think?

I’m at my wit’s end, and short of marching into Heller’s and demanding to know the identity of the owner, I don’t know what to do to solve this problem. Heller’s is my neighborhood bakery, and I know the people who work there and don’t want to start a fight or make a scene, because chances are I won’t be very nice to whoever in there is waking me up every Saturday morning AND borderline abusing his or her pooch!”

In mid-March we had an epic conversation about a similar incident in Adams Morgan. For this specific instance – if the dog is tied up for an hour – I’m just gonna straight say it – that is bullshit. If the dog is barking/yelping for up to an hour with no attention, no matter what time of day it is, that is bullshit. It’s even worse that it’s before 9am on the weekend.

So what would you guys do? I’m afraid I think the only solution is to go to the bakery the next time this happens and talk calmly to the owner. Say something like – what a cute/cool dog but I’ve noticed he/she has been barking every Sat. morning for a long time – is there anything we can do about this? Short and sweet and friendly is the key in my opinion.

Right? Or do you think the reader (and I) have unrealistic expectations? Would it make a difference if the dog was only barking/crying for 15 minutes?