Gemma, a Filipino woman in my class once commented on a difference between Americans and Philippines. She said that she thought it was strange when Americans don’t like their dogs to bark. At first I didn’t understand what she was trying to say and then it became clear to me. Dogs Bark! They are dogs; that is what they do. For some reason, we as Americans love having pets but we get frustrated when our pets act like pets!

Krista and I have three dogs. But of course, our dogs aren’t the problem. The problem is that the neighbor two doors down lets his dog outside at precisely 7:30 every morning. When his dog is let out, my dog barks. For a long time I have struggled with the fact that my dog barks because we have an apartment behind our house that we rent out and I have always been afraid of imposing on people or feeling like something of mine is a nuisance. We even went out and bought a dog bark collar that electrically shocks him whenever he barks. Strange huh?
I have finally come to grips with the fact that dogs bark. This is something that is going to happen and when people may complain about my dog barking, I will just tell them that he is a dog and he is going to bark.