This book came about when I lived in a small, cramped apartment next door to an irascible neighbor. I had a dog barking problem because he had a dog barking problem. And neither of us owned the barking dog!

The dog-owning neighbor at the rear of us had no idea how to control his dog's persistent barking, at all hours of day or night. I could live with it, being a placid person (and I was out a lot anyway), but my neighbor's temper became more and more frayed, banging on the wall, shouting, and turning his hi-fi up to '11'. 

Believe me, the dog's barking sounded better. Then his irascibility turned towards all his neighbors, me included, even though the dog constantly barking wasn't mine. I know how to exercise barking control, after all.

So this book was born, out of an impulse to solve our communal dog barking problem, and also in the hope of living next door to a less cantankerous neighbor.

I can't claim to have written the book 'Help! My Dog Won't Stop Barking' there and then. Ebooks hadn't even been dreamt of in those days. But I did jot down the framework which forms the basis of this book and I slipped a copy of my notes through the offending dog-owning neighbor's door.

It took a while, but it seemed to work out for the best in the end. And we all lived happily ever after.*


*I am using some artistic licence here. Eventually I moved far, far away. My five-year mission to seek out new barking dogs and new dog training ideas, to boldly add to the planet - this book.