Millerís 1974 paper prepared for the Coordinating Committee on Environmental Acoustics of the Acoustical Society of America introduced the subject of sound, hearing and noise.¹

Miller on sound, hearing and noise¹

Ö The role of sound and hearing in manís life can be best understood in evolutionary terms. The ear, the auditory nervous system, and their relations with the remainder of manís bodily and behavioral functions developed to meet the demands of adaptation to the environment. But the pace of genetic change is slow compared to the rapid environmental change brought on by technology. Our genes prepare us for the environment of the past. Ö 

Irrelevant or excessive sound is undesirable. Such sound is noise. The definition of noise includes a value judgement, and for a society to brand some sounds as noises requires an agreement among the members of that society. Sometimes such agreements can be achieved readily. Other times considerable analysis and debate is required before agreement can be reached...

These two relatively short extracts from Millerís lengthy paper, highlight three important points:

ï The physiology of human hearing was designed for much quieter times in the process of human evolution.

ï In general biological terms, sounds are all important and welcome environmental signals, while noise is associated with alarm and avoidance.

ï Defining at what point sound becomes noise is difficult.

Human sensitivity to sound is usually a function of three measurable qualities:²

ï sound level in decibels; measures loudness

ï frequency in cycles per second; measures pitch

ï duration in seconds or may be expressed as a percentage of time; measures how long the sound persists

The ear is more sensitive to higher pitched sounds than lower pitched sounds of the same loudness. For this reason sound (or noise) levels are commonly measured in pitch-weighted scales that measure a combination of loudness and pitch. The common scale used for measuring barking noise is the dBA scale which gives less weight to lower pitched sounds in the same way the ear does. These measures are called A weighted sound levels. For technical information on standards and measurement of environmental noise, see the publications of the Standards Association of Australia or the corresponding New Zealand standards. (See: Environmental noise standards)

Measuring the noise level and duration of a barking dog with a noise meter will give one measure of nuisance; but where should this measurement be made? At the fence? Inside the bedroom? The figures will be very different because physical factors in the environment will affect how much noise reaches the hearer.

Difficulties in quantifying the problem can be seen in the observations of researchers in the field: Senn and Lewin regarding the abatement of barking noise: Borsky concerning factors which make noise seem worse: and Bell and his colleagues in their investigation of the effects of noise on the behaviour of people.

With residential barking disputes, easily measured factors such as loudness and pitch donít matter as much as the more subtle psychological irritant effects (photograph) of duration, frequency and a pre-existing conflict between the owner and the victim. The sound produced by the chronic barking habits of neighbourhood dogs, though not loud enough in most cases to cause hearing damage, has all the other characteristics that make a sound annoying. It can be simply and correctly categorised as a textbook example of unacceptable noise.

All the problems already mentioned are likely to come into play when councils receive neighbourhood complaints about barking. Also very likely is conflict of opinion and open antagonism between the people involved. In the absence of skilful mediation, at least one party to the dispute will probably be unhappy with the result. With barking complaints, councils should not hope for too many winñwin results! (See: Barking disputes difficult to resolve)

Unlike many other municipal management problems which are at least theoretically straight forward, the resolution of neighbourhood strife associated with excessive barking is not only difficult in practice. It is also difficult in theory.

But that doesnít mean we canít get better results. Nor does it mean we shouldnít try.

In order to come to grips with barking as a dog problem, it is important to also understand the basics of barking behaviour.

1. Miller JD. 1974. Effects of noise on people. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 56: 729-765.

2. Goldsmith JR, Johnsson E. 1973. Health effects of community noise. American Journal of Public Health 63(9): 782-793.