[Paul]

Hi MzTee, I think that it is important to be seen to be making an effort to appease the complainant. Rightly or wrongly, her complaint may be vexatious, frivolous or without any evidence but it is important in the event of the matter escalating beyond a warning, that you can show that you have make efforts to address the situation. 

I would offer her your mobile phone number with instructions to call you immediately in the event of your dog barking. (This might call her bluff) Perhaps get a cheap pre-paid phone for this purpose. Put this in writing and CC the EC. Make the point that you don’t believe that your dog is barking to what would be considered to be “excessive” but to assist you in identifying the problem, that you would like to be notified while it is occurring. 

I’d then set up a webcam to run continuously on your PC. I use free software from https://skjm.com/icam/  They offer an iPhone app called iCAM which allows you to see & hear your webcam in real-time from anywhere. It also records motion events and saves them to disk. You can also monitor your webcam from any PC. This would allow you to verify whether the neighbour is 

You might also try a dog behaviour consultant. They may be able to identify a strategy to keep your dog entertained during the times that it is alone.

Personally, I suspect that she might have other reasons for singling you out and not complaining about the other tenant’s dog. Perhaps she is friends with this person. Perhaps the other dogs owner owns the unit and you rent?  

Good luck!

[Author]

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