[Dailydrool] Upsetting neighborhood norms

[Val Brewer]

  I am trying to figure out whether I should keep upsetting neighborhood norms where I live. I walk my bassets three times a day.  Walks take maybe 20-30 minutes.  I do not walk before 8 AM or after 9 PM in order to be considerate to neighbors.  I always clean up after the dogs.  They do not make a sound.  We do tend to mosey along slowly, as the boys like to sniff, occasionally go flat basset, and I am on the far side of middle age, with arthritis.
    Here is the problem.  Every house in my neighborhood has at least one dog; some have as many as eight (ten per household over 4 mos. of age are legally allowed in our state before one has to apply for a kennel license).   However, I am the only person within 4 blocks square who walks her dog.  The others are all tethered or confined and do not leave their yards. This is the norm.  Needless to say, when we walk by, a cacophony of barking erupts as we pass some of the other houses, although it does not last long and I have not really thought it a problem until recently.  (Nuisance barking is legally defined here as ten consecutive minutes, or thirty intermittent minutes at a stretch).
    Two different neighbors have asked me not to walk my dogs at all anywhere in the neighborhood.  I do not usually have access to a car, so it is not usually possible to drive my dogs out of the neighborhood to a welcoming spot (like the dog park 12 miles away) to exercise us all, and there is no route that bypasses all of the other barking dogs.   I do vary my route so as not to pass any one house more than once a day, and do respect daylight hours.
    Even so, a couple of days ago one of the complaining neighbors came out to scream at me at length about "loitering" along the street, "disturbing everyone", and added a few unfortunate invectives about my skin color and gender.   My pointing out to her that my dogs were not making a sound (while hers were) did not help matters.  I came home shaking and have been a little fearful of walking the dogs since, although I do not really think we are in any actual danger, but my emotions are shook. 
    I apologize to moderators who rejected my initial post, written just after the incident, which was overly--well, whatever--expressive of some of my opinions about having been on the receiving end of the verbal abuse. 
    I honestly don't know what to do.  I do not think simply caving in to norms and stopping walking the dogs is the answer.  (One of my neighbors has done this).  So, what I am currently doing is walking in the direction away from the cursing neighbor's house (but this means passing the other complaining neighbor's house more than once).
    Any suggestions?  Thanks, Val    
     

       
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