Dr. Focazio says his dogs, one of which he says is a police-trained K-9, are mostly quiet — except when there is a visitor or an intruder. Then they bark.

“That’s what dogs do,” Dr. Focazio said. “They don’t moo.”

“It feels ridiculous,” he added. “All I know is, it is my right to have dogs, and dogs bark.” (The family has a fourth dog, a Yorkshire terrier, who is presumably not a prime suspect in the barking on Fox Hedge Road.)

Behind the Focazios live the Mone family, who reside in an approximately 5,000-square-foot home on Coltsfoot Glen. They say their household, particularly its oldest residents, both in their 80s, is woken up at all hours by the dogs.

“It’s a quality-of-life thing. Nobody gets it, unless you live it,” said one member of the Mone family, who asked not to be identified to ward against abuse or online trolling from dog lovers. Attempts were made to settle the issue neighbor to neighbor, the family member said, but when the dogs kept barking, the police were called. Multiple times.

Over the past 12 months, police have issued at least seven summonses to Dr. Focazio. One summons, issued last May, cited animals that “caused frequent or long continued loud and raucous noises so as to disturb the comfort or repose of any person in the vicinity.”

The Focazios believe the citation in May was unfair and that the dogs barked at the summons writer, Darlene Mandeville, the borough’s environmental health specialist, because she stood at the gate for a prolonged period observing them. “That’s what they’re supposed to do,” Dr. Focazio said.

Not long after the Focazios moved into the home, an intruder invaded the mansion when Dr. Focazio’s wife, Debra, was home. The family then obtained the four dogs for protection. But Dr. Focazio said they are also the family pets.