I'm sure most people have at least one 'dog attack' story, because they happen so often.

At the risk of sounding a little like Gareth Morgan, I cannot help but wonder whether it is time for us to get rid of certain animals as pets.

Specifically, I’m talking about dogs.

The latest dog-related story making headlines is the claim that unleashed dogs are causing injuries at Auckland beaches. But make no mistake, this is only the latest in a long line.

Earlier this week, there was another story about a dog mauling an elderly woman’s cat to death - and barely a month goes by without there being a high-profile attack by a dog on a human.

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* Dog attack in Takaka leaves woman needing plastic surgery

These are just the ones that make the papers, but what about the ones that don't? I'm sure that most people have at least one 'dog attack' story, because they happen so often.

When I was 7, I was bitten on my leg when I was at school, on the playground. A dog from a neighbouring property had wandered onto the school grounds and decided to chomp onto my thigh as I was hanging from a climbing frame.

When I was 14, I went to school with a boy who had horrific scarring down one side of his face, following a dog attack when he was young. I'm sure you can imagine the bullying he faced.

When I was 24, I was lying on my friend's couch when her Alsatian came over and licked my face. Instinctively, I sat up, not liking the idea of being at eye-level with so many sharp teeth. "Don’t worry, he’s a big softie," she assured me. Suddenly, the door knocked and my friend went to answer. It was her builder. Literally 10 seconds later, there was blood all over the ground and the builder was on his way to hospital. He had made the mistake of trying to pat the dog.

Last April, following a dog attack on a 7-year-old boy who needed 100 stitches, Stuff reported that 12,937 New Zealanders were bitten or attacked by dogs in 2015, with numbers forecast to reach 16,000 a year by 2020.

And these are just the ones that are reported.

Of course, the problems with dogs extend beyond biting and mauling.

There is the barking, for a start. Wherever I have lived throughout New Zealand, barking dogs have always been a source of great annoyance. The neighbours at my last house had a small dog with a high-pitched yap. You could hear it in every room throughout our house, even when the doors and windows were closed and the television was on.

The neighbours at my current house have a much bigger dog. Their dog is so stupid that he barks, and then barks at the echo, thinking it is another dog barking back. The fact there is an echo tells you how loud the dog is and how it intrudes into the lives of everyone within roughly a one-kilometre radius.

This dog is a fairly new addition to the neighbourhood, replacing the two Golden Retrievers next door that used to bark at anyone who came up our shared driveway, which was at least once every hour or two.

As the father of a small child, sleep is important to both myself and my son. Like all babies and toddlers, he needs a lot of it and, like all parents, I don’t get enough of it. Six hours each night is a win for me, five is normal. So the last thing I want to be exposed to as I’m trying to get to sleep, or trying to get my son to sleep, is to listen to your dog barking non-stop for hours on end.

My baby-induced insomnia also means that I spend a lot of time running or walking, often with my son, at stupid o’clock in the morning. Without wanting to sound snobbish, I live in a fairly nice neighbourhood. Like most people, I started at the bottom and worked my way up. Most of my neighbours seem quite proud of their houses and belongings. They keep their cars clean and their lawns manicured. As is the case in most areas in Auckland thesedays, houses in my neighbourhood sell for $1 million… Yet this ‘nice neighbourhood’ is ankle-deep in faecal matter and garbage - all thanks to dogs.

I see canine excrement plastered across the pavement on a daily basis and if I’m out and about on a Wednesday morning, I can guarantee there will be trash strewn everywhere from rubbish bags, ripped-open by dogs.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: "It’s just a minority. Most dog-owners are responsible, considerate people".

Are they though?

What is more likely is that you don't actually know what your dog is getting up to.

The dog I saw getting stuck into a rubbish bag last Wednesday was clearly well-fed and looked-after. I don’t believe that the owners knew that their precious pooch was out trashing the neighbourhood at 5:30am. Same with the dog at the bottom of my driveway who barks all day. How can the owners know what he gets up to when they’re at work all day?

Based on what I have seen, it’s the majority of dogs that seem to be problematic. Otherwise, isn’t it a massive coincidence that roughly half of my immediate neighbours throughout my entire life have owned annoying dogs? If it is only a minority, then I must be the unluckiest person on the planet to come across so many bad dogs and dog-owners.

But even if it is only a minority, so what? We don’t turn a blind eye to people who vandalise bus-stops, play loud, anti-social music at 3am, or who risk our safety by drink-driving. We don’t say, "get over it, they’re just a minority".

So why do some people adopt this attitude with dogs? And when housing density is the way that it is these days, it only takes one barking dog at 7am on a Sunday to disturb hundreds of people. You wouldn’t mow your lawns or let off fireworks at that time, so why do you think it is acceptable to let your dog bark?

Am I being intolerant? Well, that’s a subjective term. What is acceptable to one person might be unacceptable to another. But frankly, if you’re impacting on my stress levels, my ability to sleep or even watch television without being disturbed, the cleanliness and hygiene of my neighbourhood, and the safety of myself and my children, then we have an issue.

"Get over it" doesn’t seem like an appropriate response.

Perhaps it’s time to reassess whether society really needs such dangerous and annoying animals as pets.