neighbour complained it had barked throughout June.

Joan Ford told Magistrate the Wor. Cheryl-Ann Mapp on Friday that Tommy the dog would begin barking at 7 a.m. -- preventing her from sleeping -- and would continue until nightfall.

And when she complained to neighbour Elaine Furbert she claimed she was told she should have been out of bed by 7 a.m.

Furbert denies the allegation and has pleaded not guilty to allowing Tommy to bark incessantly between June 8 and July 15, 1992, disturbing and causing an inconvenience to her neighbours.

Ford, a substitute teacher, explained she was on her summer break and spent a substantial amount of time at home between the dates cited in the complaint.

"That dog would start early in the morning and bark all day right through the month of June,'' she said.

She said she was unable to sleep in the mornings due to Tommy's barking, which usually started around 7 a.m.

She said the Furbert house is about 18 to 20 yards northwest of her home, and Tommy is always tethered outside, "close'' to her bedroom window. The dog sleeps in a nearby doghouse.

"Trash days are the worst,'' she said, adding the dog barked at the Furberts, strangers, and traffic.

She said when she talked to Furbert about the noise, she was told "a dog wouldn't be a dog if it didn't bark'' and "everyone should be up at 7 a.m.

anyway''.

Furbert denied making the comments.

Asked by prosecutor Sgt. Peter Giles if Furbert ever attempted to quiet Tommy, Ford said: "only occasionally, and always in the late morning''.

Mrs. Furbert insisted her neighbour tried to provoke the dog. "That dog has never barked at me,'' Ford retorted. "He knows me. But he always barks at (the Furberts). When I tell him to go back in his (doghouse), he just goes.'' The case resumes on May 28.