Warning for barking dog

Hey everyone. I recently got a warning from animal services that someone had made a complaint about my dog who had been barking.

I already know who it is; a very unfriendly and grumpy neighbor across our back yard.

I have always done what we can to keep the barking to a minimum and to not leave the dog outside when he does bark.

My wife and I sometimes foster dogs. This particular day, the organization brought over the dog we were to foster. My dog started to bark. To avoid potentially frightening the foster dog, we put our dog outside.

Unfortunately, he continued to bark. And it was for about 15 minutes which yes, I agree was probably annoying. In retrospect I could have gone outside with him while my wife was speaking with the foster person.

On the letter, it advises that if the barking continued, there would be a monetary fine. They did not indicate what the fine was, but a quick lookup of the bylaw said $200.

I know the dog was barking for about 15 minutes. This was not enough time for animal services to come out, so the entire letter is based on what the neighbor said.

Can the neighbor potentially falsify another claim of excessive barking that would lead to a fine or does animal services need to observe the behaviour prior to issuing the citation? I'm asking because I know what they're like and they probably greatly exaggerated the report.

I want to maintain harmony in the neighborhood and ive never received a letter like this so I'm trying to understand how everything works.

Thank you!