Canine Crisis!

I'm a pretty patient guy. I'm relatively quiet, and I like alone time and, especially, sleepy time.

So imagine my dismay at having been awakened twice this week by the sound of a dog in the apartment below me howling like crazy.

If it were just baying briefly, I suppose I would understand. But the mutt's howling carries on for hours at a time. This morning, for instance, he started crying out around 8:30am, and continued to do so until almost 11:00am.

Now, I'm not really sure how to deal with this, so I need some friendly advice from anyone who might actually read this blog.

I'm not a big fan of confrontation, so I really don't want to go down there and get all up in this guy's/girl's grill. By the same token, I could call the main office of the complex, but they tend not to get involved in inter-tenant relations. I could also call the cops or the SPCA, but I feel like those are both extreme reactions.

So...what the hell do I do?