Or another neighbor's dog, farther away, is doing the barking and tonight the sound is carrying farther. I call my close neighbors and get upset, only to find out their dog is asleep in their living room, and then they get upset with me. But inferences are very useful. Since they aren't just wild guesses, they can help us narrow the possibilities to a likely candidate. The key thing is to keep them in mind as an inference.
Unidentified inferences are very problematical.
They can block our efforts to solve problems. They can ruin relationships. But it is important to note that many more things are reports than what we usually designate as such. For instance, everything you read in your textbooks is reported information. All your knowledge of history, and practically all that you know about current events in our country, even your community, is from reports.