Stop barking dog

My neighbor moved in with her 2 barking dogs and had to start working during the days. I work from home and depend on a quiet work place for conference calls, etc. The dogs would immediately start barking when the owner left for work. She said they are lonely and scared. She said they are use to living on a ranch with lots of area to roam. Well, that didn't help me. I asked her what I can do to help stop the barking while she's gone. She didn't have any solutions. I figured if I was going to have to listen to her dogs bark all day, she was going to hear it too. I would call her answering machine (knowing she's not home since the dogs were barking) and tell her the dogs are lonely and wanted to bark on her message machine. I would let the message machines run out and call back if the dogs would continue to bark. They usually would so I would fill up her answer machine. I think she got the idea. :)