Barking resident's wretched existence? (1,4,4)
I believe the answer is:
a dogs life
'wretched existence?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
I don't understand how the remainder of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for a dogs life that I've seen before include "An unhappy existence, fraught with problems" , "Rotten existence of canine kind" , "miserable" , "A wretched existence of canine kind" , "Bad time!" .)