Boulder, CO Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section 6-1-19(a) prohibits an owner or keeper from allowing an animal to disturb another person's peace through loud and persistent or loud and habitual barking, howling, yelping, braying, whinnying, crowing, calling, or similar noise, whether the animal is on or off its own premises. That broad language reaches roosters and other loud animals as well as dogs. The section builds in two procedural safeguards before a citation can stick. Subsection (b) requires that a written warning, delivered in person or by first-class mail, already have been given to the guardian or keeper within the twelve months preceding the first violation date charged, and the city manager keeps records of every warning as prima facie proof it was given.

Subsection (c) then requires corroboration at trial: no conviction can result unless two or more witnesses testify to the loud and persistent or habitual nature of the noise, or other evidence corroborates a single witness's testimony. Subsection (d) carves out cats from those two safeguards: if the animal is a cat and the prosecution proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the cat was off its guardian's premises when it made the noise, neither the prior-warning nor the two-witness rule applies. Because 6-1-19 lists no penalty of its own, a conviction is punished under the citywide general penalty, Section 5-2-4: up to $2,650 in fines, up to ninety days in jail, or both.