Brown County, WI Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Chapter 39 of the Brown County Code (Noise Control, header revised 5-1-2002) sets numeric sound limits for sources in residential, commercial and industrial zones. Under § 39.01(2)(a), no person may operate a source of sound that exceeds the zone limits in Table I for daytime hours and Table II for nighttime hours. The residential A-scale figures are 57 dB (A) in the daytime and 52 dB (A) at night. Daytime is the hours between 7:00 A.M. and 10:00 P.M., and nighttime is the hours between 10:00 P.M. and 7:00 A.M. (§ 39.01(1)(b) and (c)).

Barking dogs sit outside that system. Subsection (6) of § 39.01 lists activities that are exempt from the regulations of the section, and item (l), titled Animals, reads: Noises created by animals such as, but not limited to, barking dogs. The words "such as, but not limited to" mean the exemption is not confined to dogs; the code names barking dogs as its example of animal noise. Unlike the power equipment exemption in item (d), which is limited to daytime hours, item (l) prints no hour restriction, so the text draws no line between the 7:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. window and the overnight window.

The one condition sits in the lead-in to subsection (6): the listed activities are exempt "provided reasonable steps are taken to minimize the noise emitted." The code does not define reasonable steps and does not list required measures, so the county text gives an owner no checklist and gives a complainant no decibel figure to measure a dog against. The sound level meter and octave band analyzer standards in § 39.01(5) support the numeric limits, and the animal exemption sits outside those limits.

The same subsection exempts several other sources: emergency operations, noises required by law, snow removal equipment, residential air conditioners in good working order, aircraft and railroad operations controlled by federal law, bells and chimes, warning devices, non-stationary farming equipment, and noise created by motor vehicles. Item (k) exempts noises created by human behavior that count as disorderly conduct under other laws and ordinances, which points that subject to those other laws instead of Chapter 39.

This page describes the Brown County, Wisconsin code only. Green Bay, De Pere and the villages of Brown County adopt their own codes, and nothing here speaks to what those codes say about animal noise.