Commerce City, CO Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Sec. 4-2004(a) defines the animal noise offense with three required elements: the sound must be plainly audible beyond the premises where the animal is kept, it must be persistent, frequent or habitual (with persistence presumed if it continues more than ten minutes at any one time), and it must occur without provocation. Before a summons can issue, subsection (b) requires that a written warning already have been served by a police officer or animal control agent on the owner, on an adult present on the property, or posted at the property, within the twelve months preceding the offense.

Once that warning exists, the summons itself must be signed by an officer or agent who personally witnessed the violation, or supported by signed written complaints from at least two witnesses in separate households, or one witness plus other competent trial evidence. Conviction has its own proof requirement in subsection (c): the city needs either two witnesses from separate households with firsthand knowledge, a city agent who witnessed the violation plus one firsthand witness, or one firsthand witness plus other competent evidence, all testifying at trial.

Subsection (d) exempts animal hospitals and clinics providing medical treatment from the whole section, so a dog barking during a veterinary visit is not a violation. The written-warning prerequisite and multi-witness proof standard make this one of the harder Chapter 4 provisions to enforce on a single complaint; a neighbor calling in a first-time barking incident will get a warning, not a citation.