Dade City, FL Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section 42-33(b)(3)b of the Dade City Code of Ordinances, adopted by Ord. No. 2014-05 on May 27, 2014 and amended by Ord. No. 2021-18 on October 26, 2021, prohibits owning, possessing, harboring, keeping, raising or maintaining any animal defined in chapter 18 of the city code that frequently or continuously howls, barks, yelps, meows, squawks or otherwise makes noise that annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of a reasonable person of normal sensibilities. The standard is behavioral, not numeric: unlike the outside-source decibel table in § 42-33(b)(1), a barking complaint does not require a sound-level meter reading.

Enforcement follows § 42-35(c): a police or code enforcement officer first issues a verbal warning to the property owner or the person responsible for the animal. The owner is then given a reasonable time to stop the disturbance, presumed under § 42-35(d) to be one minute absent special circumstances. If the barking continues or recurs after the warning, the officer may issue a civil citation. Citations are prosecuted under the Uniform Fine and Citation Schedule in the Sixth Judicial Circuit, or, at the city's election, heard before the city's own special magistrate under chapter 2, article V, section 4 of the Code of Ordinances, per § 42-35(e).

Section 42-35(f) also declares unreasonably excessive noise, including chronic animal noise, a public nuisance that the city or an affected neighbor may pursue through injunctive relief independent of any citation.