Decatur, GA Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section 42-59(4) folds barking dogs into the city's general ban on animal noise: owning, possessing or harboring any animal that frequently or continuously howls, barks, meows, squawks or makes other sound creating excessive and unnecessary noise across a residential or commercial property line, or within a noise-sensitive area, is prohibited. The subsection then defines "barking dog" specifically as a dog that barks, bays, cries, howls or makes any other noise continuously or incessantly for ten minutes, or intermittently for a half hour or more, to the disturbance of any person at any time of day or night.

That test applies regardless of whether the dog is physically situated on private property, so a fenced backyard is not a defense by itself. The ordinance does build in one exception: a dog is not deemed a "barking dog" if, at the time it is barking, a person is trespassing or threatening to trespass on the property where the dog is. Because the definition turns on duration and disturbance rather than a decibel reading, animal control or police can act on a documented pattern of complaints without needing a sound-meter reading at the property line. The provision sits in the same enumerated-noises section as the city's loudspeaker curfew and construction-hour limits, all enforced the same way.