Deerfield Beach, FL Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Sec. 34-35(14), part of the Specific Noise Prohibitions article of the city's noise chapter, targets habitual animal noise rather than a single bark: it is unlawful for an owner or custodian to permit such animal to habitually bark, whine, howl, squawk, screech, crow or cause any other noise which is objectionable due to pitch, frequency, timing, or any combination thereof. The provision covers any animal, not just dogs, and does not set a decibel number or a specific time window the way the chapter's other subsections do for construction or loudspeakers; instead it turns on whether the noise is habitual and objectionable.

Enforcement runs through the same officers who handle every other noise complaint in the chapter: a City of Deerfield Beach code enforcement officer or a sworn Broward Sheriff's Office deputy, as defined in Sec. 34-33. A complaint is assessed without the ambient-decibel testing that Sec. 34-36 requires for mechanical sound sources, since a habitual-barking complaint is judged on the objectionable-noise standard rather than a sound-level meter reading. The chapter's general exemptions in Sec. 34-37, covering emergency vehicles, authorized safety signals, and refuse collection, do not extend to animal noise, and neither does the construction-hours carve-out in Sec. 34-35(2).