DuPage County, IL Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

County Code Sec. 5-3(O) lists prohibited animal behavior. Item 2 makes it unlawful for an owner to permit an animal to "[h]arass persons or vehicles by chasing, barking, biting or otherwise presenting as a threat to public safety," and defines a threat to public safety to include disrupting traffic flow or causing a vehicular accident, so a dog whose barking or chasing spills into the street is squarely covered, not just a dog that bites. The same subsection separately bars letting an animal run uncontrolled (item 1), attack other animals (item 3), or damage property other than the owner's (item 4). "Owner" is defined broadly in Sec. 5-2 to include anyone who keeps, harbors or acts as custodian of an animal, so a renter or house-sitter can be cited as readily as the titled owner.

Enforcement runs through the DuPage County Department of Animal Services and its animal control wardens, who hold police power to enforce the article under Sec. 5-14. A resident does not have to catch the animal in the act of biting to complain; a documented pattern of chasing or barking that presents a public-safety threat is enough to trigger a citation under Sec. 5-3(O)(2). The rule sits inside Article I, ANIMAL AND RABIES CONTROL, alongside DuPage County's animal-care, cruelty and rabies-vaccination requirements, so a barking or harassment complaint can prompt the administrator to also check vaccination and confinement compliance on the same visit.