Coweta County, GA Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Coweta County Code of Ordinances Sec. 10-92 makes it unlawful for an owner or keeper to let an animal annoy or disturb someone who is not on the owner's own premises through unreasonable barking or other noise. The ordinance defines the threshold precisely: barks, bays, cries, or howls count as unreasonable when they are continuous or incessant for 30 minutes, or intermittent for one hour or more. A dog is not in violation if it is responding to a trespass or attempted trespass onto private property, and the section carves out a full agricultural exemption: noise from livestock, poultry, or other animals on a legitimate farming operation zoned for agricultural use is excluded entirely.

Enforcement runs through the county's department of public health and animal services, the same office that handles rabies control, impoundment, and licensing under chapter 10. A neighbor's complaint typically triggers an investigation by an animal services officer, who documents the duration and frequency of the barking against the 30-minute continuous or one-hour intermittent standard before issuing a citation. Because the noise rule sits inside chapter 10's nuisance article (article V, alongside Sec. 10-91 nuisance animals and Sec. 10-93 animal waste), a chronic barking complaint can be paired with a broader nuisance-animal finding if the same dog is also running loose under Sec. 10-81's confinement rules.