Gary, IN Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Gary Municipal Code § 28-171(a) makes it unlawful to keep any animal or bird that, by causing frequent or long continued noise, disturbs the comfort or repose of ordinary, reasonable persons of normal nervous sensibilities and ordinary tastes, habits and modes of living who reside in the vicinity. The standard is an objective, neighbor-based nuisance test rather than a decibel limit or fixed duration, reaching a dog that barks persistently as much as any other noisy animal or bird. Subsection (b) extends the same reasonable-person standard to livestock kept within city limits: stabling or keeping a horse, mule or other animal so that its stamping or kicking causes frequent or long continued noise disturbing nearby residents is also unlawful.

The section sits in Chapter 28's Division 2, Noise, alongside the general noise prohibition of § 28-162, meaning a chronic barking complaint can be pursued either as a species-specific violation under § 28-171 or folded into the broader nuisance-noise standard. Enforcement runs through the Gary Police Department, the agency that also handles animal control citywide, so an officer responding to a noise complaint about a barking dog can act directly under this section rather than routing the matter solely through the separate dog-licensing chapter.