Georgetown, KY Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Georgetown regulates barking dogs through its general noise article rather than a separate decibel limit. Section 28-34(a) makes it unlawful to make or cause to be made any loud or unreasonable noise, and defines the term as noise that is plainly audible to a reasonable person of normal sensitivities using unaided hearing. The listener does not have to make out specific characteristics of the noise, such as the words of a song. Hearing it is enough.

Section 28-34(b)(5) is the catch-all for noise from any other source and names barking dogs, car engines, human voices and fireworks. A barking dog is a violation when the barking is plainly audible through the walls separating dwelling units in the same multifamily building, inside a dwelling unit on another property, from the source within the right-of-way into a dwelling unit, or at a distance of 50 feet or greater from the source. The test is audibility, so what a neighbor can hear, and from where, drives the case.

The animal chapter backs up the noise article. Section 6-19 includes in its definition of a public nuisance animal any animal that makes excessive noise such as would constitute a violation of chapter 28, article II. Section 6-20(d) makes it unlawful to keep within the city an animal that creates a public nuisance, and its list of examples includes an animal that repeatedly barks, whines, or howls.

Section 28-35 lists the sources exempt from the noise article: governmental activities, lawful activities on government-owned property, permitted special events, nonresidentially zoned property from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and commonly recognized holidays, and activities exempted by the office of the mayor. The exemptions do not mention dogs or other pets. Under section 28-36 a violation of the noise article is a criminal violation enforced by uniform citation.