Joliet, IL Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section 6-29 of the Joliet Code targets repeat disturbances rather than a single bark: subsection (a) makes it unlawful for a dog owner or keeper to "permit the dog to bark, growl, howl, or whine in a loud manner disturbing the quiet, peace, and peaceful enjoyment of other persons on the same, adjoining, or nearby property" only once that owner has already "received prior notice that the dog's conduct has on one (1) or more prior occasions disturbed" those neighbors. Subsection (b) defines how notice counts: an owner has been notified if any person on the same, adjoining, or nearby property, or an agent or employee of the city, has told the owner (orally or in writing) about a prior disturbance.

In practice, this means a first complaint functions as the notice that triggers liability for any later incident: the ordinance does not criminalize a dog's first noisy episode, but it does reach a dog whose owner keeps ignoring repeated complaints from the same block. The provision sits in Division 1 of Chapter 6, Animals and Fowl, alongside the city's dogs-at-large, dog-bite, and dangerous-dog rules, and it is enforced the same way those companion sections are, through the police department and the city's animal control officer.

Sec. 6-30, the adjoining "negligent control of an animal" section, separately covers a dog that injures someone, threatens a person in public, damages property, or runs at large, so a barking complaint and a negligent-control complaint are handled as distinct offenses even when they involve the same dog.