Kingsport, TN Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Kingsport handles a barking dog through its general nuisance article, not a dog-specific noise section. Section 62-126 of the Code of Ordinances lists items declared to be and constituting a nuisance when placed, deposited, left or permitted to remain on public or private property, and the list is expressly nonconclusive: the enumeration is not to be construed as conclusive, limiting or restrictive. Item (3) is creating or causing unnecessary or unauthorized noises or annoying vibrations, including animal noises. That phrase is the hook for a barking dog, a howling animal or any other animal sound in the City of Kingsport.

Section 62-125 supplies the definition of nuisance that governs the article. A nuisance is an action of any person in doing an unlawful act, or in omitting to perform a duty, or in suffering or permitting any condition or thing to be or exist, which either injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health or safety of others; unlawfully interferes with, obstructs or renders dangerous for passage any public or private street, highway, sidewalk, stream or drainage; renders other persons insecure in life or the use of property; or interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property or tends to depreciate the value of the property of others. The word suffering or permitting matters for pet owners: the duty attaches to the person who permits the condition, not only to the animal.

Section 62-128 makes it unlawful for any person to cause, permit, maintain or allow the creation or maintenance of a nuisance. Section 62-127 states that the article is supplemental to all other city ordinances, so it sits beside the animal chapter and the disorderly conduct section. Section 62-25(b) separately provides that a person violates the disorderly conduct section by making unreasonable noise which prevents others from carrying on lawful activities. None of these sections sets a decibel reading, a number of minutes of barking, or a quiet-hours window for animals. A complaint turns on whether the noise is unnecessary or unauthorized and whether it injures the comfort or repose of others or interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property.