Lyon County, NV Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section 7.01.05(B)(1) of the Lyon County Code makes it unlawful in unincorporated Lyon County for anyone to own, keep, harbor or possess any animal that, through loud or frequent habitual barking, yelping, braying or other noise, causes annoyance to the neighborhood or to any person in the vicinity. The rule sits inside chapter 7.01, PROHIBITED ACTS AND CONDITIONS, alongside the county's dangerous-animal and running-at-large provisions, and is enforced the same way: the code puts the duty on the animal services supervisor or officers to investigate once a complaint comes in, determine the cause of the disturbance, and then take appropriate action, rather than setting a fixed decibel level or number of minutes of barking that automatically triggers a citation.

That complaint-driven structure means a single short bout of barking is unlikely to be actionable, but a dog whose habitual noise keeps disturbing neighbors can bring an animal services investigation and a citation once the pattern is established. Section 7.01.10 sets the penalty for the whole chapter, including this nuisance-noise rule, at a misdemeanor, the same classification used for the county's dangerous-animal and at-large violations. Because the section is folded into the county's general prohibited-acts chapter rather than a standalone noise ordinance, it covers any animal, not only dogs, and applies uniformly across unincorporated communities such as Dayton, Silver Springs, Stagecoach, Mound House and Smith Valley; Fernley and Yerington enforce their own separate city codes.