Nashua, NH Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section 93-13 of the Nashua Revised Ordinances works in two steps. The first step defines when animal noise is a nuisance. The second step decides when the owner has committed a violation.

Step one has two alternative triggers. Noise qualifies if it is sustained for periods of more than 30 minutes, whatever the time of day. Noise also qualifies if it occurs between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., and the quoted text attaches no minimum duration to that overnight window. Either way, the noise must be the kind that would annoy or disturb a person of normal sensibilities. That is an ordinary-person measure, so the question is how a typical Nashua neighbor would react, not how an unusually sensitive one would.

The section says "noise from an animal," not barking specifically. Barking dogs fall under it, and so does noise from any other animal that has an owner.

Step two, in § 93-13(B), is where liability attaches. The owner is guilty of a violation if they fail, by appropriate action, to effectively abate the nuisance after being requested to do so by any person. Three points follow from that wording. The request can come from any person, so a neighbor's request counts. The owner's response has to be effective, meaning the noise has to stop being a nuisance. And until a request has been made and gone unanswered, the noise is a nuisance but the owner has not yet committed the violation.

Penalties run through § 93-14, which relies on the general penalty section of the Nashua Code, § 1-12.