New Berlin, WI Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

New Berlin Code § 152-10 F requires dog owners to exercise proper care and control to prevent their animals from becoming a public nuisance, and states flatly that any violation of the section is penalized by a fine. Subsection F(2) singles out 'unreasonable noise' as one nuisance category, defined two ways: F(2)(a) covers excessive, habitual, persistent or untimely barking that is substantiated by complaints from at least two or more separate households in the immediate neighborhood, while F(2)(b) separately reaches a dog that barks, howls, yelps or whines habitually, giving the example of ten minutes or more within a fifteen-minute period.

Either test is independently sufficient; a single household's complaint about a chronic barker needs the corroboration of a second nearby household unless the barking itself meets the ten-in-fifteen-minute pattern, which an officer or animal control contractor can document directly. Barking sits alongside five other listed nuisances in the same subsection, including a dog running at large, failing to clean up waste, and damaging property, all of which are enforced the same way. The Police Department, or the Council-appointed animal control contractor under § 152-10 J, handles confinement and enforcement, and the Chief of Police forwards any conviction to the City Clerk, who notes it on the dog owner's registration record.