Portsmouth, VA Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

' The provision has two working parts. First, the disturbance must be unreasonable and repeated, so an isolated bark or two at a passerby is not enough. Second, the section requires that the complaining neighbor have already asked the dog's owner to stop before a citation can issue; a first-time complaint to police without any prior request to the owner does not, by the text of the ordinance, establish the offense. Because this is a per se offense rather than a measured one, officers do not need a sound level meter or calibration certificate to act, unlike stationary noise sources governed by the decibel thresholds in subsection (d).

The rule sits inside the same general excessive-sound section that covers car horns, vehicle stereos, exhaust noise, and interference with courts, worship services, and government buildings, so a repeat, unaddressed barking complaint is treated as seriously as those other listed offenses. The ordinance does not separately define how many requests or how much time must pass, leaving that judgment to the responding officer and, ultimately, to the court.