Southfield, MI Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Southfield addresses nuisance barking through its animal-control chapter rather than the general noise ordinance, which § 9.69 cross-references at § 9.10 et seq. Section 9.69 makes it unlawful to harbor or keep any dog that causes an annoyance to the neighborhood through loud, frequent or habitual barking, yelping or howling. The section doesn't require a decibel reading or expert testimony about a specific noise level; the standard is simply whether the barking is loud, frequent or habitual enough to annoy the surrounding neighborhood, which the animal control officer or a police officer determines from complaints and observation.

A violation is a municipal civil infraction, prosecuted the same way as parking tickets and other Chapter 15 infractions rather than as a criminal misdemeanor. The ordinance sets its own escalating fine schedule rather than deferring to the general Chapter 15 civil-infraction fee schedule: $125 for a first offense, $175 for a second offense, and $300 for a third or any later offense. Because the code treats each day the dog keeps barking as a separately committed offense, a resident who ignores a first citation and lets the barking continue exposes themselves to the higher second- and third-offense fines within the same enforcement window rather than starting over at $125 each time.