Toms River, NJ Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section 516-14, part of the Board of Health's Article II governing dogs, bars any owner from keeping a dog or other animal that habitually barks, howls, cries or makes other noise over a prolonged period, whether during the day or night. The same rule reaches a household of multiple animals: no one may own more than one animal that, as a collective group, habitually creates the same disturbance, even if no single animal would qualify alone. The ordinance protects 'normal and occasional' barking, crying or howling associated with any one animal, so an isolated outburst isn't enough to convict.

When a case reaches Municipal Court, the Magistrate weighs how constant, steady and frequent the barking is, how long it has gone on, what the owner has done to stop it, what's causing it, how much it interferes with a neighbor's enjoyment of their property, and whether the owner has prior convictions under this section. Toms River also wrote in a farming carve-out: there's no violation when the noise comes from an animal other than a dog on property lawfully used for farming or agricultural activities, including raising livestock, poultry or small animals under the Township's Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 348.

Article II was adopted December 20, 1976 by Ordinance No. 3-76, and § 516-14 itself was amended January 17, 1977 by Ordinance No. 2-77. The article was originally adopted by the Board of Health of the Township of Dover, Toms River's name before its 2006 renaming, and remains current Toms River law.