Washington County, WI Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Washington County Code § 172-12I lists five things that make it unlawful for a person to own, harbor or keep a dog in the county. Subsection I(4) targets noise directly: a dog may not "habitually bark or howl to the annoyance of any person or persons," though the code carves out a specific exemption for hospitals conducted for the treatment of small animals, recognizing that veterinary clinics necessarily house barking animals. The same subsection also bars dogs that habitually chase vehicles, that molest passersby or attack without provocation, that are at large, or that kill, wound or worry another domestic animal, so a chronic barker can be cited under I(4) even if none of the other four triggers apply.

"Owner" under this section, per § 172-12H, includes anyone harboring or keeping a dog, and an occupant on whose premises a dog remains or to which it customarily returns daily for 10 days is presumed to be the keeper. Because § 172-12 sits within Chapter 172, Peace and Good Order, rather than a separate noise ordinance, a habitual-barking complaint is investigated the same way as any other keeping-of-dogs violation: the Sheriff's Office or a designated animal control agent responds to the complaint, and the general penalty provisions of the chapter apply.

Section 172-12 does not carry a dollar penalty specific to I(4); the county's standard forfeiture in § 1-5 (not less than $10 nor more than $2,000, plus costs of prosecution) applies absent a more specific fine, distinguishing habitual-barking cases from the at-large and untagged-dog violations in § 172-12J, which do carry their own scheduled forfeitures.