West Bloomfield, MI Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Sec. 7-17 makes it unlawful to keep or harbor a dog whose loud, frequent or habitual barking, yelping or howling causes serious annoyance to the neighborhood or to people passing on the streets. The section sits in Chapter 7, Article II, Dogs, which the state's Dog Law, MCL 287.261 et seq., cross-references as the enabling authority for local dog ordinances. Related duties in the same article reinforce the nuisance-barking rule: Sec. 7-20 requires an owner to keep a dog confined on the owner's premises or under reasonable control at all times, and Sec.

7-21 requires a leash whenever the dog is on property the owner does not own or occupy, except in a designated dog park. Sec. 7-16 defines 'reasonable control' as holding the dog securely on a leash of adequate strength and length by a person of suitable age and strength for the dog's size, or confining it in an enclosed vehicle or container. The barking-dog rule does not set a decibel threshold, a time-of-day window, or a minimum number of complaints; it turns on whether the barking is loud, frequent or habitual enough to seriously annoy neighbors or passersby, a fact question the West Bloomfield Police Department's animal control function investigates from complaints.

Sec. 7-23 sets enforcement for the Dogs article generally as a municipal civil infraction against the owner, escalating to a criminal misdemeanor only where a dog bites or attacks a person, so a straightforward barking complaint is handled as a civil infraction rather than a criminal charge.