Woodbury, MN Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)
Barking dog rules in Woodbury, MN, also called nuisance dog, dog noise, or excessive barking ordinances, define when a barking dog becomes a code violation and how complaints are handled.
Key Facts
- Daytime threshold
- 10 continuous minutes of barking
- Daytime with complaints
- 5 minutes + 2 neighbor complaints
- Overnight threshold
- 5+ times within 1 minute
- Daytime hours
- 6:00 a.m.-9:59 p.m.
- Nighttime hours
- 10:00 p.m.-5:59 a.m.
- Exception
- Barking at trespassers or when provoked
Summary
Woodbury treats animal noise that unreasonably disturbs neighbors as a public nuisance under City Code Sec. 5-25(3), with specific timing thresholds: repeated barking heard off the property for 10 minutes straight in the day, or just 5 minutes with two neighbor complaints, or 5 times in a minute overnight.
(3)Disturbing the peace and quiet. The owning, keeping, or harboring of any animal which shall by any noise, unreasonably or excessively disturb the peace and quiet of any person in the vicinity. The phrase "unreasonably or excessively disturb the peace and quiet" shall include, but is not limited to, the creation of any noise by an animal which can be heard by any persons, from a location off the animal's owner's property where the animal is being kept, and which noise:a.During the hours of 6:00 a.m. through 9:59 p.m.:1.Occurs repeatedly over at least a ten-minute period of time with one minute or less lapse of time between each animal noise during the ten-minute period; or2.Occurs repeatedly over at least a five-minute period of time with one minute or less lapse of time between each animal noise during the five-minute period and two or more complaints from different neighbors about said noise are received by the public safety department.b.During the hours of 10:00 p.m. through 5:59 a.m.:1.Occurs five or more times over a period of one minute.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 48).
Full Breakdown
Sec. 5-25 lists "disturbing the peace and quiet" as a public nuisance whenever the owning, keeping, or harboring of any animal creates noise that unreasonably or excessively disturbs the peace and quiet of anyone in the vicinity, and the ordinance defines that phrase with objective, testable thresholds rather than leaving it to an officer's impression. , a violation occurs if the animal noise, audible from off the owner's property, repeats over at least a ten-minute period with a minute or less between each occurrence, or repeats over at least a five-minute period on the same terms if two or more complaints from different neighbors reach the public safety department.
, the bar drops further: five or more instances of the noise within a single minute is enough to violate the section. The ordinance carves out a defense for dogs responding to trespassers or that are teased or provoked into barking, so a dog reacting to an intruder or a taunting passerby is not in violation even if it meets the timing thresholds. The rule sits within the same nuisance section that also covers animal property damage and failure to clean up feces, all enforced by the community service officer acting as animal control officer under Sec. 5-20.
Violations & Fines
A confirmed violation of the Sec. 5-25(3) noise thresholds, documented through neighbor complaints to the public safety department, is enforced by the animal control officer as a public nuisance; the code's structure, requiring two independent neighbor complaints for the shorter five-minute daytime threshold, functions as evidentiary support for a citation rather than a one-time noise complaint being automatically sufficient.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does my neighbor's dog have to bark before it's a violation?
Are overnight barking rules stricter in Woodbury?
Is a dog barking at an intruder a violation?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Woodbury
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