Dodge County, WI Public Conduct: Loud Party Ordinance (2026)

07(2) prohibits making or causing to be made any loud, disturbing, or unnecessary sound or noise as may tend to disturb a person of ordinary sensibility. Unlike a decibel-based or time-of-day ordinance, this is a nuisance standard: the Dodge County Sheriff's Office responds to a complaint, evaluates whether the sound is loud, disturbing or unnecessary, and whether an ordinary neighbor would be bothered by it, before issuing a citation. In practice this is the section deputies use against loud house parties, outdoor gatherings and amplified music running late at night on private property in the unincorporated towns, since the county's general code does not carry a separate host-liability or party-registration ordinance.

07(1), the barking-dog nuisance clause, in the Disturbing the Peace ordinance created by County Ordinance #560, and both share the same enforcement and penalty mechanism. Because this section applies only where the county, not a city or village, has police jurisdiction, a loud-party complaint inside Beaver Dam, Watertown, Mayville, Horicon, Waupun, Fox Lake or Hartford is handled under that municipality's own noise ordinance rather than this county code. There is no permit or advance-notice process to hold a loud gathering under county law; the only exposure is a citation after the fact if a complaint is substantiated.