Dog noise

The owners of noisy dog/s can face legal action if the noise from their dog regularly and persistently stops neighbours using and enjoying their house.

In law this is called a ‘statutory nuisance’. Whether or not the noise of a barking dog is found to be a nuisance depends on how often the dog barks, for how long and how significant the impact of the barking is on the people being affected.

There are no hard and fast rules about times of day or decibel levels (a measure of loudness) of the barking. Complaints about noise can be made to us. Whether a dog is causing a nuisance is usually dependent on the opinion of the investigating officer.

More information about noise nuisances can be found in our Noise section.

Report a noise complaint