Dog Barking Laws

As all laws apply to people, there are laws that dogs or actually dog owners must follow. There are the leash laws and the laws that don’t allow the attack of a dog against another dog or another human. But there is a law that can help people who are affected nightly by barking dogs. The law is similar in most states but the law in NY is that you must stop your dog from making any unreasonable noise. That means a dog can bark, but you can’t let them bark for hours and hours on end.

The law basically says that an owner, caregiver, dog walker or anyone who is in control of the dog at that moment is not allowed to let the dog bark constantly or loudly for an unreasonable amount of time. Nor are you allowed to allow the dog to bark unreasonably at the residence after 7am and before 10pm for the allotted time of 10 minutes, and 5 minutes between the hours of 10pm and 7am.

If this should occur you may call your local 311 or you may call your local police station. Most states have this law on the books. All dogs bark, it is only natural, but excessively is not acceptable, especially when there are children asleep and people who need to wake up the next day. If you are the dog owner take that into consideration if you allow your dog outside within that time range. Put your self in their position and see how you would react.

You should first try tactfully confront the dog owner and state your concern. Your concern shoud be justified such as you need to be able to sleep at night and you can't with their dog continuously barking. If that doesn't work, call the police. Yes, the police probably do have better things to do than answer complaints of a barking dog, but it is their duty to keep the peace as well. When you call the police, talk to them in a calm voice and gain their sympathy. Tell them how long the dog has been barking and how you've tried to put up with it, but you just can't any longer.