Dogs bark. It's natural and it’s how they communicate. Some barking is acceptable and normal (e.g. the dog barks to let you know someone is at your front door). Barking becomes a nuisance when the barking is persistent, continuous or repetitive. If your dog is barking excessively, it's important to find out why.

Dogs bark for many reasons, including:

• boredom, loneliness, lack of enrichment
• unsuitable yards, enclosures or kennel locations
• noises like fireworks, thunderstorms, sirens
• lack of food, water, exercise or training
• neighbourhood disturbances (garbage trucks, post officers, delivery drivers, people passing by)
• need to protect property or their owner’s family.

For some handy tips to help avoid your dog barking at home, view the Tips to help stop your dog barking at home video. 

What is considered excessive barking?

Our Local Laws state that dog barking is considered excessive when a dog barks, howls or whines:

• for 6 minutes in an hour between 7:00am and 10l00pm on any day, or
• for 3 minutes in half an hour between 10l00pm and 7l00am on any day, or
• if an authorised person reasonably considers that the duration, time and intensity of the barking is excessive.

What can I do if I receive a barking allegation about my dog?

Council encourages neighbours to talk to each other to resolve barking dog issues.

As the owner of a dog you may be approached by a neighbour about your dog barking. Please ask your neighbour for more information like when your dog is barking and for how long. This may help you as the owner understand when and why your dog is barking so you can take action to reduce your dogs barking.

It can be helpful for you as the owner to find out what is triggering your dogs barking. If you can take immediate action to remove or reduce what is causing your dog to bark, this may help to improve the situation. If the barking continues, your local vet may be able to offer some guidance. The issue could be due to a behavioural or health concern.

What can I do to help stop my dog from barking.

As an owner if you have noticed your dog excessively barking, or a neighbour has informed you that your dogs barking is excessive you can try to identify the trigger for your dogs barking. Options to help prevent your dogs continued barking behaviour may include; using enrichment, exercise and training to reduce unnecessary barking behaviour. Don’t yell at or punish your dog as this may cause other behavioural problems.

Speak with your neighbours who may be able to help you with time frames and what possible triggers may be causing your dog to bark.

The Leave it Program have free online training modules and advice on how to stop your dog barking you can find out more information on the Leave it website.

If your dog is barking at people walking past your property you can try to:

• modify your yard to stop your dog from accessing the front fence so it can’t see people or other animals walking past
• erect a sightscreen so the dog can’t see through the fence, this could be as simple as attaching material to your fence, like weed matting.

If your dog is bored you can try:

• using chew toys like a KONG. These toys contain food to keep your dog distracted, you can give it to them before you leave home
• scattering food around your dog’s yard, this will also help your dog keep busy
• giving your dog a chew toy in a comfortable single room like a laundry or garage
• leaving the television or radio on. There are dog friendly YouTube channels for anxious dogs.

Changing your dog’s environment can also help reduce barking:

• restricting access to areas where they would usually bark
• using visual barriers
• allowing your dog inside the house
• creating ‘chill out’ zones
• crate training (safe space)
• exercising your dog in the morning including brain training (lots of sniffing can be calming and tiring).

What can I do if I am affected by a dog that barks excessively? 

Many owners don't know their dogs bark when they're not home. If you are being affected by a dog that is barking excessively Council encourage you to speak with the dog's owner first to let them know their dog is barking excessively and how it is affecting you. If you don't feel comfortable talking with the owner of the dog, why not write a friendly note and put it in their letterbox to advise the owner of their dogs barking issue. 

If you can't resolve the excessive barking problem with the identified dogs owner yourself, you can contact Council to make a barking dog request.

What happens after a report is made about excessive barking?

In most situations the cause of the barking may be easily identified, but there are times where it isn’t as easy. Sometimes the wrong dog may be identified, the complaint may be due to a neighbourhood dispute or sometimes one neighbour may be overly sensitive to barking while other neighbours hardly notice at all. It’s important to understand that our investigation team treat each situation as unique.

When our team receive a barking dog request, an officer:

• will write to the owner of the dog to inform them we have received a barking dog request and give the owner of the dog information that may help reduce their dog’s nuisance barking
• write to the complainant lodging the barking request to confirm we have received the barking request. If the barking dog is still barking excessively after 21 days, the complainant can contact us to lodge a follow up request

If the complainant contacts Council to lodge a follow up request, our team will:

• start to investigate, this may include noise monitoring using barking recording devices and/or a neighbourhood survey

If the noise monitoring confirms no excessive barking, then the investigation will be finalised.

If the noise monitoring confirms the dog is barking excessively, then our team will issue a compliance notice advising the owner of the barking dog to take action to reduce the dog barking excessively. Our team may also ask the owner to get training for their dog (at their own cost) along with other methods to help find a solution.

If the barking dog owner fails to reduce the excessive dog barking problem and our team identify further breaches, we may:

• take further enforcement action, including issuing a fine to the owner of the dog
• remove the dog/s from the owners property.

Council may not be able to solve every barking complaint, as the evidence our team collect may not reflect a breach in the law. Our team will continue to support and educate pet owners.

How to report nuisance barking

You can report nuisance barking:

• online
• by email at council@logan.qld.gov.au, or
• by phone on 07 3412 3412.

You will need to provide Council with the following information:

• your name, address and phone number
• the address of the property where the animal lives
• a description of the animal
• the days/times the animal is making the excessive noise and for how long.