7 Things Ohioans Can Legally Do When a Neighbor’s Dog Won’t Stop Barking

If you’ve been lying awake listening to the dog next door, knocking on your neighbor’s door to confront them about it may feel like the best move.

Ohio gives you more options than that.

Not every one of them ends with the barking stopping, though.

Here are the things Ohioans can legally do when a neighbor’s dog won’t stop barking.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Barking rules and penalties vary by city and are subject to change.

1. Calling the Police

Cleveland lets you report a barking dog to the police.

The city’s dog nuisance ordinance covers noise that lasts at least 15 minutes without a break, or on-and-off episodes lasting at least 30 minutes.

After your call, a police officer or animal control officer gives the dog’s owner a notice.

If the owner doesn’t stop the nuisance after that notice, each day it continues is a separate offense.

Then the fines begin.

The fine is $50 for a first offense, $75 for a second offense within four months, and $100 for a third offense.

A fourth offense inside that window sends the dog to impound.

2. Complaining Twice in 30 Days

Columbiana charges the owner of a barking dog after a second complaint within 30 days.

Your first complaint gets the owner a written warning from an enforcement officer.

Write down the date of your first complaint, so you can keep track of the 30 days.

A complaint counts when a dog keeps barking, yelping or howling for 15 consecutive minutes.

The charge is a minor misdemeanor.

Two exceptions apply.

The rule doesn’t apply if someone trespassed on the owner’s property.

It doesn’t apply either if someone teased or provoked the dog.

3. Emailing the City Prosecutor

Columbus takes barking dog complaints by email.

They go to the city prosecutor’s office through its noisy animal page.

The page covers a dog barking in an unreasonably loud or disturbing manner.

The barking has to disturb the neighborhood’s peace.

Your email needs a detailed description of the dog’s behavior.

List the times of day the dog barks, the duration of the barking, how many days a week it happens and how long it’s been going on.

Add the address where the dog is kept and the owner’s name, if you know it.

The page lists six items.

4. Recording the Barking

Columbus requires evidence of a barking dog along with your email, such as an audio or video recording.

The recording has to show the barking over an extended period of time.

A short clip won’t do.

Some cities count barking by the clock.

Akron’s code bars barking for more than 10 minutes at a time overnight, between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m., Signal Akron reports.

By day, the limit is 20 minutes.

5. Free Neighbor Mediation

Stow, Tallmadge and Cuyahoga Falls offer mediation for disputes between neighbors.

The three cities run a neighborhood mediation program with the University of Akron School of Law.

Akron law students trained in mediation run the sessions.

The mediator doesn't decide who's right.

The sessions cost nothing.

The program's page doesn't name barking dogs, but it lists animals and noise among the disputes that suit mediation.

You can start by contacting your city's law department and completing an initial form.

The program excludes criminal violations of a city's ordinances that are pending or potential, along with items the city has already acted on.

Barking can be a minor misdemeanor, as in Columbiana, so a case the city has already charged may be out.

6. Filing an Affidavit

Ohio law lets you ask for charges over a barking dog by filing an affidavit.

That's a written statement of the facts, filed with a judge, a prosecutor or a magistrate.

You file it yourself.

Outside business hours, you can file it with the clerk of a court of record if the clerk's office is open.

A reviewing official then looks it over to decide whether a complaint should be filed.

For a misdemeanor or a violation of a city ordinance, a judge, clerk or magistrate may issue a summons ordering the owner to appear.

The affidavit has to charge an offense, so name your city's barking rule, such as Columbiana's minor misdemeanor.

7. Filing a Small Claims Suit

You can sue a neighbor over a barking dog by filing a nuisance suit in small claims court, Mahoning Matters reports.

The claim is that the owner failed to keep the dog under control.

Many Ohio counties handle small claims in municipal court.

Ohio small claims divisions hear civil cases for amounts up to $6,000, not counting interest and costs.

That's the limit.

A judge can't issue an injunction to stop the barking, so the most you can win is money.

Small claims can't hear actions that seek punitive or exemplary damages.

What State Dog Law Leaves Out

State dog law defines a nuisance dog act, and the barking keeping you awake doesn't fit it.

The category covers things a dog does without provocation away from its owner's property, such as approaching a person in a menacing fashion or bothering another dog or livestock.