Nuisance Barking

Reporting nuisance barking
If a dog is making a noise, including barking, which is persistent and interferes with the peace, comfort and congenial living of a person on other premises, you can lodge a complaint with Council.

Complaint Process for Nuisance Barking
Council has an established process for dealing with complaints about nuisance barking. By following this process, Council intends to place more responsibility on the dog owner and help them with professional advice and guidance on dog behaviour patterns.
Follow this procedure to deal with nuisance barking:

When you report a barking complaint, you will be invited to make the complaint in writing with details about the nuisance that is being caused:.

• A referral to the Community Justice Centre is usually offered in the fi rst instance to try to arrange a mediation meeting between the dog owner and yourself.
• This often prevents the  need for Council to be involved. You will be asked to keep a log of the dog’s nuisance barking over the next seven (7) days.
• After seven (7) days, the Regulatory Services Offi cer will contact you and seek feedback on the nuisance barking.
• If the nuisance has ceased, the dog owner will be provided with feedback and encouraged to continue with the action they have taken.
• After receiving the complaint, the Regulatory Services Offi cer will provide the dog owner with self help information and also offer the owner advice and assistance to help them reduce the nuisance.
• Should the nuisance barking complaint remain unresolved, the dog owner may be issued with a fi ne (or infringement notice) or prosecuted.

Enforcement
Should further barking complaints be received and found to be true, the dog owner may receive a ‘show cause’ letter on the dog’s registration. A ‘show cause’ letter requests information from the owner on reasons why the dog’s registration should not be cancelled.

If the dog’s registration is cancelled, the dog owner will then have 24 hours to remove the dog from the Darwin municipality and if they fail to do so, Council may acquire a warrant from the courts to remove the nuisance dog.

If Council removes the dog with a warrant, it will be impounded and held for four (4) days. If the owner makes no attempt to contact Council or fi nd an alternate property outside the Darwin municipality, the dog may be destroyed or otherwise disposed of. (71 Dog causing nuisance)