Which Neighborhood Has The Most Barking Dog Complaints?

Loud noises from pets often leave neighbors barking mad in Brooklyn—and now there’s numbers to show which neighborhoods are the worst!

A new report from Localize.city tracks data from complaints about barking dogs to figure out not only the noisiest neighborhoods, but also the places that generated the most complaints per population.

They also found that barking dog noise complaints spike in September, possibly due to changing seasons meaning new routines for pups, or because it’s a popular time to move. That’s only a week or so away, though, so either have a conversation with your neighbors now, or get some earplugs ready!

Using data from the last two years, Localize found the five top neighborhoods for canine noise complaints:

In Bed-Stuy, complaints were made an average of every other day in the last two years!

However, the top neighborhoods also happen to have some of the highest populations in Brooklyn, which leads to a larger number of complaints. When adjusted to account for yearly incidents per 10,000 residents, the numbers flipped entirely:

Of course, there’s always the possibility that one persistent caller is inflating the numbers regarding a particularly vocal pooch or two, but across Brooklyn, no one address racked up more than 22 calls in the last month—of course, that’s a lot if you’ve got to live with the noise!

The large apartment on the corner of Bedford and South 4th Street in Williamsburg, above the Bread Brothers bagel shop, racked up 22 dog-related noise complaints, the study found. After that, it was 882 Union Street in Park Slope and 642 Humboldt Street in Greenpoint that tied with 17 each in the last year.

So what exactly qualified in the city’s eyes as a reason to make a dog-related noise complaint? “Persistent barking” is defined as at least 10 minutes of noise between 7 am and  10 pm; or 5 continuous minutes at night, between 10 pm and 7 am.

Calling up the city creates a record, but only for offenders—callers can remain anonymous. Of course, it’s a much better idea to go and talk (politely!) to your neighbor first to see if they’re even aware of the problem, and what might be done to fix it.