Is the dog barking just next door of 100 feet away?
My dogs can bark as much as they want during the day but they stay inside at night.
What did the article say?
You did read the article, right? ;)
It says the neighbor with the barking dog lives next door.
The city ordinance says that the second complaint must come from someone who also lives within 100 feet of the barking dog.
Might not matter.
Here is a quick study on sound transmission.
http://continuingeducation.construction.com/article.php?L=145&C=1141&P=2
Most dwellings are designed to reduce noise by about 35-60dB. If the dog is barking at say 110 dB, even in a luxury home with -55dB STC insulation, the remaining 55dB bark will be as loud as a loud conversation in the house.
If the dog is in your house, then say your avg -35dB insulation and the neighbors -35dB insulation could provide about -70dB reduction in the sound in most frequencied, leaving a 40dB residual, which is about the loudness of soft music.
It also should be noted that loudness is a perception, subjective to each individual. Many people are more sensitive to sound at different frequency spectrums during nighttime hours or when sleeping, so the actual sound pressure levels which are measurable might effect different people differently and even at different times of day and different ‘moods’.
Other techniques used to reduce the dog’s being alerted (cause of its bark) is to mask outside noise sensitive to the dog. White noise to the dog might reduce the barking.
Kennel operators have also noted that even the kennels themselves might cause hearing loss to dogs and their barking is sometimes an alert that their hearing is being damaged by other dogs barking. So yelling at a dog might actually cause it to bark more. Inversely, some dog trainers bark orders at a dog and train the animal not to behave with the bark when it alerts. Very situation dependent issues arise.
Sensitivity also effects the perception during nighttime hours. Some municipal codes require cessation of certain functions between 7pm and 6-8am, thereby reducing the exterior sound environment by 10 dB. Meanwhile, residential noises may increase in these times by 5dB due to occupants residing in their dwellings.
In the middle of the night, I have been disturbed by dogs at 1/4 mile.
A number of years ago, the neighbor had a beagle that would run circles around my house and bay for hours at a time. I asked him politely to control the animal and after a few months, I went over to his place at 2AM (while the dog was up to its antics), beat on the door until he appeared wiping sleep from his eyes, and told him the next time it happened, I was going hunting.
The next day he had a metal slider line up with the dog tethered to it and it never happened again.