Dogs
Back to Guide to responsible dog ownership
Being a responsible dog owner
Laws affecting dog owners
Summary of your legal responsibilities
Most of your legal responsibilities are contained in the Dog Control Act 1996
and Part 12 of Auckland City's consolidated bylaw. Your legal responsibilities include
but are not limited to:
- registering your dog (by the time it reaches three months of age) every
year and ensuring it wears an identification/registration disc
- providing proper care and attention, food, water and an adequate kennel or
place of shelter
- ensuring that the dog receives adequate exercise
- taking all reasonable steps to ensure that the dog does not cause a
nuisance, eg, by persistent and loud barking or howling
- taking all reasonable steps to ensure that the dog does not injure,
endanger, intimidate, challenge or cause distress to any person, stock,
poultry, domestic animal or protected wildlife or damage or endanger any
property belonging to any other person
- confining your dog to your property and preventing it from wandering
- having your dog on a leash, lead or chain when your dog is in a public
place or any private way (including a right of way) in the Auckland city
isthmus
- getting a permit if you keep more than one dog. Two dogs are allowed on
Waiheke and Great Barrier Islands before a permit is required
- removing faeces if your dog goes to the toilet in a public place
- securing dogs (by tying them down) when they are carried on the open tray
of a vehicle to ensure that the dog cannot fall from the vehicle.
More information
Dog exercise areas
Dogs do not have to be on a leash in designated dog exercise areas but you
must carry a leash at all times and you must watch them at all times and have
the dog under effective control.
Effective control means that your dog is not
causing a nuisance or danger and that the person in charge of the dog is able to
obtain an immediate and desired response from the dog by use of a leash, voice
commands, hand signals, whistles or other similar means.
More information
Dogs in private places
At home, your dog should be confined to the land or premises so that it
cannot freely leave the land or premises. If your dog is kept outside, it must
also have a kennel. Dogs kept in the house but free to leave the section are not
under adequate control. If your dog is not under control you, as its owner, are
breaking the law.
If you want to take your dog onto someone else's land or premises, get
their permission first. Even if you are just visiting a friend, call and ask
them if it's okay to bring your dog with you, particularly if they have other
pets or young children.
Menacing dog classification
If Auckland City considers that a dog poses a threat to any person, stock,
poultry, domestic animal or protected wildlife because of any observed or
reported behaviour of the dog, or any characteristics typically associated with
the dog's breed or type, the council may classify the dog as menacing.
Dogs will also be classified as menacing if they belong wholly or
predominantly to the following restricted breeds:
- American Pit Bull Terrier
- Dogo Argentino
- Brazillian Fila
- Japanese Tosa.
If your dog is classified as menacing you must:
- muzzle your dog in any public place or private way, except when confined
completely within a vehicle or cage
- de-sex your dog within one month of receiving the notice of classification
- advise anyone who has possession of your dog of the requirement that it be
muzzled and leashed when in public.
Dangerous dog classification
If your dog is classified as a dangerous dog you must:
- ensure that within one month of receiving the notice of classification,
the dog is kept within a securely fenced portion of your property. Residents
and visitors must also have access to the house (through at least one door)
without passing through the fenced area
- muzzle your dog in any public place or private way, except when confined
completely within a vehicle or cage
- control your dog on a leash (except when in a dog exercise area)
- de-sex your dog within one month after receipt of notice of classification
- pay dog control fees for your dog at 150 per cent of the level that would
apply if the dog were not classified as dangerous
- not, without the written consent of the council in whose district the dog
is to be kept, dispose of the dog to any other person.
Disqualification
A dog owner may be disqualified if:
- they commit three or more infringement offences (not relating to a single
incident or occasion) with a continuous period of 24 months; or
- they are convicted of an offence against the Dog Control Act 1996, Part 1
or Part 2 of the Animal Welfare Act 1999, section 26ZZP of the Conservation
Act 1987 or section 56I of the National Parks Act 1980.
More information
