The Department of Internal Affairs

Te Tari Taiwhenua | Department of Internal Affairs

Building a safe, prosperous and respected nation



Dog Control

Person walks dog on a lead in a park

The Dog Control Act 1996 seeks to improve public safety by mitigating the risk of harm, injury or nuisance from dogs living in our communities. To this end the Act allocates responsibilities, sets out obligations and provides for a range of mechanisms, under which:

  • dog owners are responsible for their dogs, their dogs' behaviour, and fulfilling the requirements of the Act, and

  • councils are responsible for administering, implementing and enforcing the Act, including the maintenance of a dog register.

Responsible dog ownership includes responsibility for the behaviour of dogs. As well as providing food, water, warmth, shelter, care and affection, this means cleaning up its faeces, preventing the dog from being a nuisance and ensuring that it is well socialised and trained. It requires an owner to obey the law and understand their dog and the reasons for its behaviour.

Similarly, a council's approach to fulfilling its statutory obligations extends logically to providing dog owners, prospective owners and the non-owning general public with key safety messages and educational material. Generally, approaches to implementing and enforcing dog control under the Dog Control Act should emphasise

  • providing information and education
  • providing incentives to comply with the law, including the removal of obstacles to compliance, and
  • taking appropriate enforcement action.

For more information, contact your local council.

Useful links

Dog Control Act 1996

Enforcement Guidelines under the Dog Control Act 1996 (.pdf) 795.9k*

Supplementary Information to the Enforcement Guidelines (March 2016) :

Dog control statistics

LATEST (updated April 2024): Dog Control Statistics (XLSX,14MB)

The data used to develop these profiles came from three sources:

  • the National Dog Database (NDD) from the Department of Internal Affairs
  • dog-related injury claims and their cost from the Accident Compensation Corporation
  • prosecutions and dog destruction orders under the Dog Control Act 1996 from the Ministry of Justice

The information has been taken as reported from these sources. In reviewing the information shown in these profiles readers should be mindful that the information has:

  • only been presented in a consistent way; and
  • has not been analysed or adjusted to allow comparisons between councils to be made.