Responsible dog ownership
Learn what good dog ownership looks like and how councils help keep communities safe through education, support and enforcement.
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 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.