Report an out of control or dangerous dog

All dog owners must keep their dog under control anywhere, including:

You can report an out of control dog to the local council. If a dog is dangerously out of control, you can report it to the police.

When a dog is out of control

A dog is considered out of control if all the following apply:

it’s not kept under effective and consistent control
its behaviour makes someone feel worried or scared – and their concern is reasonable

A dog may be out of control if:

A dog is dangerously out of control if it:

injures someone
makes someone reasonably worried that it may injure them
attacks or injures a service animal – for example, a guide dog
injures someone’s pet and there’s a risk to public safety
makes a pet owner think they could be injured if they tried to stop it attacking their pet

You can report an out of control dog to your local council.

Report an out of control dog

If a dog attacks a person, call the police on 101 or 999 if the dog is an immediate threat.

The council will ask you for details of the incident, for example:

A dog warden will look into what happened and may take statements from everyone involved.

The warden may issue a Dog Control Notice.

This notice will tell the owner what they must do to keep their dog under control.

If the owner does not do what the notice says, the council may report the case to the procurator fiscal. This could lead to a criminal case.

If a court decides the owner has committed an offence, they can:

The police will look into what happened. They may take the dog if they think it’s:

They may then:

report the case to the procurator fiscal – this could lead to the owner being prosecuted
speak with the local council dog warden if the dog is not dangerously out of control

If someone is convicted of having a dangerously out of control dog, they can get:

A court can also:

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