Dogs must be registered before they reach three months old and then before 31 July each year. The fine for an unregistered dog is $300, plus the registration fee.

Registration fees help us to provide a number of important services to the community including:

• Animal Control Officers available 24/7
• Responding to complaints for barking or wandering dogs, dog attacks and aggressive dogs.
• Carrying out street patrols and property inspections.
• Impounding and pound facilities. This includes maintaining facilities, impounding wandering dogs, notifying you if your dog is impounded, caring for impounded dogs, rehoming dogs and euthanising dogs not suitable for rehoming.
• Following up unregistered dogs and prosecuting offending owners.
• Administration for maintaining a register of dog records in the Matamata-Piako District and the National Dog Database. Every territorial authority must keep a register of all dogs registered with it in accordance with the Dog Control Act 1996.

Registering your dog is a legal requirement by central government under the Dog Control Act 1996. All dogs over three months old are to be registered with our Council every year by 1 July. If your dog reaches the age of three months after 1 July it must be registered by the date it reaches that age. 

Registration fees are set by councils to take into account the cost of providing dog control services in their area and also to ensure that dog owners bear the costs of dog control and the subsequent benefits to ratepayers of having safe and well controlled dogs in their community. 

By registering your dog it can help us reunite lost or stolen animals with their owners and also allows us to keep track of dogs that are deemed to be menacing and dangerous. 

Dog registration is a legal requirement in New Zealand, and it plays a vital role in protecting public safety. It ensures that dogs can be quickly identified and returned to their owners if lost, and it helps fund Animal Control services. These services are essential for managing roaming dogs, preventing attacks, and protecting livestock and property.

Cats are different. There’s no legal requirement for cats to be registered. Without a legal framework, councils have limited ability to enforce local rules - such as issuing fines or being able to take in unregistered or roaming cats. 

While cats can cause problems too, like hunting native birds or disturbing gardens, the Dog Control Act was designed with public safety in mind. Environmental impacts and nuisances weren’t the focus when the law was created.

You may wish to apply for a refund of your registration fees by completing the online form below that will notify us of a dog's death. Council will then refund a proportion of the registration fee, calculated on the number of complete months left in the registration year. Please include a deposit slip or a print out showing your bank account number when applying for a refund. 

Call Council  as soon as possible on 07 8840060. Try to remember as much detail as you can recall about the dog, including its colour, breed, and location of where the event occured. Then fill in the online Making a Complaint about a Dog Attack form and send or deliver to any of our  council offices as soon as possible.

If you’ve sold or brought a dog, you must let us know the address of the new owner within 14 days, and the address where the dog is kept. If you don’t do this you could be facing a $100 fine.

If you move within the district, just phone Council and let us know your new address or use the online form below. If you currently hold the Responsible Owner's Rebate we will need to have the property inspected at your new address. If you move out of the district you will need to notify both councils within 14 days of shifting – if you take the current registration tag into the office, they should issue you a new one (for that district) free of charge.

Microchipping makes it easier to identify dogs that get lost, and to identify dangerous dogs. Since 2006 the law requires all new puppies to be microchipped within two months of registration.

You will also need to microchip your dog if:

• you are registering your dog for the first time in your local area
• your dog is classified as dangerous
• your dog is classified as menacing
• your dog has been impounded for the second time.

Working dogs are exempt from microchipping. A Working Dog Declaration form must be signed when registering a dog as a working dog.

When should you call the SPCA or Council?

Always call the SPCA if you have concerns about the welfare of a dog. This includes suspected cases of abuse, neglect or injured dogs. If you discover a dog who has been hit by a vehicle or if you are concerned for a dog that is locked in a vehicle you should always ring the SPCA.  Phone the SPCA on 07 847 4868.

You should contact Council if you see a stray or roaming dog, suspect a dog is unregistered, witness an aggressive dog, or if you have a barking dog complaint. If your dog goes missing you should call us as we may have already picked it up and been unable to contact you. If we haven’t found your dog we will add it to our lost and found system.

An Animal Control Officer is always available by phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Phone us on 0800 746 467.