Council provides an Animal Control service to help keep the community safe, reduce nuisance from dogs (such as barking and fouling), and to educate the community about dogs. Council is also responsible for keeping and maintaining a register of all dogs registered with the Council under the Dog Control Act 1996.

It’s important to register your dog and put its tag on so that it can be identified if it gets lost, injured, killed or impounded. A dog that is registered but is not wearing its registration tag will be treated as unregistered until proven otherwise.

If you have a dog, then it must be registered. Dogs are required to be registered by 3 months old and then before 31 July each year. The fine for an unregistered dog is $300, plus the registration fee. You can register your dog at any Council office or click the button above to download our registration form.

Animal Control Officers are based at both the Matamata and Morrinsville Area Offices. If you have an urgent dog complaint phone Council on 0800 746 467 anytime, Council operates a 24 hour service.

If you have any animal control queries, call your area office on:

• Matamata: 07 881 9050
• Te Aroha and Morrinsville: 07 884 0060

Annual Report on Dog Control Policy and Practices

The Dog Control Act 1996 requires territorial authorities to produce a report on the administration of its dog control policy and its dog control practices, and a variety of dog control related statistics.

Online forms

Life can get busy, but keeping your dog's details up to date is also important. Whether you're transferring ownership, updating your registered dog's information or notifying us of their passing. We've made the process easier by moving it online.

Register a dog for the first time

Notify a change in a registered dog

Notify a transfer of dog ownership

Notify us of a dog's death

Report a Barking Dog

Report a Dog Attack

Policy on Dogs

The Policy on Dogs outlines five objectives for dog control in the Matamata-Piako District and our policies to help achieve them.

Dog Control Bylaw

The Dog Control Bylaw balances the needs of dogs and their owners, against the need to ensure that danger, distress and nuisance of dogs and dog behaviour to the community is minimised. The Bylaw details prohibited, leash control and exercise areas for dogs. 

Barking Dogs

The Barking Dogs Complaint Form (pdf, 271kb) is a downloadable form to register a consistent barking dog complaint. Please note that in order to prove the complaint, the dog(s) barking or howling must be both loud and persistent.