Tag time again: dog owners urged to fetch their red tag and complete annual registration

Are you a dog owner?

Want to save money?

Then act now and register your dog before 1 August 2025.

Auckland Council is reminding dog owners to show love for their dog by registering them on time to prevent needing to pay a late penalty fee.  With this year’s tags coming in bold red, it will help to easily identify registered pets across the region.

Renew online

You can renew online using your dog’s 11-digit reference number. You will receive a reminder email, text or paper form from us with your details around mid-June.

The new red dog tags will then be sent out by post within 10 working days of payment.

Manage your dog’s info online with myAUCKLAND

Use our online portal on myAUCKLAND to renew your registrations and update yours or your dog(s) information. With myAUCKLAND you can:

• update your personal details

• update your dog's details

• change your dog's ownership

• view your dog's registration fees and status

• renew your dog's registration.

For more information see myAUCKLAND.

Why register your dog?

Registering your dog is an important part of being a responsible dog owner. Dog registration fees go towards providing a range of Auckland Council services for dog owners, such as dog shelters and animal management officers, and helps us reunite lost dogs with their owners, should your dog stray or be lost.

Auckland Council’s Animal Management Manager Elly Waitoa says all dogs need to be registered by three months old and re-registered every year.

“Registration is about more than compliance; it’s about community safety and helps us manage and support responsible pet ownership across Auckland.

“While it is a legal requirement under the Dog Control Act 1996 to register a dog, the information gathered by the council also goes into a national database which means a dog is much more likely to be returned home if it gets lost.”

Chair of the Regulatory and Safety Committee Josephine Bartley says:

“It’s so important dog owners get their dogs registered to help us provide the essential services that benefit our furry friends.”

This year’s red registration tag makes it easy for Animal Management Officers and the public see that a dog is registered, or if it’s not, so please everyone, do the right thing for your dog and the community and get your pet registered.

After 1 August owners will be required to pay the standard fee; de-sexing helps lower the dog's annual registration fee.

Give a little back

With this year’s dog registration, for every dog registered, $1 will go towards a targeted de-sexing program to reduce unwanted litters of puppies across Tāmaki Makaurau.

This money will help de-sex dogs in areas where dog attacks are of a higher-risk and where more aggressive incidents take place. It will help protect our communities and our four-legged friends.

Dog registration fees help us provide vital animal management services:

• respond to reports of dog attacks and complaints about barking and stray animals

• provide shelter services: impoundment, care for strays and reuniting dogs with their owners

• rehome dogs through our adoption programmes

• provide dog safety education for dog owners, schools, and the public

• enforce compliance, issue infringements and patrol beaches and parks

• prosecute serious dog-related offences (under the Dog Control Act)

• 24-hour a day response to dog incidents and attacks.

Microchipping

Dog owners must also microchip their dogs within two months of registration. Ultimately, all of Auckland’s 132,000 dogs should be microchipped.

“While you must register your dog every year, you need only to microchip your dog once,” says Ms Waitoa.

“It’s a simple, lifelong way to identify dogs and link them to their owner, and results in the speedier return of lost, stolen, or injured pooches.”

After 1 July, Aucklanders can have their dogs microchipped for $40 at one of Auckland Council’s animal shelters; details are then entered into the National Dog Database.

Dog registration fees 2025/26

Dog owners are encouraged to register on or before 1 August to avoid late fees and ensure their pets are protected and compliant.