Where you can take your dog

Areas where you can take your dog, where it needs to be leashed and where no dogs are allowed.

The below map shows areas where you can and can’t take your dog, and where dogs must be on a leash. 

These areas are regulated in the Council’s Dog Control Policy and are enforceable under the Council’s Dog Control Bylaw. To avoid a fine and look after your dog and others, make sure you follow these rules. 

Some general requirements aren’t shown on the map. These include:

• Dogs must be kept under effective control in all public places and at all times. This means the owner or person in charge of the dog is aware of where the dog is and what it is doing, that the dog is responsive to commands, and that is not creating a nuisance to other dogs, people or wildlife.
• Dogs must be:
  • leashed on all roads, footpaths and car parks
  • leashed on all boat ramps, slipways and parking areas
  • leashed in all cemeteries and memorial areas
• Dogs are prohibited from all Council playgrounds, skateparks and paddling pools.

Dog parks and exercise areas

Dog parks are fenced areas specially designed for dog and owner security.

Dog exercise areas are open spaces where your dog can be off-leash but under effective control.

Reserves and walking tracks

You can let your dog run free on any reserve or park within Christchurch that is not a leashed or prohibited area but your dog must be under effective control at all times.

There are also walking tracks that allow you to take your dog with you.

Beaches

To protect swimming and recreation activities, dogs are prohibited from these Christchurch and Banks Peninsula beaches from 1 November to 31 March between 9am and 7pm, known as Summer Beach Prohibition Areas:

• Spencer Park, Waimairi, North and South New Brighton Beaches: For 100 metres in northerly and southerly directions from the Surf Life Saving Club’s pavilions.
• New Brighton Beach: For 100 metres in a northerly direction of the Surf Life Saving Club’s pavilion and 100 metres southward of the Christchurch Pier.
• Sumner Beach: For 100 metres in a northerly direction of the Sumner Surf Life Saving Club’s pavilion and to Cave Rock in the south.
• Taylor's Mistake Beach: For 50 metres in a general northerly and southerly direction from the Taylor's Mistake Surf Life Saving Club’s pavilion.
• All of Lyttelton Harbour Beach and foreshore areas, Cass Bay Beach, Corsair Bay Beach, Sandy Bay Beach, Paradise Bay Beach, Hays Bay Beach, Diamond Harbour Beach and Purau Beach.
• All of Akaroa Beach, French Farm Beach, Le Bon’s Bay Beach, Little Akaloa Beach, Okain's Bay Beach, Port Levy Beach and Tikao Bay Beach.

If you are walking your dog along a beach and enter a Summer Beach Prohibition Area, you do not have to exit the beach, travel along the road or inland, and then return to the beach after the prohibited area. You can walk through the prohibited area, as long as you have your dog on a short leash and under good control, and you are passing directly through the area.

Dogs can cause issues on beaches that are commonly used for swimming and recreation activities, ranging from hygiene (fouling or urinating on sand or belongings) to causing a nuisance to or endangering, other people at the beach, especially children.

Outside of these dates and times, beaches with Summer Beach Prohibitions in place revert back to ‘under effective control’ areas.

Other than beaches specified as Summer Beach Prohibition Areas, dogs are generally permitted in many beach and coastal areas, unless there are restrictions in place to protect wildlife or for other reasons.

Check individual entries in the Council’s Dog Control Policy or view the dog control map.