Clark County

Dog Registration Application Dog License Locations

WHY LICENSE YOUR DOG?

There is one exceptionally good reason for licensing your dog: If your animal is missing, the dog warden can quickly notify you when your pet has been found. That way you can quickly claim him.

Section 955.12 of the Ohio Revised Code allows the county to hold a licensed dog for up to 14 days, after mailing a notice of its capture to the owner, before allowing it to be either sold or destroyed. (If a dog is unlicensed, the Law allows it to be either destroyed or sold after being held for only three days.)

Dog Tags May Be Issued By . . .

the County Auditor
authorized Humane Societies
authorized dog wardens and their deputies
other authorized agents

Service Dogs Are Permanently Registered

Service dogs (guide, leader and support animals) must also be licensed, but their fee is waived. Once they are registered with the county, they are permanently licensed by receiving a special tag.

Licensing Your Dog Is Easy and Inexpensive

To license your dog, stop by your County Auditor's Office within 30 days of receiving your dog then get them every year there after between December 1 and the following January 31. Simply fill out the brief registration form and pay the annual fee per dog or kennel.

Each dog receives a distinctive tag number (dog kennels receive five consecutively numbered tags).

Once your dog has been assigned a license, the license number and information about him is permanently filed in the county's records.

If you obtain a dog after January 31, the Law requires its registration (Ohio Revised Code Section 955.01) within 30 days of you becoming the owner. There is a late registration fee.

Ensure That Your Dog Stays Home

Ohio Law requires all dog owners keeping their animals "either physically confined or restrained upon the premises of the owner . . . by a leash, tether, adequate fence, supervision, or secure enclosure to prevent escape, or under reasonable control of some person, except when the dog is lawfully engaged in hunting accompanied by the owner . . . or a handler." (Ohio Revised Code 955.22).

A License Helps Keep Your Pet Safe

Unless a dog is confined in a registered kennel, he must wear his license (tag) at all times. If he is not wearing his tag he is subject to impounding, sale or destruction (Ohio Revised Code 955.10)

If your dog is impounded because he was not wearing his license and is not redeemed within three days, the dog warden may either have him humanely destroyed or sell him to any nonprofit Ohio institution or organization that is certified to engage in either teaching or researching the prevention of diseases of human beings or animals, or he may be donated to any nonprofit special agency engaged in training service dogs (Ohio Revised Coded 955.16).

If Your Dog's Tag is Lost . . .

Simply provide your County Auditor with proof of its loss and a duplicate tag will be issued for ($1.00) one dollar.

To Claim Your Dog If He's Been Impounded . . .

You need to go to your local pound (or, in some counties, the Humane Society is authorized to act as the county's dog warden) and pay the costs the county incurred for impounding and housing your dog. If your dog was not licensed when picked up, you must also purchase a registration tag before taking him home.

Your Dog Warden's Duties

Chapter 955 of the Ohio Revised Code lists the county dog warden's duties. They include:

issuing dog licenses when deputized by the County Auditor;
keeping a record of the tags sold and dogs "owned, kept and harbored" in the county;
seizing dogs that are inhumanely treated;
patrolling the county to impound unregistered (unlicensed) dogs;
notifying the owner if their dog is impounded;
recommending enclosed pens and the purchase of liability insurance to owners of dog bred as protection animals;
quarantine of a dog if it has bitten a human;
disposing of unclaimed dogs through either sale, donation to authorized programs, or humane death.

Dog wardens and deputies have "the same police powers as are conferred upon sheriffs and police offices in the performance of their duties . . ." (Ohio Revised Code 955.12)

Section 955.24 also states "No person shall obstruct or interfere with anyone lawfully engaged in capturing an unregistered dog or making an examination of a dog wearing a tag."

Definition of "Kennel Owner"

According to the Ohio Revised Code, section 955.02, a kennel owner is a "person, partnership, firm, company, or corporation professionally engaged in the business of breeding dogs for hunting or sale." When a person breeds dogs avowedly as a hobby, "but permits sales to become such a factor that he advertises for sale" the breeding activity and dogs, that person "is professionally engaged in business of dog breeding" and should be registered as a kennel.

The term "kennel" means any pack or collection of dogs, over the age of three months, kept together for the purposes of hunting or for sale. (Ohio Revised Code 955.04)

If Your Dog Moves To A New Home

The new owner is required to record the ownership change with the County Auditor. They must present a transfer of ownership certificate, signed by the former owner, and pay the ($1.00) one dollar fee.

George A. Sodders - Clark County Auditor

Questions? Please feel free to email the webmaster