Lakeville, MN Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

The City of Lakeville, Minnesota regulates dogs by conduct rather than breed. Under City Code section 5-1-9(B)(1), a city animal control officer or law enforcement official may determine a dog is potentially dangerous if it has, unprovoked, bitten a person or animal, chased or approached someone in an apparent attitude of attack, or shown a known propensity to attack. Section 5-1-9(B)(2) escalates a dog to dangerous status if it has inflicted substantial bodily harm on a human without provocation, killed a domestic animal off the owner's property, or aggressively bitten or attacked after already receiving a potentially dangerous dog notice.

Owners get written notice and, under subsections (B)(1)(c) and (B)(2)(e), fourteen days to request a hearing before an impartial hearing officer, whose decision can be reviewed only by writ of certiorari to the Minnesota court of appeals within thirty days. Once a dangerous dog designation stands, subsection (B)(2)(g) requires the owner to register the dog annually with the city, keep it in a proper enclosure or muzzled and on a chain or leash no longer than six feet outside one, post a visible warning sign, have the dog sterilized at the owner's expense, affix a state-approved dangerous dog tag to its collar, and carry at least three hundred thousand dollars of liability insurance or a surety bond.

Owners convicted of a third violation of the state's dangerous dog statutes, or of related animal cruelty offenses, may be barred from owning any dog in Lakeville under subsection (B)(2)(l).