Columbia, SC Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

Section 4-64(a) requires that 'all dogs must be kept under restraint or confinement within the city limits,' and it defines exactly three ways to satisfy that: a leash held by someone with the judgment and physical strength to control the dog and stop it from attacking, threatening or annoying people or other animals; confinement inside an enclosure; or containment on the owner's property through an 'invisible fencing' system using a radio-signal transmitter and corrective pet collar. Electronic fencing has to be a model approved by the ASPCA, the Humane Society of the United States, or the city's own superintendent of animal control, and the perimeter must be flagged or signed clearly enough to warn pedestrians. Any dog not restrained or confined by one of these three methods is, by the plain terms of the section, 'deemed unlawfully running at large within the city limits.'

Section 4-64(b) separately regulates tethering: no animal may be tethered for more than nine hours in any 24-hour period, tethers must be at least ten feet long, and the tether cannot allow the dog to reach within four feet of the owner's property line; beyond the length and time limits, the tether's use 'must be humane in all other respects.' Section 4-65(a) adds that an owner whose dog is caught running at large forfeits any property right in that dog, and Section 4-65(b) makes the owner responsible for picking up any waste the animal leaves on public walkways, recreation areas or private property.