Daytona Beach, FL Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

Section 14-10(c) requires every owner to keep reasonable control of an animal once it leaves the owner's own property, offering three compliant methods: confinement in a secure fence or pen the animal cannot dig under, climb over or otherwise escape; confinement inside a vehicle it cannot climb or jump out of; or, if neither applies, maintaining physical control by keeping the animal secured at all times on a leash no more than eight feet in length. A retractable leash extended past eight feet, or a dog walked off-leash under voice command, does not satisfy this standard.

Section 14-3 defines at large as being off the owner's premises and not under the physical control, custody, charge or possession of the owner or another responsible person by leash, cord, chain or fenced enclosure, and it expressly exempts police dogs and police horses on duty. Section 14-11(a) then makes running at large a standalone violation: no animal shall be permitted or allowed to run at large, and it is a violation of the chapter for the owner to permit or allow it. The rule is not limited to dogs; the chapter's animal definition sweeps in cats and other domesticated species, but dogs generate the large majority of at-large and leash-length citations because they are the animal most often walked in public.

Section 14-10(b) imposes a parallel duty even while the animal stays on the owner's own property, requiring confinement, tethering, or leash and physical control there too.