Nash County, NC Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

Sec. 4-7(a) of the Nash County Code makes it unlawful for any owner or keeper to permit a dog to be at large anywhere in the unincorporated county; the Animal Control Section, operating under the county's Health Director, confiscates loose dogs and impounds them at the Nash County Animal Shelter. Sec. 4-7(b) carves out narrow exceptions: a dog may run loose during a sanctioned show, obedience school, tracking test, field trial, or other supervised event, and hunting dogs may be off-leash while lawfully hunting, though hunting dogs remain subject to every other provision of the chapter.

Sec. 4-7(c) layers a separate, stricter rule onto county parks: any person with a dog must keep it on a leash at all times inside a public park unless the park is designated a dog park. A dog that is tethered rather than roaming is regulated by Sec. 4-23, which caps tethering at five dogs per property, bans chain, choke and prong collars for tethering, requires a tether at least 12 feet long with swivel ends, and requires access to food, water and weather shelter.

A dog found at large is impounded under Sec. 4-42, posted for at least three business days under Sec. 4-43, and may be reclaimed within that window under Sec. 00 reclaim fee; an unredeemed dog may be destroyed or adopted under Sec. 4-45. Chapter 4 applies only outside a municipality's limits under Sec. 4-50, since Rocky Mount, Nashville and the county's other towns enforce their own leash ordinances inside their jurisdictions.