Rapid City, SD Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

Section 6.12.030 states the core rule in two sentences: no person may allow a dog or cat to run at large, and the owner or custodian must keep the animal under restraint at all times in a manner that avoids bodily injury to the animal. Both key terms are defined citywide in § 6.04.010 rather than repeated in Chapter 6.12. AT LARGE means any animal off its owner's property and not under the restraint of a competent person, while UNDER RESTRAINT covers six situations: a leash held by someone physically capable of controlling the animal, being led by a person the animal obeys, confinement inside a vehicle, confinement within the owner's own property, verbal control in a park area the city has designated off-leash under § 12.24.110, and containment on any property with a designated area for animals to be unrestrained.

Section 6.12.035 carves out five specific areas of the city, including portions of Braeburn Addition, Wilderness Park, the Knollwood Metering Dam area, Robbinsdale Park and part of the Rapid City Greenway, where the at-large restraint rule itself does not apply, though the pet waste cleanup duty in § 6.08.270 still applies in those same areas. Because § 6.12.030 sets no dedicated fine, an at-large violation is punished under the Title 6 general penalty, and a dog running at large can be picked up and impounded under § 6.08.240, which also triggers the mandatory microchip-before-release rule for any dog reclaimed from that impoundment.