Kitsap County, WA Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

120, for the owner of a pet or livestock to "suffer or permit such animal to leave the premises of the owner" unless the animal is under physical restraint adequate to its size or stays close enough to the owner to remain under direct, obedient control. The code exempts pets actively engaged in formal training, a hunt, or a competition, and service dogs performing trained or in-service work; a leashed dog on a walk satisfies the restraint standard because the leash itself is the required physical restraint.

Kitsap's animal control authority does not have to formally impound every loose animal it recovers: if it can identify the owner through a county dog license, a microchip, or another method, it may return the animal directly, and the board of county commissioners sets a separate fee by resolution for that return-without-impound service. 010(15), a status the county code treats as grounds for tougher scrutiny going forward. 120, the state statute Kitsap's infraction chapter invokes, sets "the maximum penalty and the default amount for a class 1 civil infraction" at "$250, not including statutory assessments," so a first at-large citation in unincorporated Kitsap tops out at that figure before the court adds its own assessments.

The rule reaches only the unincorporated area: Bremerton, Port Orchard, Poulsbo, and Bainbridge Island enforce their own separate leash ordinances inside city limits, and Naval Base Kitsap and the Suquamish and Port Gamble S'Klallam reservations fall outside county animal control jurisdiction.