Walker County, GA Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

Walker County Code § 6-22(a) requires every animal to be restrained so it cannot molest passersby, chase vehicles, or attack people or other animals; failing to keep an animal under secure control, on or off the owner's property, is itself a violation. Section 6-22 defines secure control differently depending on location. On the owner's premises, an animal is secure if it is behind a fence or other sufficient enclosure, held by an electronic fence and shock collar, tethered under the tethering rules of subsection (b), or under direct voice command.

Off the premises, defined to include the immediately adjacent road, right-of-way, and common areas of apartment complexes or neighborhoods, secure control instead requires a leash or other device held by a competent person, a permitted tether on someone else's property, safe confinement in a vehicle, an enclosure the property owner has approved, or direct voice command explicitly allowed by that property owner. Hunting, herding, and predator control dogs are exempt from this section. Section 6-22(c) separately bars tying, staking, or fastening any animal in a street, alley, or sidewalk, or in a manner giving it access to one.

Animal Control Officers and Sheriff's deputies enforce the chapter, and Section 6-148 sets minimum fines of $150 for a first violation of a provision like this one, $300 for a second, and $450 for a third or subsequent violation, up to a $1,000.00 maximum, with each animal and each day of a continuing violation counted separately.