Massachusetts dangerous dog law: hearings and orders

Section 136A defines a dangerous dog as one that, 'without justification, attacks a person or domestic animal causing physical injury or death,' or that behaves in a way a reasonable person would believe poses an unjustified imminent threat of physical injury or death. A nuisance dog is one whose excessive barking or other disturbance annoys a sick person living nearby or disrupts a neighbor's quiet and peaceful enjoyment, or one that threatened or attacked livestock, a domestic animal or a person in a way that was not a grossly disproportionate reaction.

Section 157 lists what cannot make a dog dangerous. Growling or barking alone is not enough, and breed is never a ground; the same section forbids any city or town from regulating dogs in a breed-specific way. Nor is a dog dangerous if its reaction was not grossly disproportionate to one of four situations: protecting itself, its offspring, another domestic animal or a person from attack; a person committing a crime against its owner or the owner's property; a person teasing, tormenting, battering, assaulting, injuring or provoking it; or a person or animal that breached an enclosure keeping the dog apart from the public, without the owner's permission.

When a dog is deemed dangerous, section 157(c) requires at least one of these orders: humane restraint, though no order may require the dog to be chained, tethered or tied to an object such as a tree, post or building; confinement indoors or in a locked pen with a secure roof, sides sunk at least 2 feet into the ground if it has no floor, and shelter inside; a secure muzzle plus a restraint of at least 300 pounds tensile strength and no more than 3 feet whenever the dog leaves the premises; or proof of insurance of at least $100,000, or of reasonable efforts to obtain it.

The other three are lifetime identification, such as photographs, video, a microchip or tattooing, given to the licensing authority or animal control; spaying or neutering, unless a vet says the dog is medically unfit; and humane euthanasia. Two limits protect owners. No order may remove the dog from the city or town where its owner lives, and orders hold throughout the commonwealth unless overturned, so a move from Gloucester to Beverly does not end one. A nuisance finding is narrower: the authority may order remedial action to ameliorate the cause of the behavior.

The cheapest hearing is the one that never happens. A dog that lunges at the fence when walkers pass, or guards the yard from the mail carrier, is giving you information long before a neighbor writes to the town. A plan started then gives you something concrete to describe if a complaint does arrive, and if a nuisance finding comes with an order for remedial action, the statute leaves the form of that action to the order, so ask the authority whether your training plan would satisfy it.

Our trainers work fear- and force-free, with behavior programs such as Focus & Flow over 6 weeks, React Less, Relax More over 8 and Polished Pup over 10, and sessions start from $94. Daycare is not a treatment for aggression, and our handlers decide at the free evaluation, held on weekday mornings between 6:30 and 9:30 at 210 Eastern Ave, whether group play suits a dog at all. If your dog is under a restraint or confinement order, ask the hearing authority before booking anything outside the home.