Here are five tips regarding Ohio’s dog laws for landowners:

1) All dogs over three months of age must be registered annually. Dog owners should ensure all dogs not confined to a kennel are displaying their registration tag on the collar at all times.

2) Unless engaged in the act of hunting with an owner, dogs should always be confined to the owner’s property or under the control of their owner. Failing to keep a dog confined or under reasonable control could subject the owner to a fine.

3) Ohio has recently updated dog categories to nuisance, dangerous, and vicious dogs. If a dog is determined to fit one of these categories by a proper official, a dog owner will have more responsibilities as to their dog, including confinement and insurance requirements.

4) Landowners have the right to protect their livestock whenever a dog is in the act of chasing, threatening, harassing, or injuring livestock on the landowner’s property. Landowners will not be held criminally liable for injuring or harming a dog that is in the act of harming livestock.

5) The Dog and Kennel Fund, funded by a portion of dog registration fees, may in some cases provide fair market compensation when livestock are killed or injured by trespassing dogs.

More Landowner Information

For further explanation of these tips and other information on other topics impacting landowners, Ohio Farm Bureau members can log in and download the Landowner Toolkit. Not a member? Join today!

Get the full list of landowner topics covered in the toolkit, with tips blogs for each in Ohio Farm Bureau’s Legal Information Series.

Also, listen to Legal with Leah, a podcast featuring Ohio Farm Bureau’s Director of Ag Law Leah Curtis discussing topics impacting landowners.