Banned and Restricted Dog Breeds by Country

A dog can clear every health requirement a country sets, carry a perfect certificate, and still be refused, seized or destroyed on arrival because of what it looks like. Breed rules sit in a different part of the law from health rules, they are enforced by different people, and they are the one part of an international move that a veterinarian cannot fix.

This guide sets out what the law actually says, country by country, taken from the statutes and the government pages rather than from other pet shipping sites. It is about legal breed restrictions at the destination. If your question is which airline will carry a snub-nosed dog, that is a separate layer covered in our guide to airline breed restrictions.

Almost every wrong answer about breed law comes from treating these as one thing. They are not, and the difference decides whether a move is possible at all.

A country can run more than one of these at once. Ireland is the clearest case: ten breeds carry a muzzle and lead rule and can be imported freely, while one type cannot lawfully be brought in at all.

A mixed dog is widely treated as a safe dog. Depending on the country, the opposite is closer to the truth, and the spread between countries here is wider than the spread between their breed lists.

Germany is the destination most often described wrongly, including by pet shipping companies, so it is worth stating exactly what the statute says. The Hundeverbringungs- und -einfuhrbeschraenkungsgesetz of 12 April 2001 provides at section 2(1) that dogs of the Pitbull-Terrier, American Staffordshire-Terrier, Staffordshire-Bullterrier and Bullterrier breeds, and crosses between them or with any other dog, may not be imported or brought into Germany.

There is no permit for this and no exception an owner can apply for. Section 5 makes it a criminal offense punishable by up to two years of imprisonment or a fine, the attempt is punishable, and doing it negligently still carries up to a year. Section 4 puts the customs authorities into the enforcement, with power to stop consignments and accompanying dogs at the border.

The part almost nobody mentions is the second sentence of the same subsection. Dogs of further breeds, and their crosses, whose dangerousness is presumed under the law of the German state where the dog is to be kept, may not be brought into that state. Each Bundesland keeps its own list, and they differ. A dog that can lawfully be moved to one German state can be unlawful to move to the one next door, so the answer to “can my dog come to Germany” is not complete until the city is known.

The federal law draws one more distinction worth knowing. Bringing a dog in from another EU member state and importing one from outside the EU are separate defined acts, and both are covered by the prohibition. A move from the United States is an import.

It is against the law to own a Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro or XL Bully in the United Kingdom. The government states the test plainly: whether a dog is a banned type depends on what it looks like, rather than on its breed or name.

Two consequences follow that owners rarely expect. If the matter reaches court it is the owner’s responsibility to prove the dog is not a banned type, which is the reverse of how people expect the law to work. And the police can seize a dog of banned type even where it has not acted dangerously and nobody has complained.

The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 prohibits breeding, selling, giving away, abandoning, and being in a public place without a muzzle and lead, and, from an appointed day, possession itself. Because possession is what is prohibited, there is no lawful destination for a dog of one of these types, which closes the route in.

One dated change is coming. From 1 November 2026 a child under 12 must not be left in close contact with a banned dog in a private place, a home or garden included, without adult supervision.

Ireland runs the two regimes side by side, and merging them is the usual error.

The Control of Dogs Regulations 1998 place muzzle and lead conditions on ten named breeds and on Ban Dogs, together with every other strain or cross of them: the American Pit Bull Terrier, Bull Mastiff, Doberman Pinscher, English Bull Terrier, German Shepherd or Alsatian, Japanese Akita, Japanese Tosa, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Rottweiler and Staffordshire Bull Terrier. In public each must be muzzled, held on a chain or leash no longer than two meters, and handled by someone over 16 capable of controlling it. None of that stops the dog entering Ireland. German Shepherds and Rottweilers appearing on a dangerous dogs list surprises nearly everyone, and it is only a muzzle rule.

The XL Bully is different and much harder. Since 1 October 2024 it may not be owned, kept, bought, sold, given away, bred or imported, and since 1 February 2025 ownership requires a Certificate of Exemption. Applications for that certificate closed on 31 January 2025. The test is whether the dog substantially meets a physical conformation standard, so it reaches crosses and lookalikes, and it reaches dogs under 18 months that may grow into it. In practice there is no route for moving an XL Bully type dog to Ireland, and an amendment made in 2025 should be checked for any change before anyone relies on this.

Denmark bans thirteen breeds outright under the Hundeloven: the Pitbull Terrier, Tosa Inu, American Staffordshire Terrier, Fila Brasileiro, Dogo Argentino, American Bulldog, Boerboel, Kangal, Central Asian Ovtcharka, Caucasian Ovtcharka, South Russian Ovtcharka, Tornjak and Sarplaninac.

The prohibition extends to crosses in which one or more of the thirteen appears, and the food authority states that the ban applies to everyone including tourists bringing such a dog into Denmark. The enforcement mechanism is the part to plan around: police may require the keeper to document the dog’s breed or type, and failure to produce that documentation within the deadline they set counts against the owner. A rescue dog of unknown parentage that looks like one of the thirteen is therefore a genuine risk even where its actual ancestry would clear it.

Dogs already held in Denmark before 17 March 2010 could be kept under a grandfather rule but not transferred to a new owner. That has no application to a dog arriving now.

Norway prohibits the import, keeping and breeding of the Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Fila Brasileiro, Tosa Inu, Dogo Argentino and Czechoslovakian Wolfdog. Semen and embryos are covered as well.

The crossbreed wording is the strictest of any country here. The ban applies to crosses where one or more of these breeds is present in any proportion, and the customs service repeats it in the same terms. Any dog and wolf mix is treated as a dangerous dog on the same any-proportion basis.

Norway also keeps a catch-all that does not depend on a list at all. A dog that is particularly aggressive, combative or persistent, and dangerous to people or animals, is prohibited whatever its breed. So an unlisted dog with a bite history is not automatically safe.

One distinction is worth being careful with. The American Staffordshire Terrier is on the Norwegian list and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier is not. Given the any-proportion crossbreed rule and that these dogs are told apart by appearance, a Staffie-type dog is still a dog to get assessed before anyone books a flight.

Spain is a keeping-restriction country. No breed-based import ban was found in the Spanish rules, and the obligations begin once the dog lives there.

Real Decreto 287/2002 lists the Pit Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Rottweiler, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro, Tosa Inu and Akita Inu. Keeping one requires a license valid for five years, an owner aged 18 or over, civil liability insurance of at least 120,000 euros, a muzzle in public, and a non-extendable lead under two meters, with one such dog per handler. Certified guide and assistance dogs are outside it.

The provision that catches unlisted dogs is the physical description. A dog matching all or most of a set of physical criteria falls in regardless of breed: strong musculature and a robust athletic build, a chest girth of 60 to 80 cm, a height at the withers of 50 to 70 cm, and a weight above 20 kg. Plenty of ordinary large dogs meet that description.

Two live caveats. Spanish animal law has been in transition since Ley 7/2023 and the exact standing of the older dangerous animals framework is not settled on the face of the published texts, while a draft decree that would replace breed lists with individual aptitude testing exists but is not in force. And the licensing is administered by the autonomous communities and municipalities, several of which run longer lists than the national one. The region matters, so check the specific one before assuming.

Australia prohibits the import of the Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro, Japanese Tosa, American Pit Bull Terrier or Pit Bull Terrier, and the Perro de Presa Canario, under the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956. The agriculture department also lists four wolfdog types as prohibited: the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog or Vlcak, the Saarloos Wolfdog, the Lupo Italiano, and the Kunming Wolfdog.

Australia is the exception on crossbreeds. The department states that mixed-breed dogs are allowed if the dog meets all other import conditions, which is the opposite of the Norwegian and Danish position. The risk here is not refusal at the border but investigation after it: the department warns that if an imported dog is later identified as possibly a prohibited breed, Home Affairs may look into it.

Australian states and territories then run their own restricted-breed rules for keeping a dog once it has arrived, and those are separate from the federal import list. Clearing customs is not the end of the question.

New Zealand prohibits the import of the Brazilian Fila, Dogo Argentino, Japanese Tosa, Perro de Presa Canario and American Pit Bull Terrier under Schedule 4 of the Dog Control Act 1996.

The statutory test is what makes New Zealand moves fail. Import is prohibited for a dog that belongs wholly or predominantly to one or more of the listed breeds or types, and a territorial authority must classify as menacing any dog it has reasonable grounds to believe belongs wholly or predominantly to one of them. Predominantly is an appearance judgment, so a dog with no papers at all can be caught, and a menacing classification brings muzzle and lead requirements and can bring a neutering requirement.

Singapore splits its restricted dogs in two, and the difference between the parts is the difference between impossible and expensive.

Part 1 cannot be imported: the Pit Bull, which Singapore defines to include the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier and American Bulldog, together with the Akita, Boerboel, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro, Neapolitan Mastiff, Tosa and Perro de Presa Canario, and crosses of any of them.

Part 2 can be imported with conditions: the Bull Terrier, Doberman Pinscher, Rottweiler, German Shepherd Dog and related breeds, and the Mastiffs, meaning the Bull Mastiff, Cane Corso and Dogue de Bordeaux, plus crosses of those. Keeping one means a leash and a muzzle in public, liability insurance of at least 100,000 Singapore dollars, a banker’s guarantee of 2,000 Singapore dollars, and the applicable training.

For a mixed-breed dog the authority asks for a color photograph showing face and body so it can satisfy itself the dog is not a prohibited breed, which makes appearance part of the import file rather than an afterthought. And public housing runs a narrower approved list again, so a dog that is legally importable may still not be keepable in the apartment the family is moving into.

Federal Law No. 22 of 2016 prohibits any person from possessing, trading in or breeding the dogs listed in its Annex 2. The list covers the pit bull group, meaning the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier and American Bully; the mastiff group, naming the Fila Brasileiro and Dogo Argentino and then extending to any mastiff or hybrid; the Japanese Tosa; the Rottweiler; the Doberman Pinscher; the Presa Canario; and the Boxer. Mixed breeds and hybrids of these are named throughout.

The Boxer and the Doberman are the entries families do not expect, and they are ordinary pets in most of the world. Possession without a license is an offense in its own right, and breaching the dangerous-dogs article carries imprisonment of at least six months and a fine running from 10,000 to 500,000 dirhams.

The law is written as a possession and trade prohibition rather than as an import clause, and the import permit conditions sit with the ministry rather than in the statute. The practical effect for a family move is the same, because a dog that cannot lawfully be possessed cannot lawfully live there, but the permit detail should be confirmed with the ministry before any booking. Individual emirates also add their own rules.

There is no single national breed rule to look up for a move between states. APHIS states that it does not regulate the interstate movement of pets by their owners and that domestic movement requirements are set by the receiving state or territory, so breed rules in the United States live at state, county and city level, and they change without much notice.

Two places they show up that catch families mid-move. Rental and condominium policies frequently carry breed lists that are stricter than any local law, and privatized military housing has run its own restricted-breed rules. Neither is a government rule you can look up in one place, and both can decide a move.

If you are moving a dog between states, the paperwork side is covered in our guide to shipping a dog to another state.

The order of these matters. Doing them in the wrong order is how families end up with a dog at an airport and no lawful destination.

We would rather tell someone at the enquiry stage that a move cannot lawfully be made than book it and find out at the border. If your dog is on one of these lists, send us the breed and the destination city and we will tell you which of the three situations you are in.

Not reliably, because most of these laws are not asking about DNA. The United Kingdom judges a dog on what it looks like, New Zealand asks whether it is wholly or predominantly of a listed type, and Spain can catch a dog on measurements alone. A DNA result may help a conversation, but the legal test is usually conformation.

No. The federal import prohibition on the four named breeds and their crosses has no owner-facing permit, and bringing such a dog in is a criminal offense carrying up to two years. The separate state lists work the same way for the state concerned.

It depends entirely on the country and this is the breed where the answer varies most. It is banned in Germany, prohibited in the United Kingdom if it is judged pit bull type, on Singapore’s Part 1 banned list, on the UAE list, and licensed rather than banned in Spain and Ireland. Norway lists the American Staffordshire Terrier but not the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Check the specific destination rather than reasoning from the breed name.

Not in the way dogs are. Breed prohibitions are a dog issue. Cats face different restrictions, usually around hybrid breeds with recent wild ancestry such as Savannah and Bengal cats, which some countries limit by generation rather than by breed.

It depends on the country and none of the outcomes are good. Seizure and kenneling at the owner’s cost while a court decides, return to the country of origin at the owner’s cost, and destruction are all real outcomes in the laws quoted here. This is the reason to settle breed eligibility before booking anything.

Checked 7 September 2026. Breed law changes without notice, and several of the pages below carry active amendments, so verify against the source before you book.