A growing intolerance of dog behaviour is behind a 30% increase in the number of complaints over the past three years, the Dunedin City Council's animal control team leader says.
Ros MacGill's annual report on dog control showed the city had 13,927 registered dogs, 90% of them pets.
The animal control unit had responded to 3379 complaints in the year to June 30, a 12% increase on the previous year.
There were 75 "attacks" on people, though senior animal control officer Jim Pryde said people's perception of what was an attack varied, and there had been no serious attacks.
No dog owners were prosecuted, though 204 infringement notices were handed out.
Mr Pryde said the majority of the unit's work was taken up with 917 barking complaints, and 1215 reports of wandering dogs - of those 769 were impounded.
That situation was similar to previous years.
Ms MacGill said she believed media coverage of the serious dog attacks in other parts of New Zealand, and council advertising, was behind the decrease in tolerance of "inappropriate behaviour" by dogs.
