Kennel staff
This guide is for kennel staff and kennel leads who receive, house, observe and record dogs already seized. Kennels work is commissioned separately. Handling a seized dog is not the housing-officer syllabus.
This is practical awareness, not legal advice, not veterinary advice, and not a dog-handling qualification. Safety Solutions Training Ltd does not offer advice on personal physical care.
This guide is for people who take the dog off the vehicle, then for the kennel lead who owns the contract. Typical readers are kennel contractors, local authority kennels, police-commissioned holding sites, and managers who sign the arrangement.
Doorstep visits stay on Dog risk for visiting staff. Do not fold kennels into the housing-officer visit script.
Receiving a dog already seized, intake paperwork as company practice, long-stay planning, following written restrictions, animal welfare while the dog is in your care, observing and recording behaviour, records, escalation, staff safety, and what the commissioning contract should say.
This is not a dog-handling qualification. It is not a licence to seize. It is not veterinary advice. It is not legal advice. It is not the visiting-staff syllabus. Safety Solutions Training Ltd does not offer advice on personal physical care.
Cardiff is the company base. It is not the legal default. Name the nation of the kennel and of the police, council or court that sent the dog before you apply any section number.
The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, except section 8, does not extend to Northern Ireland. Do not paste Great Britain section numbers onto a Northern Ireland kennel.
In England, Wales and Scotland, seizure under the 1991 Act is mainly section 5. Section 4 is a court destruction or disqualification order after conviction. Section 4B is a destruction order otherwise than on a conviction, after seizure. Section 4A is a contingent destruction order. Do not say a dog is held under section 4 or 4B. The hold follows seizure. The court later decides under section 4, 4A or 4B.
XL Bully designation (England and Wales)The Dangerous Dogs (Designated Types) (England and Wales) Order 2023, SI 2023/1164, designates the XL Bully type for section 1 in England and Wales only. It is not UK-wide. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own official pages. Do not copy those schemes into this kennel resource. Check the nation of the kennel and the body that sent the dog.
Kennel staff do not seize. They receive a dog that someone with a lawful power has already taken.
England and WalesA constable, or a local-authority officer authorised for this purpose, may seize certain dogs under Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 section 5. In a public place that includes a suspected section 1 type in the circumstances set out in the Act, and a dog that appears dangerously out of control. Under section 5(1A), a constable or an authorised local-authority officer may seize a dog in a place that is not a public place if it appears dangerously out of control.
Section 5(2) is a warrant. If a justice of the peace is satisfied that an offence under the Act is being or has been committed, or that evidence of such an offence is to be found on premises, the warrant authorises a constable to enter, search, and seize any dog or other thing found there which is evidence of the offence. The warrant authorises a constable, not a local-authority officer.
ScotlandSection 5 public-place seizure also applies to a constable or an authorised local-authority officer. The non-public-place power in section 5(1A) is a constable-only power.
Northern IrelandSeizure and pounds sit under the Dogs (Northern Ireland) Order 1983, as amended. Article 25C is the seizure power. In a public place that includes a suspected banned type in the circumstances set out in that Article, and a dog which appears to be attacking any person. That third limb is not the Great Britain "dangerously out of control" wording. Article 40 requires district councils to establish pounds or arrange approved kennels. The Dogs (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 is the amending Act. It is not the seizure or pound statute.
A dog arriving under seizure is likely to be stressed and disorientated. Transport, a strange kennel, separation from its owner, noise, other dogs and previous conflict all change behaviour. Paperwork does not tell you how it will behave on arrival.
The following intake list is company practice, not a Dangerous Dogs Act duty. Before the animal leaves the vehicle or holding crate, get in writing from the police, council or court that sent it:
If those points are missing, this intake is not ready to start. Do not treat the dog as a short-stay boarder. Pause. Get the missing facts. Record the gap.
GOV.UK banned-dogs guidance says a seized dog may be kept in kennels while the police or council apply to a court. There is no statutory many-months period in the 1991 Act.
Treat every seized dog as a long-stay animal whose behaviour you cannot yet predict, unless the police, council or court that sent it has given a confirmed short-stay plan in writing. Do not plan staffing, kennel space, enrichment or veterinary cover as if this were overnight boarding.
England and Wales only: Part 4 of the Dangerous Dogs Exemption Schemes (England and Wales) Order 2015 allows a chief officer of police to release a suspected section 1 dog on an interim exemption before final court determination, if satisfied the dog is not a danger to public safety and the Order's conditions are met. Release is a police decision, not a kennel decision. If the dog stays with you, assume the police were not satisfied to release it, or the Order's conditions were not met. Do not lobby for release.
Split three things: court orders; exemption or interim certificate conditions in statutory instruments; and kennel house rules, including GOV.UK guidance.
Follow only restrictions that are actually in writing: a court order, an exemption or interim certificate, or the instruction of the police, council or court that sent the dog. Do not relax a written condition because the dog has settled.
Statute and article 10 of the 2015 Order name muzzle and lead in a public place, and keeping the dog in sufficiently secure conditions to prevent escape, for exempted or interim-exempted dogs. Lead type, exercise, who may handle and who may visit are not named in section 4A or in article 10. If those points appear, they appear because a written order, certificate or commissioning instruction actually says so.
Section 4A(5) names, for a section 4A(4) order only, muzzling, keeping on a lead, excluding the dog from specified places or otherwise, and in some cases neutering. That list is not the kennel conditions code for every seized dog.
A kennel holding a seized dog that is not yet exempted is not free to invent easier exercise rules in public. Follow the written conditions. If exercise cannot be given without breaking those conditions, record that and escalate. Do not break the condition.
Do not treat GOV.UK visit guidance as if it were a section of the 1991 Act. If staff are asked to ignore a written muzzle, lead or other named condition just this once, stop. Record. Tell the body that sent the dog.
The Dangerous Dogs (Exemption Schemes) (England and Wales) (Amendment) Order 2026, SI 2026/602, is an England and Wales exemption-certificate issue. From 1 July 2026 the third-party insurance conditions were removed. Those changes do not rewrite how a kennel holds a seized dog that is not yet exempted.
Kennel staff do not decide destruction. That is a court order or a decision of the body with lawful authority, carried out by the person appointed to do it. A court may, under section 4(4)(a), appoint a person to undertake destruction and require any person having custody of the dog to deliver it up.
England and WalesAnimal Welfare Act 2006 section 9: a person responsible for an animal must take such steps as are reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure that the animal's needs are met to the extent required by good practice. Those needs include a suitable environment, a suitable diet, the ability to exhibit normal behaviour patterns, any need to be housed with or apart from other animals, and protection from pain, suffering, injury and disease. The circumstances include any lawful purpose for which the animal is kept.
ScotlandAnimal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 section 24 uses different wording. The duty is to take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances, not all the circumstances. Needs include a suitable environment, a suitable diet, normal behaviour patterns, housing with or apart from other animals, and protection from suffering, injury and disease. Pain is not in that list. Do not paste the England and Wales needs list onto Scotland.
Northern IrelandWelfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 section 9 uses the same substance as England and Wales, including protection from pain, suffering, injury and disease.
Holding a seized dog for the police, council or court is a lawful purpose. That does not cancel the welfare duty. It shapes what is reasonable: secure housing, limited public access, and written conditions may restrict how normal behaviour can be provided. Record what you can provide and what the written conditions prevent. Escalate if welfare cannot be met within those conditions.
Those welfare sections do not cover destruction carried out in an appropriate and humane manner.
Observe and record facts, not conclusions. Do not invent a handling method. Do not test the dog to see if it has improved.
Do not write "aggressive" or "fine with staff" as a conclusion without the facts that sit under it. The court or justice must consider temperament and past behaviour when deciding public safety. Keep dated, timed, signed notes of what was seen. That is company practice. Notes may later be relevant to temperament and past behaviour. Admissibility is for the court.
Environmental controls come before extra handling: quiet kennel, visual barriers, predictable routine, competent staff only, no public walk-throughs, no informal socialisation with other dogs. If behaviour deteriorates, reduce stimulation and escalate.
The kennel is holding an animal that may later be evidence in court. Keep a chain of custody from the moment of intake. That record set is company practice, not a statutory form.
Do not alter notes after the event. If a correction is needed, add a dated supplementary note. Preserve originals. The commissioning body owns the case. You keep the care record.
Know who may escalate a welfare or safety concern, and how quickly, if behaviour deteriorates in your care. That route is your organisation's policy, agreed with the police, council or court that sent the dog. This page cannot name it for every kennel.
Escalate immediately, in writing and by the named on-call route, when:
Name the people in the local procedure: kennel lead, commissioning officer, veterinary surgeon, out-of-hours police or council contact.
Kennel staff are at work. In Great Britain the employer still has the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 section 2 duty to employees, so far as is reasonably practicable. If Northern Ireland health and safety is named, it is the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 Article 4. Do not cite the 1974 Act as the Northern Ireland section.
Dog risk in a seized-dog kennel is foreseeable. It belongs in the risk assessment, induction, staffing plan and permission to withdraw.
This resource does not create a universal two-person or never-go-alone duty. The organisation must set those controls in policy for this contract: who may enter a kennel, whether two people are required, what happens at night, what happens when the named handler is off. If the assessment says two people and only one is present, do not start.
Staff may pause, keep a route out, and withdraw from the kennel or the run. They must not be expected to become dog handlers under pressure. Physical skills, if the contract requires them, sit in a named, assessed training programme. They do not sit in this Hub page.
After an incident: move to safety, get first aid, report, preserve the scene and the notes, and do not discuss the case except through the commissioning route. See post-incident support for staff.
The contract should say, before the first dog arrives:
If the contract is silent, that is a commissioning failure. Do not fill the gap with improvisation.
This page is not a kennel-handling qualification. Reading a paragraph about a seized dog is not the same as receiving one off a vehicle.
Safety Solutions Training Ltd runs Dangerous Dogs Awareness as a half-day or full-day course, shaped to the organisation. It is delivered by recently retired police dog handlers, or police with direct focused dog experience. Training does not replace a contract, a risk assessment, a visit procedure or a reporting system. It does not make staff safe around every dog, and it does not licence anyone to seize.
Official sources used for this page
First published 31 August 2026. Source check 31 August 2026. Next review 31 October 2026, or sooner if Dangerous Dogs Act, exemption, welfare or commissioning rules change. Not legal advice. Not veterinary advice.