What Dog Owners Need to Know About Livestock Worrying

I have a well-behaved dog with a low prey drive who had never given me much reason to worry around livestock. Then, while we were on holiday somewhere unfamiliar, we came across some sheep and she suddenly became completely fixated on them. It was so out of character that it caught me off guard.

Thankfully, she was already on a lead, so nothing happened. But it was a useful reminder of how quickly the situation can change. We get to know our dogs incredibly well and naturally start to feel confident about what they will and won’t do. Most of the time we’re probably right. Put them somewhere unfamiliar, with animals moving in a way they haven’t encountered before, and occasionally they surprise us.

That’s worth bearing in mind when walking around livestock, particularly following changes to the law in England and Wales this year. The Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) Act 2025 came into force on 18 March 2026, strengthening legislation that had been in place since 1953. Livestock worrying was already an offence, but the amended law gives police greater powers to investigate incidents, expands the circumstances covered and increases the maximum penalty from £1,000 to an unlimited fine.

What actually counts as livestock worrying?

The phrase makes it sound fairly self-explanatory, but it’s broader than many people realise. A dog doesn’t have to physically attack or bite an animal for an offence to take place.

Chasing livestock can count as worrying where it could reasonably be expected to cause injury or suffering. In the case of female livestock, the law also takes account of chasing that could cause abortion or the loss or reduction of produce. A dog that is at large in a field or enclosure containing sheep can also fall within the definition, even if no chase has taken place.

There is good reason for the distinction. A sheep running from a dog can be injured without the dog ever reaching it, and the effects of a chase don’t necessarily end when the dog stops. Panicked animals can collide with fencing or other obstacles, while pregnant ewes are particularly vulnerable.

It’s easy to judge the risk according to what we believe our own dog intends to do. “She only wants to chase” feels very different from “she wants to attack”. From the livestock’s perspective, however, being pursued by a predator is frightening either way.

The animals covered by the legislation aren’t limited to sheep. Cattle, goats, pigs, horses, camelids such as llamas and alpacas, ostriches, farmed deer, enclosed game birds and poultry are among those included. Horses also covers donkeys and mules.

The amended legislation has widened the places in which attacks and worrying are covered too. It is no longer confined to agricultural land, with relevant incidents on roads and paths now within its scope. For anyone who regularly walks in the countryside, that matters. You don’t necessarily need to climb over a stile into a field of sheep to unexpectedly find yourself sharing space with livestock.

What has changed for dog owners?

Perhaps the most striking change is what can happen after an incident. Police now have stronger investigative powers, including the ability to take samples and impressions from dogs and livestock where these could provide evidence. They can also apply for warrants to enter premises in certain circumstances.

A dog can be seized and detained where police have reasonable grounds to believe it has attacked or worried livestock and there is a risk that it could do so again. That second part is important. The new legislation doesn’t simply mean that any dog suspected of worrying livestock can automatically be taken away.

The financial consequences have changed as well. The previous maximum fine of £1,000 has been removed, meaning courts can now impose an unlimited fine following conviction.

These aren’t powers designed around an unusual countryside problem. Livestock worrying happens with some frequency. Research cited by the Government found that 87% of surveyed sheep farmers had experienced a dog attack on their flock during 2024, while NFU Mutual estimated the cost of livestock worrying across the UK at almost £1.8 million that year.

Behind those figures are individual animals and farmers dealing with the consequences. Sheep can be injured or killed outright, but they can also suffer after being chased. That is one of the reasons the law doesn’t wait for a dog to make physical contact before the situation becomes serious.

What does this mean when you’re out walking?

The Countryside Code advises keeping dogs under effective control and says it is good practice to keep them on a lead around livestock. In some places a lead is legally required, including around livestock on Open Access land, and there may be local restrictions elsewhere.

A lead solves the most obvious problem by preventing a dog from taking off across a field, but it is still worth watching what’s happening at the other end of it. If your dog is barking, lunging or becoming increasingly fixated, creating more distance is sensible where possible. Being physically restrained doesn’t necessarily mean the livestock nearby are unaffected by their presence.

This is where knowing your dog helps, but perhaps not quite in the way we usually mean it. Knowing that your dog has always been reliable around animals is useful information; treating it as a guarantee is different. A dog that has calmly passed sheep before may encounter them at a different distance, in greater numbers, moving quickly or in an unfamiliar environment and respond differently.

I wouldn’t have expected my own dog to become so interested in sheep because I’d never seen that behaviour from her before. Now I know that it’s there. Had she been off lead when I discovered it, the lesson could have been considerably less uneventful.

The exception worth remembering around cattle

There is one piece of official advice that can sound contradictory after being told to keep your dog on a lead around livestock. If cattle or horses threaten or chase you, the Countryside Code advises letting go of your dog’s lead rather than trying to keep hold of it.

The priority in that situation is getting yourself to safety. A loose dog has a much better chance of moving away from the animals than you do, and remaining attached can put you at greater risk. Once you’re safe, you can call your dog back when it is possible to do so.

It is an unusual exception, but an important one. Keeping a dog on a lead is intended to prevent an incident; it shouldn’t mean putting yourself in danger if one develops.

Protecting livestock also protects your dog

The legal consequences of livestock worrying are much more significant than they were, but there is another consequence dog owners need to understand. In certain circumstances, the law allows a farmer to shoot a dog that is worrying livestock. Government guidance describes shooting as a last resort, but the legal provision exists.

Nobody sets out on an ordinary dog walk expecting anything like that to happen. That’s precisely why livestock worrying is worth taking seriously before a dog has ever shown an interest in chasing anything.

Dogs don’t have to be badly behaved to make bad decisions. Nor does an owner have to be irresponsible to be caught out by behaviour they haven’t seen before. What we can do is remove as much opportunity for it to happen as possible.

Around livestock, that means paying attention to signs, keeping your dog under effective control, using a lead where appropriate and giving the animals plenty of space. It may feel overly cautious when your dog has walked past sheep a hundred times without a second glance.

Then again, until that holiday, mine had too.