Breed law is the part of an international move that a veterinarian cannot solve. A dog can meet every health requirement, hold a perfect CFIA certificate and still be turned back at the border, taken into custody or worse, on the strength of what it looks like. And for Canadian owners there is a second problem that gets almost no coverage: the barrier is sometimes on this side of the border.

This guide takes the rules from the statutes and the government pages rather than from other pet shipping sites. It covers legal breed restrictions, which are separate from the airline rules on snub-nosed dogs covered in our guide to breed restrictions for pet shipping from Canada.

Start With Ontario, Because Canada Bans a Breed Too

Canadians researching breed bans tend to look outward. Ontario has one of its own, it is written into the Dog Owners’ Liability Act, and it applies to a dog arriving in the province exactly as it applies to a dog already living there.

The Act defines a pit bull as including a pit bull terrier, a Staffordshire bull terrier, an American Staffordshire terrier, an American pit bull terrier, and a dog that has an appearance and physical characteristics substantially similar to those. Section 6 then provides that no person shall own, breed, transfer, abandon or train such a dog, and, at clause (f), that no person shall import a pit bull into Ontario.

The exception is narrow and closed. A dog is a restricted pit bull only if it was owned by an Ontario resident on the day the ban came into force, or born in Ontario within the window the Act sets. Nothing arriving now qualifies, so a family moving to Toronto from Calgary or from anywhere abroad with a Staffordshire bull terrier is looking at an import prohibition, not a licensing step.

The clause that catches the most dogs is the appearance one. A mixed dog with no pit bull ancestry on paper can still be within the definition if it looks substantially similar, and the Act lets a court look at breed standards to decide. Papers for something else are not the protection they feel like.

Other provinces and many municipalities run their own rules, so a move within Canada needs the destination city checked as carefully as an overseas one.

A Ban, a Licence and a Lookalike Test Are Three Different Things

Wrong answers about breed law almost always come from collapsing these into one category. Which one applies decides whether a move is expensive or impossible.

  • A prohibition means the dog cannot enter. No permit exists and no fee opens one. Germany, Denmark, Norway, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore each operate one, and so does Ontario.
  • A keeping condition means the dog may enter and living there costs more: a licence, liability insurance, a muzzle in public, a short lead, sometimes neutering. Spain and Ireland work this way for most of their listed breeds.
  • A lookalike test means the law is applied to conformation rather than pedigree. Ontario, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand and Spain all decide this way, so a dog can be caught with no documented ancestry at all.

One country can run several at once. Ireland lets ten listed breeds in under muzzle conditions while prohibiting one type outright.

The Crossbreed Wording Is Where Canadian Moves Come Apart

A mixed dog is widely treated as the safe option. Across these countries the wording varies so much that the same dog is legal in one and criminal in another.

  • Norway bans crosses regardless of the mixing ratio, so any traceable proportion is enough.
  • Denmark covers any cross containing one or more of its thirteen breeds, and police can require the keeper to document the dog’s breed, with failure to produce it counting against the owner.
  • New Zealand asks whether a dog is wholly or predominantly of a listed type, which is a judgement about appearance.
  • Spain can catch a dog of no listed breed at all on physique alone: chest girth of 60 to 80 cm, height at the withers of 50 to 70 cm and weight above 20 kg.
  • Australia goes the other way and allows mixed-breed dogs that meet all other import conditions, while warning that a dog later identified as possibly a prohibited breed may be investigated after arrival.
  • Ontario needs only that the dog looks substantially similar to the four named breeds.

Germany: Four Breeds Prohibited Federally, Then a List Per State

Germany is the destination most often described wrongly, and getting it wrong is expensive. The Hundeverbringungs- und -einfuhrbeschraenkungsgesetz of 12 April 2001 provides at section 2(1) that the Pitbull-Terrier, American Staffordshire-Terrier, Staffordshire-Bullterrier and Bullterrier, and crosses between them or with any other dog, may not be imported or brought into Germany. There is no owner permit. Section 5 makes it a criminal offence carrying up to two years of imprisonment or a fine, the attempt is punishable, and negligence still carries up to a year.

The half that gets left out is the second sentence of that subsection. Dogs of further breeds and their crosses, whose dangerousness is presumed under the law of the German state where the dog will be kept, may not be brought into that state. Every Bundesland keeps its own list and they differ, so a dog that can lawfully move to one German state may be barred from the one next door. The question is not answered until the city is known. See our Germany pet shipping guide for the rest of the entry requirements.

The United Kingdom: Five Types, Judged by Eye

It is an offence to own a Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro or XL Bully in the United Kingdom, and the government states that whether a dog is a banned type depends on what it looks like rather than on its breed or name. If the matter reaches court, proving the dog is not a banned type falls to the owner. Police can seize a dog of banned type that has not acted dangerously and about which nobody has complained. Because possession itself is prohibited, there is no lawful home for such a dog and therefore no route in. From 1 November 2026 a child under 12 must not be left in close contact with a banned dog in a private place without adult supervision.

Ireland: Ten Breeds In, One Type Out

Ireland runs both regimes at once. The Control of Dogs Regulations 1998 place muzzle and lead conditions on ten breeds and on Ban Dogs, together with every 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 and held on a chain or leash no longer than two metres by a handler over 16 who can control it. None of that prevents entry, which surprises owners of German Shepherds and Rottweilers.

The XL Bully is the exception. 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 whose application window closed on 31 January 2025. The test is physical conformation, so crosses, lookalikes and dogs under 18 months that may grow into the standard are all reached. There is no practical route for moving an XL Bully type dog to Ireland, and a 2025 amendment should be checked before anyone relies on this.

Denmark and Norway: The Two Strictest Crossbreed Rules

Denmark prohibits thirteen breeds 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 ban reaches crosses containing any of them, the food authority states that it applies to everyone including tourists, and police may require the keeper to document the dog’s breed within a deadline they set. A rescue dog of unknown parentage that resembles one of the thirteen is a real risk even where its actual ancestry would clear it.

Norway prohibits the import, keeping and breeding of the Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Fila Brasileiro, Tosa Inu, Dogo Argentino and Czechoslovakian Wolfdog, and covers crosses in any proportion. Any dog and wolf mix is treated the same way. Norway also keeps a catch-all that does not depend on a list: a dog that is particularly aggressive, combative and persistent, and dangerous to people or animals, is prohibited whatever its breed. Note that the American Staffordshire Terrier is listed and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier is not, which given the any-proportion rule is a distinction to have assessed rather than assumed.

Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the UAE

Spain has no breed-based import ban. 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, and keeping one requires a licence valid five years, an owner aged 18 or over, liability insurance of at least 120,000 euros, a muzzle in public and a non-extendable lead under two metres, one dog per handler. Guide and assistance dogs are excluded. Spanish animal law has been in transition since Ley 7/2023 and the licensing is run by the autonomous communities and municipalities, several of which keep longer lists, so the region decides the detail.

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, and the agriculture department adds four wolfdog types: the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog or Vlcak, the Saarloos Wolfdog, the Lupo Italiano and the Kunming Wolfdog. State and territory rules on keeping a restricted breed are separate and apply after arrival.

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, applying to any dog belonging wholly or predominantly to one of those breeds or types. A council must also classify such a dog as menacing, which brings muzzle and lead requirements and can bring neutering.

Singapore splits its list in two. Part 1 cannot be imported: the Pit Bull, defined to include the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier and American Bulldog, plus 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 and covers the Bull Terrier, Doberman Pinscher, Rottweiler, German Shepherd Dog and related breeds, and the Mastiffs, meaning Bull Mastiff, Cane Corso and Dogue de Bordeaux. For a mixed dog the authority asks for a colour photograph showing face and body, so appearance is part of the import file. Public housing runs a narrower list again.

The United Arab Emirates prohibits possessing, trading in or breeding the dogs in Annex 2 of Federal Law No. 22 of 2016. Alongside the pit bull group, the Fila Brasileiro, the Dogo Argentino, any mastiff or hybrid, the Japanese Tosa and the Presa Canario, the list names the Rottweiler, the Doberman Pinscher and the Boxer. Those last three are ordinary family dogs in Canada, and they are the entries owners never expect. Possession without a licence is a separate offence, and breaching the dangerous dogs article carries at least six months of imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 to 500,000 dirhams. Import permit detail sits with the ministry and should be confirmed before booking.

What Actually Helps When Your Dog Is On a List

  • Settle the destination down to the city or province first. Germany, Spain, Australia and Canada all answer differently depending on the state, region or province.
  • Have the dog assessed on appearance rather than on paperwork. Ontario, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand and Spain all judge by eye.
  • Establish which of the three situations applies before assuming the worst. A muzzle and a licence is a different problem from a prohibition.
  • Read the crossbreed wording for that specific country. The same dog can clear Australia and be barred from Norway.
  • Where it is a genuine prohibition, treat it as final. No permit exists for the German import ban, the Irish exemption window is closed, and Ontario grandfathers nothing that arrives now.

We would rather say at the enquiry stage that a move cannot lawfully be made than book it and find out at a border. Tell us the breed and the town you are moving to, and we will tell you which of the three you are dealing with. Request a quote

Frequently asked questions

Can I move to Ontario with my Staffordshire bull terrier?

No. The Dog Owners’ Liability Act names the Staffordshire bull terrier in its definition of a pit bull and prohibits importing a pit bull into Ontario. The restricted category covers only dogs already owned in Ontario when the ban took effect or born there within the Act’s window, so a dog arriving now does not qualify.

Will a DNA result get my dog past a breed rule?

Usually not, because most of these laws are not asking about DNA. Ontario and the United Kingdom judge appearance, New Zealand asks whether the dog is wholly or predominantly of a listed type, and Spain can catch a dog on measurements alone. A DNA result can help a conversation but it is rarely the legal test.

Can I get a permit to bring a banned breed into Germany?

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

Are these rules different for cats?

Breed prohibitions are a dog matter. Cats meet a different restriction, usually on hybrid breeds with recent wild ancestry such as Savannah and Bengal cats, which some countries limit by generation rather than by breed.

What happens if a banned dog arrives anyway?

Seizure and kennelling 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 under the laws quoted here. That is the reason to settle breed eligibility before booking anything.

Sources

Checked 7 September 2026. Breed law changes without notice and several of these carry active amendments, so verify against the source before booking.

Last updated 8 September 2026