Banned dog breeds in Belgium: the list is municipal, not national

Animal welfare in Belgium is a regional competence, devolved to Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels-Capital. There is no federal dangerous-breeds statute for those three to sit under.

And the obvious place to look does not contain one either. The Code wallon du Bien-être animal — Wallonia's consolidated animal welfare code, 31 pages — carries no breed names, no “dangerous dog” category, and no muzzle provision. Searching the official text for dangereux, race, muselière, pitbull, rottweiler and staffordshire returns nothing on any of them. Dogs appear in it for identification fees and a prohibition on using them as draught animals, and that is close to all.

Wallonia's official animal welfare portal has no dangerous-dogs section, and the Flemish animal welfare service does not publish a breed list on its own pages either.

This matters because a great many English-language pages present a “Belgium banned breeds list” as though it were national law. It is not, and acting on one is how people arrive with a dog that turns out to be restricted at their new address — or muzzle a dog that never needed it.

Source: Code wallon du Bien-être animal (official text, wallonie.be), read 2 October 2026

Belgian communes set dog rules through their Règlement général de Police — the general police regulation. That is where the breed lists live, and each commune writes its own.

Grâce-Hollogne, in the province of Liège, publishes a representative example. Its Chapter 13 defines chiens de catégorie 1 as dogs of, or crossed with at least one of, these breeds:

• American staffordshire terrier · English terrier (staffordshire bull terrier) · Pitbull terrier · Bull terrier
• Dogue argentin · Mastiff (any origin) · Dogue de Bordeaux · Mâtin brésilien
• Rottweiler · Tosa inu · Akita inu · Ridgeback rhodésien

Two features of that definition catch people out.

Crosses count. The rule applies to a dog “issu des races ou de croisements avec au moins une des races suivantes” — descended from, or crossed with at least one of, those breeds. A visible cross is inside the category.

And it is not only a breed list. The same chapter extends to any dog, whatever its breed or cross, whose owner “cannot reasonably be unaware of its potential dangerousness” given its type, morphology, psychology, history or incidents it has caused. A dog with a bite record is in scope regardless of what it is.

Source: Commune de Grâce-Hollogne — Chapitre 13, Règlement général de Police, read 2 October 2026

Where a commune applies this regime, the obligations are substantial. At Grâce-Hollogne a category 1 owner must:

• Declare the dog to the local police, presenting the dog's passport (under the royal decree of 7 June 2004 on the identification and registration of dogs), proof of civil liability insurance, and a certificate of attendance at a dog club.
• Muzzle the dog on public land and in private places open to the public — shops, car parks, restaurants, bars where dogs are admitted.
• Fence the garden to a standard matched to the dog's size and strength, reinforced at the base so it cannot escape.
• Allow police access to verify how the dog is kept.
• Carry the attestation issued by the Bourgmestre — nominative, individual, and produced on request to any police officer.

Two consequences are worth reading carefully before you move. After an accident or incident the authorisation can be withdrawn, and the owner must then give the dog up. And breeding category 1 dogs is prohibited outright under the same chapter.

Separately, any dog judged to present a real threat can be ordered for veterinary examination at the Bourgmestre's request.

One required document deserves singling out, because it is an insurance requirement and it is not the kind of insurance this site arranges.

The commune asks for la preuve d'une assurance couvrant sa responsabilité civile — proof of cover for your civil liability. That is third-party liability: it pays when your dog injures someone else or damages their property. In Belgium it is normally carried by a household policy, the assurance familiale, rather than bought separately.

A health insurance policy does not do that job, and ours does not. Health cover pays for your medical treatment. If your dog bites a neighbour, the claim is theirs against your liability cover, and no health policy is the instrument.

Where the two touch is narrower and worth knowing. If a dog — yours or anyone's — injures you, that is medical treatment, and Belgium's health system charges a foreign resident according to their affiliation status rather than waving them through. That is the exposure a health policy answers. The dog paperwork is a separate file with a separate product behind it.

Because the rule is municipal, the research is municipal. Four steps, in order:

1. Identify the commune, not just the city. Brussels alone is nineteen communes, and Antwerp, Liège and Charleroi all have their own. The rule follows the address.

2. Read that commune's Règlement général de Police. Communes publish it on their own site, usually under Ma commune or Vie pratique. Look for the chapter on animals. If there is no breed chapter, there is no breed restriction there.

3. Ask the commune directly if your dog is a cross. Crosses are in scope and visual identification is a judgement someone else makes. Getting that judgement in writing before you ship a dog is considerably cheaper than afterwards.

4. Arrange the liability cover early if a category applies — it is a document the declaration requires, not something to sort out later.

One more thing the regime assumes: your dog is already identified and registered. That is federal, under the royal decree of 7 June 2004, and the passport is the first document the commune asks to see.