Living with a dog in Luxembourg

This is a summary of the official rules. Your commune can add its own local rules, so check with it too.

The quick list

1. Microchip by 4 months old (your vet does it).
2. Rabies vaccination from 12 weeks, kept up to date.
3. Liability insurance for damage your dog may cause to others.
4. Register with your commune: within 4 months of birth for a puppy, or within one month if you move here from abroad or move to another commune.
5. Pay the dog tax to your commune every year.

Microchip and pet passport

A dog must be identified with an electronic chip at the latest 4 months after birth. An approved vet puts it in and records your dog in the national database. The vet then issues a European pet passport with the chip number and the rabies vaccinations.

If you move or change phone number, keep the chip details up to date so a found dog can be brought home.

Registering with your commune

Register your dog with the commune where you live:

• Puppies: within 4 months of birth.
• Moving to Luxembourg from abroad: within one month.
• Moving to another commune: within one month, with the receipt from your old commune.
• New owner: within one month.

You need a certificate from an approved vet (breed or type, sex, coat colour, chip number and a current rabies vaccination) and proof of liability insurance. The commune gives you a receipt. In Luxembourg City you register at the Bierger-Center.

Tell your commune if your dog is lost, dies or gets a new owner.

Some breeds are classed as “potentially dangerous” and have extra rules, including a course and a permit before you get the dog. See Guichet.lu for the details.

Dog tax

Every commune charges a yearly dog tax of at least €10; each commune sets its own amount. Guide and assistance dogs, and police, army, customs and rescue dogs, are exempt.

There’s no refund if the dog dies or runs away. If you move to another commune during the year and can show you’ve paid, the new commune charges you from 1 January of the next year.

Liability insurance

Insurance is mandatory. It must cover damage your dog causes to other people, with an insurer authorised in Luxembourg. You’ll need proof of it to register.

Vaccinations: what the law requires, and what vets advise

These are three different things:

• Required by law: rabies. Your vet vaccinates from 12 weeks of age, and the vaccination must be current when you register and while the dog lives here. Ask your vet when the next booster is due.
• Recommended by your vet: other vaccines and parasite treatments. They aren’t legal requirements; ask your vet which ones suit your dog’s age and lifestyle.
• Set by kennels and daycares: boarding kennels and dog daycares set their own vaccination rules, which are often stricter than the law. Check before you book.

Travel rules are separate again (see below).

On the lead, or not

The rule is not “on a lead everywhere”. By law, your dog must be on a lead:

• inside built-up areas;
• on public transport, in the shared parts of apartment buildings, in public car parks and at service stations;
• at public events;
• on sports grounds, cycle paths and fitness trails.

Everywhere else, your dog must be under your control, and back on the lead when needed.

Communes can change this locally. Inside built-up areas they can create “zones de liberté” where dogs may be off the lead (still under control). Outside built-up areas they can require a lead in busy places. In Luxembourg City, dogs can be off the lead only in zones de liberté that are signposted as such.

From mid-October, the hunting season is on, so keep your dog close in the woods.

Cleaning up

Pick up after your dog and put the bag in a bin. In Luxembourg City it’s a legal obligation, and there are free bag dispensers in 400 places. Other communes have their own rules.

Dog areas and off-lead areas

Three kinds of place are easy to mix up:

1. Enclosed off-lead area: fenced, and signposted or officially described as a place where dogs can run without a lead.
2. Dog area or “dog toilet”: a patch of grass set aside for dogs. Off the lead only if it’s signposted as a zone de liberté.
3. Ordinary park: the normal lead rules apply.

Some examples:

• Luxembourg City: the City has 18 dog areas, listed with an interactive map on its walking your dog page. The City doesn’t say on that page which ones are fenced or off-lead, so look for the signs.
• Hondswiss, Wasserbillig (Mertert): an enclosed area where dogs may be off the lead, about 100 m behind the town hall (1 Grand-Rue). Map and rules.
• Raemerich dog park, Esch-sur-Alzette: an enclosed area of 1,190 m² with play equipment, opened in October 2026. Esch Citylife.

All three are also on the Pets page.

Travelling with your dog

Within the EU, a dog (or cat or ferret) needs:

• a microchip;
• a valid rabies vaccination: given from 12 weeks of age, then a 21-day wait before crossing a border;
• an EU pet passport.

New EU rules apply from 22 April 2026. The LAK (vets’ association) says the requirements stay broadly the same.

Good to know:

• Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands don’t accept animals under 15 weeks, even in transit.
• Some countries require a tapeworm treatment 24 to 120 hours before entry.
• Some non-EU countries require a rabies antibody test, and non-EU trips need a health certificate validated by ALVA.
• For non-commercial travel, the limit is five pets per person.

Check the LAK travel page and the Agriculture portal before you book, and ask your vet. ALVA: +352 24 78 25 39, info@alva.etat.lu.

If your dog goes missing

• Tell your commune.
• Check the found animals on Déierenasyl, the Luxembourg animal shelter (6 boulevard de Kockelscheuer, Luxembourg; +352 48 13 13-1).
• Pet Alert Luxembourg is a private network for lost and found animals.

Found an animal? A vet or a shelter can read its chip. You can also report it to the police or a shelter.