People who come across wandering dogs or witness dangerous canine behaviour in their neighbourhood are being urged to make the Council's Animal Control service their first port of call.

The Council provides a 24 hour, seven day a week Animal Control service to respond to complaints right around the district, and all residents need to do to access the service is call the Council on 03 307 7700.

Council Strategy & Compliance Group Manager, Jane Donaldson says there has been a trend of residents using social media community pages to make complaints, but these are not the right channels to appropriately address animal control matters.

"Our advice to residents is to report the incident directly to Council at your earliest opportunity so that officers can be deployed to attend.

"We have trained professionals who are equiped to respond appropriately and who have the means to investigate or track down the dog's owner.

"We strongly discourage members of the public trying to settle these matters themselves as they can be dangerous. The right thing to do when you come across a wandering dog or you see threatening behaviour, is to call Council straight away," she adds.