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Dog License Rules by Town in Greater Portland, Maine

Published August 13, 2026 · 11 min read

If you moved to Maine this summer with a dog, you cannot license it online right now. The state's own dog licensing page says so in one flat sentence: online dog licensing for 2026 is now closed, please visit your town office to license your dog. That sentence has been sitting there through the busiest moving months of the year, and it will stay there until October 15, when the portal opens for 2027 licenses. Every town clerk's office in Greater Portland is still open and still licensing dogs in person. Almost nobody tells you that, because almost every local page about dog licensing is written for renewal season in January.

Dog licensing in Maine is one of the few municipal chores where the money is set by the Legislature and nothing else is. The fee is identical in Portland and in Windham. What actually varies from town to town is the part that costs you time: whether the office is open on a Friday, whether you get a reminder in the mail, what the clerk will tell you if you show up in March with a dog you bought in February, and whether the town's own webpage is describing this year or a year that has already ended.

Here is what the statute says, and then what each of the twelve town pages in this region says, all read on August 13, 2026.

The part no town can change

Four numbers come straight from Title 7, chapter 721 of the Maine statutes, and no municipal office has any authority over them.

Six dollars for a spayed or neutered dog, eleven dollars for a dog that is not. That is 7 M.R.S. section 3923-A, subsections 1 and 2. Of your six dollars the clerk keeps one as a recording fee, two go into the town's own animal welfare account, and three go to the state. Of the eleven, the clerk keeps one and ten go to the state. To get the six dollar rate you have to hand over a vet's written certificate, or a previous license that already says the dog is altered.

Twenty five dollars if you license after January 31. Section 3923-A, subsection 4. Every town in this region prints this number correctly. The late fee is the one piece of dog license money that stays entirely in the town, deposited in the municipal animal welfare account, which is why the clerk cannot waive it and why Freeport's page says plainly that it is not authorized to.

Six months old, and ten days. Section 3922 requires a license for every dog aged six months or more, on or before January 1 each year. If a dog turns six months old, or you become its owner, between January 1 and October 15, you have ten days to license it.

A forfeiture of up to one hundred dollars. Section 3924 makes any violation of the chapter a civil violation. Westbrook is the only clerk's page in the region that mentions this out loud.

There are also fee waivers that are not discretionary. Section 3923-A, subsection 3 says the clerk shall issue a license without a fee for a service dog owned or kept by a person with a physical or mental disability, for a trained search and rescue dog, and for a state certified law enforcement dog. South Portland's page describes the service dog waiver as something that "may" happen. The statute uses shall.

What the twelve towns actually publish

Every town below charges the same 6 and 11 dollars and the same 25 dollar late fee, so the table is the part that is not the same. All twelve pages were read on August 13, 2026.

The online window is October 15 to January 31, everywhere. Portland, South Portland, Westbrook, Falmouth, Cumberland, Yarmouth, Freeport, Gorham, Windham, Brunswick and Scarborough all state it, and Cape Elizabeth says licenses are available in mid October. Online licensing is not automatic statewide, incidentally. Section 3923-G makes it an opt in program a municipality has to ask to join. All twelve of these towns are in it.

Nobody agrees on what online actually costs. The statute authorizes a one dollar service fee for internet licensing. The state also adds a shipping and handling charge of one dollar seventy five to mail you the metal tag, which brings the real online total to eight dollars seventy five for an altered dog and thirteen seventy five for an unaltered one. Westbrook publishes those two totals. South Portland names both fees separately. Gorham names the one seventy five. Portland, Windham and Cape Elizabeth all tell you online costs one dollar extra and stop there, which understates it by a dollar seventy five per dog. It is a small number and it is also the kind of thing that makes a page look maintained when it is not.

Two towns are describing a year that is over. Scarborough's dog page, read today, says all dog renewals must be completed by January 31, 2025. Gorham's carries a section headed "New for 2025" announcing that the state will be issuing tags for online registrations. Both towns are otherwise among the more careful pages here. Gorham in particular publishes the most complete fee table in the region, including two numbers nobody else lists: one dollar for a replacement license and one dollar for a transfer.

That transfer line is worth knowing about. Section 3923-B says that if the tag is lost, or if the owner has moved to a different municipality, the owner has to obtain a new license and a new tag, and the clerk issues them on presentation of the original license and payment of one dollar. Moving from Portland to Falmouth does not carry your dog's license with it. Gorham is the only town in this region that puts a price on the counter for it.

Cape Elizabeth moves the deadline. Its FAQ says the late fee is assessed after the last business day in January. The statute says after January 31. In most years those are the same day. In a year when January 31 lands on a weekend they are not, and the town's version is the earlier one. If you are cutting it that close, go in the week before.

Windham publishes the exception everyone else leaves out, and it is the most useful sentence on any of these pages. If you are licensing a dog for the first time and it is after February 1, Windham says there is no late fee, only the license fee. The statute supports this reading: the late fee in section 3923-A, subsection 4 attaches to owners required to license under section 3922, subsection 1, which is the annual January 1 duty, and under section 3923-B, subsection 1, the replacement tag duty. It does not name section 3922, subsection 2, which is the ten day rule for a dog you just acquired. No other clerk's page in the region says this. If you adopt a dog in March and a clerk reaches for the twenty five dollars, it is worth asking.

The practical differences

Fridays are the trap. Cape Elizabeth Town Hall is closed Fridays, and so is Windham's. Scarborough runs Monday through Thursday, 7am to 5pm. If your plan is to swing by the town office on a Friday afternoon before a weekend away, check first.

Reminders are being quietly withdrawn. Cumberland's page says the town is no longer mailing printed reminders and asks you to add an email address to your registration instead. Gorham runs an email reminder list you can join by calling the clerk. Brunswick still chases people, and got burned for it: a notice on its dog page from February 2026 apologizes for delinquent letters sent to owners who had in fact registered through the state portal, because the online system had created duplicate profiles and the town's 2025 expiration data still showed them as overdue. If you license online, it is worth keeping the confirmation.

A few one town facts that will not be true next door. South Portland's ordinance caps a household at three dogs. Cumberland has required an uploaded rabies certificate for online registration since 2024 and warns that the online system has been down intermittently. Brunswick wants the previous year's tag number entered as the license year, a dash, then the number, so 25-123456. Portland fines you two hundred fifty dollars for not picking up after your dog, under chapter 5 of the city code, and bans dogs entirely from play fields, school yards and playgrounds. Freeport points you to rabies clinics at Coastal Humane Society, Tractor Supply and Petco in Brunswick.

Cats do not need a license anywhere in Maine. They do need the rabies vaccine, which Scarborough's page is the only one here to mention.

What to actually do

If you have a dog and it is not licensed today, call your town clerk and go in person. You will pay six or eleven dollars, you will not pay a late fee for the 2026 year until February 2027, and you will not be able to do it online until October 15. Bring the rabies certificate, not the shot record, and bring the spay or neuter certificate the first time. Brunswick's page makes the certificate distinction explicitly and it is the one that trips people up.

If your dog is already licensed for 2026, put October 15 in your calendar rather than January. The online portal is open for three and a half months and closed for eight and a half, and February is the month people go looking for it, which is exactly the month it is gone and the late fee has already attached.

Once the license is sorted, the rules about where the dog can actually go are a separate and much more local question, and this region has strong opinions about it. We have mapped the off leash rules town by town and worked out which beaches allow dogs and when, because the seasonal restrictions are stricter than most new arrivals expect. If you are new here generally, the residency requirements page covers the rest of the paperwork that lands in your first year.

FAQ

How much is a dog license in Maine?

Six dollars a year for a spayed or neutered dog and eleven dollars for a dog capable of producing young, set by 7 M.R.S. section 3923-A and identical in every Maine municipality. Licensing online adds a one dollar service fee plus a one dollar seventy five shipping charge for the tag, so the real online totals are eight dollars seventy five and thirteen dollars seventy five.

When are Maine dog licenses due?

On or before January 1 each year, per 7 M.R.S. section 3922. Licenses expire December 31, and most town pages in Greater Portland state the deadline as December 31 rather than January 1. A twenty five dollar late fee per dog applies to anyone licensing after January 31.

Can I license my dog online in Maine right now?

No. As of August 13, 2026 the state's online dog licensing service is closed and its page instructs owners to visit their town office. The service runs from October 15 to January 31 each year, so the next window opens October 15, 2026 for 2027 licenses.

Do I owe a late fee if I just got a dog?

Windham's town clerk page says a first time license issued after February 1 carries no late fee, only the license fee. The statute's late fee provision names the annual January 1 duty and the replacement tag duty, and does not name the ten day rule for a newly acquired dog. No other clerk's page in Greater Portland states this, so ask before paying.

Does my dog's license transfer if I move to another town?

No. Under 7 M.R.S. section 3923-B, an owner who moves to a different municipality has to obtain a new license and a new tag from the new town, which the clerk issues on presentation of the original license and a one dollar recording fee. Gorham is the only town in this region that publishes that dollar as a line item.

Is a service dog license free in Maine?

Yes. Section 3923-A, subsection 3 says the clerk shall issue a license without a license fee for a service dog owned or kept by a person with a physical or mental disability, for a trained search and rescue dog, and for a state certified law enforcement dog. Falmouth asks that service, search and rescue and wolf hybrid licenses be handled by phone with the clerk's office rather than online.

What happens if I never license my dog?

Failure to license is a civil violation under 7 M.R.S. section 3924, carrying a forfeiture of up to one hundred dollars, and the twenty five dollar late fee still accrues on top of the license fee. Gorham's page notes that the animal control officer is notified of all unlicensed dogs.