Over here you buy licenses at pet stores, groomers, animal control, or the SPCA. You just have to fill out a quick form and they give you a license. Then you have to go back the next year and get another. I don't license my dog though -- there are too many ways it can come back and get you in the end. When a little boy rode his bike into a group of playing dogs, Visa accidentally scratched him. We were fined $200 and given a dangerous dog when animal control looked up our license and found our information. Jynnelle (tikeyas_mom) was visited by animal control every week when they licensed their dogs --- for some reason animal control here doesn't like huskies and malamutes --- they would say that they had reports of their dogs running loose and killing cats. They finally ended up giving away one of their dogs because animal control was going to come and take it away. They stopped licensing their dogs, and animal control stopped coming. For me, having a Belgian, I worry about the same thing happening to me. When animal control came to my house about Visa scratching the boy, he made a huge deal about telling me how groenendaels are very dangerous dogs, how they are used for attacking, they are unpredictable, they are aggressive, etc. I will never license a dog again after that. Just some food for thought. All of my friends have had difficulties too, and none of them license their dogs either. Being in the pet/breeding business, our reputations are extremely valuable, and we can't risk animal control being on our back all the time.