Lorenzo Shoemark knew he was about to be attacked by his best friend's dog, so the 10-year-old did what his mum had always taught him -- he stood his ground.

Dog attacks make up nearly three-quarters of the total convictions for dog-control related offences in New Zealand courts since 2010.

Mail staff have been attacked 1150 times in three years - by all manner of creatures.

A man employed to test a HNZ property for meth ended up in hospital with severe wounds after being shut in the house's kitchen with two vicious dogs.

An elderly couple have been attacked - and their pet Bichon dog killed - by a loose pit bull in Mt Maunganui this morning.

Two dogs have been put down after they seriously injured a man just days after a Bay of Plenty boy was critically injured in a dog attack.

People need to be left in no doubt about their responsibility to properly train and socialise their dogs.

Unleashed dogs are roaming popular Auckland beach and owners are to blame, say residents after reports of savage attack on ex-Shortland Street star Kirstie O'Sullivan.

Kirstie O'Sullivan, best known as villainous nurse Robyn Stokes on the soap opera, fears for children on Auckland beach after an unleashed dog savaged her leg and bottom.

The owner of the dogs that mauled a Japanese girl in Murupara was not home during the attack and there was "nothing he could have done" to prevent it, a court has heard.

A fledgling Kaka was mauled to death by a dog in the Wellington region resulting in a plea from park staff to the public to keep their dogs on a leash.

A man whose dog attacked and killed a protected New Zealand fur seal pup on a West Auckland beach has been fined $1000 and will have his dog put down.

The executive director of SPCA Auckland has stood by his comments that ethnicity plays a part in the high number of dog attack convictions in South Auckland.

"I just wanted to help those innocent ladies," says a 76-year-old man who used a pick axe handle to drive off two large dogs attacking two women.

A heroic neighbour fought off a pair of bull mastiff-cross dogs mauling two women out for a walk in South Invercargill this afternoon.

The owners of two dogs that mauled a 3-year-old boy in Queenstown this week are ''distraught'', his mother says.

The Department of Conservation says it is still searching for the owner of a dog that killed a baby fur seal on an Auckland Beach last week.

Members of the public have helped to locate the owner of two dogs which fatally attacked a seal in Tairua on the Coromandel Peninsula on Monday.

A dog that attacked and dragged a 4-year-old boy around the backyard of his Auckland home will be put down.

The owners of four dogs which attacked a 7-year-old Japanese girl in Murupara are seeking diversion.

The alleged owners of four dogs that savaged a 7-year-old girl in Murupara have reappeared in court.

A Whitianga woman is considering taking the fight for her beloved dog to the High Court after it was sentenced to death.

The owners of four dogs that attacked a 7-year-old girl in Murupara can finally be named.

Emotions are running high in Kumara on the West Coast after at least 21 chickens were killed by a marauding dog.

A teenager savaged by a dog 11 years ago has spoken out about the frightening attack in Murupara, telling the 7-year-old Japanese victim to "just hold on".

The four bull terrier crosses which attacked a 7-year-old girl in Murupara yesterday, leaving her in a critical condition, had no history of aggression.

The Japanese girl attacked by four dogs at a Murupara home was due to fly home with her family to Japan tomorrow.