UPDATED 7.07AM: A government crackdown will allow council officials to deal with Auckland's most dangerous dogs.

LISTEN ABOVE: Auckland SPCA boss Andrea Midgen talks to Rachel Smalley 

MORE: Caller Chris on vicious dogs -  "Golden Retrievers are the worst"

A new law will be introduced in February, requiring all dangerous and menacing dogs to be neutered to reduce their aggression.

Owners of high risk dogs must have warning signs on their properties, dogs will have to be kept in fenced areas, and wear collars identifying them as high risk.

Two classifications of dogs will be considered high-risk:

Dogs deemed dangerous after the owner has been convicted on an offence where the dog has rushed at a person or property causing injury or damage, or a council believes the dog is a threat to public safety.

Dogs deemed menacing, because a council believes the animal will pose a threat to public safety because of its actions or its breed. If a dog is a cross-breed but a council believes it should be defined as one of the dangerous breed types it will be able be deemed as menacing.

Geoff Keber, head of Auckland Council animal management, said the changes give council more power to deal with high risk dogs and their owners.

"We'll be able to go onto properties safely and identify dogs that are dangerous really rapidly, and we can respond to that."

Keber said the changes are about keeping our most vulnerable members of society safe.

"We've been advocating for more education of dog owners. We've also been advocating for increased powers for us to deal with the high-risk dogs and the high-risk dog owners and that's what these changes have signalled."

However Andrea Midgen, chief executive of the Auckland SPCA, said breed-specific legislation has failed overseas, and it will fail here.

She told Rachel Smalley this morning that given most dog bites happen in the home, more effort needs to go into "educating the owners of the dogs, the guardians of the dogs", about animal management, "and particularly around what dogs do - they bite."

"Doing more research about what causes dog bites helps as well."