How to get the 15-word sign Royal Mail urges dog owners to put up at home

Customers may see deliveries ‘suspended’ if they don’t take the right steps.

Royal Mail has urged dog owners to put up a sign warning posties about their pets. It comes after a rise in canine attacks on postal workers delivering the mail.

As well as keeping the posties safe, following this advice can help the customers themselves. This is because Royal Mail has warned that not following the right steps could see them “suspend deliveries to your address.”

Royal Mail’s latest figures were published on June 30, 2025, showing that attacks on postal workers by dogs had risen by two per cent in the previous year, making up a total of 2,197 incidents across the UK.

This works out at roughly 42 attacks each week, or seven per day across the Monday-Saturday service. There had been a reduction in the incidents that caused serious and significant injury, down from 82 to 74, but this is still “unacceptably high”, says the national postal service.

In a bid to tackle the worrying surge, Royal Mail has released advice on how dog owners can ensure posties can deliver mail to them safely and with minimal fuss. One of the easiest things customers can do is put up a sign on their door or windows.

Royal Mail themselves have produced an ideal warning poster that people can use. At 15 words, it is concise and to the point. It reads: “I have a dog. Please wait whilst I secure my dog before opening the door.”

The simple poster can be downloaded directly from the Royal Mail website. It is labelled Customer Postcard on their dog awareness section HERE.

Dog owners just need to download the PDF, print it off, and make it visible at the front of their house. That way any posties are aware of the canine in the property and can be alert to any possible dangers while also pausing to allow customers sufficient time to secure them in a separate room.

In correspondence sent to customers, Royal Mail acknowledged that while “receiving your letters and parcels” is important, its priority is “to get these items to you safely, and I’m hoping that you can help me with that.”

The letter highlighted a sobering statistic: “Around 2,000 posties like me are injured by dogs each year, both big and small. When this happens, we must inform the police and suspend deliveries to your address, as we can’t take the chance that the dog may attack again.”

The postal services top tips for keeping dogs and posties safe during deliveries include:

• Ensuring your dog is out of the way before the postman or postwoman arrives. Placing your pet in the back garden or a faraway room.
• Never opening the door when your dog is behind you.
• If you have a back garden, closing off the access, in case your dog could get around to the front when the postman or postwoman calls.
• Keeping your dog in another room before answering the door and making sure children don’t open the door, as dogs can push by them and attack.
• Giving your dog some food or a toy to occupy them while your mail is being delivered.
• Waiting 10 minutes after your mail has arrived to let your pet back into your hallway. Keep everything as calm and low-key as possible.
• Installing a wire letter receptacle if your dog likes to attack your mail. It will protect your post, and your postman’s or postwoman’s fingers.
• Fitting a secure mailbox on the edge of your property if it is not practical to keep your dog away from a postman or postwoman delivering your mail