Unnecessary Tense Shift
Read this page for some examples of making sure your writing stays in the appropriate tense.
What is a tense shift?
"Tense" refers to the time when an action takes place: past, present, or future. Necessary tense shifts simply make it clear to your reader when actions have taken, are taking, or will take place. When you "shift tense unnecessarily", however, it means you change the times when actions are taking place within a chunk of text in a way that doesn't seem to make sense. Notice how the tense changes cause confusion in these examples.
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The best way to find unnecessary tense shifts is to read a piece of writing through one time just looking for tense and asking yourself whether each verb tense accurately reflects the time period it took place, takes place, or will take place in. Start by using a highlighter to mark each verb, and then ask yourself if the "time" is correct for each one.
The correction:
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(No reason exists to believe that those who then thought that three or more dogs in a household created a dangerous situation have changed their minds or that dogs' behavior in a group of three or more has changed. The composition of the council had changed, and the composition of the city council having changed, the city council voted differently).
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if referring to a situation in the past – or –
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if referring to a current situation.
Source: Wikibooks, https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Rhetoric_and_Composition/Unnecessary_tense_shift This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.