Another law in Germany: It is against the law and a hefty fine to leave a dog in your yard, as having dogs outdoors for prolonged periods of time is "cruel". As a former farmkid, I gotta say WTF? to that. Our dogs LOVED being outdoors all the time, and would curl up and sleep during snowstorms, so the next morning, you had to dig them out of their snowdrift. You could always tell by the wisp of steam coming out of the drift which one they were under. (Norwegian Elkhounds). The Australian Shepherds we had would jump up into the haymow and sleep in the hay, on the other hand. And the country here is just teeming with people to catch you doing something wrong with your pets.
If that's a law, I am not aware of it and about half the population of Fladungen can be sued (we all have our dogs in the yard. Very often dogs are not allowed in the house).
Here is what the law says: „Wer ein Tier hält, betreut oder zu betreuen hat, muss das Tier seiner Art und seinen Bedürfnissen entsprechend angemessen ernähren, pflegen und verhaltensgerecht unterbringen". (basically saying: "Those who own or take care of an animal (not only dogs) are required to feed, foster and accomodate it appropriately to the species.") So obviously, you can't keep a dog in your yard if the yard is not dog-safe but otherwise it's okay. Interestingly, all dog websites (e.g. OpenDNS (Hunde = dogs)) suggest accomodating it in the yard and if you look on Amazon, there are even books on how to design the yard more dog-friendly. (search for "Der hundegerechte Garten"). Why would somebody write a book about something that's against the law or why would it get published?
