Berlin Is Creating a 'Driver's License for Dogs'

The title of Berlin’s new “driver’s license for dogs” admittedly sounds a bit misleading. The new permit, whose draft was approved Wednesday, doesn’t actually allow canines to get behind the wheel of a car, it’s a license without which dog owners will not be allowed to walk their pets leash-free. The crazy name aside (the German’s genuinely call it a Hundeführerschein or “dog’s driver’s license”), the plan sounds quite sensible. It is still controversial with the owners of the city’s 100,000-odd dogs, who over the coming decades will come to be regulated like never before.

To get the license, which will only be required for new dogs, owners will need to demonstrate that their pet has basic training and is essentially manageable. If the dog passes the test, which costs €100 ($112), it will be largely exempt from a list of new laws restricting canine behavior and access. The most important of these makes leashes compulsory for dogs taller than 30 centimeters. That’s roughly 12 inches, which means the average Corgi, Jack Russell or Miniature Schnauzer should still be all right un-tethered. Leash-free larger dogs will from now on be restricted to dog parks. Meanwhile, in a move that will no doubt prove popular with dog-less Berliners, owners that don’t take their dogs into Berlin’s streets armed with a poop bag risk a fine.