Walking Frannie - Doggie Relations

Frannie is not the only dog in Wallersheim. That is not too surprising, Germans do love their dogs. It is also not too surprising that Frannie is one of the larger dogs in the neighborhood. The realities of living in 1000 to 1200 square foot apartments lead to a preference for smaller breeds. What has been surprising is the aggressive reactions of other dogs to Frannie. Or the number of times on a walk that you see someone with their dog change direction to avoid their dog reacting to Frannie.

Magda actually was not at all surprised when I mentioned this. It turns out that it is highly unlikely that these dogs have been neutered. The general feeling in the culture is that neutering changes the dogs personality and that would not be right. Of course, Germans do not appear to deal with puppy mills or wide spread problems of dogs in the street. In point of fact, I'm told that animal shelters actually have to import dogs from areas that do have such problems for placement in German homes.