The featured image, taken in Germany’s only alpine national park, shows something which would be “impossible” in any Australian national park…well, illegal… and highly unlikely.
Four dog-owners – and three dogs – are clearly visible, descending from the summit of the Jenner, in Berchtesgaden National Park.
To German eyes, the dogs’ presence would be entirely unremarkable.
(to anybody’s eyes, the view from the Jenner’s summit is stupendous…as you will see in #14 of this series)
Our experience suggested that German citizens really love their dogs, and that they like to take them everywhere.
Climb aboard a Bavarian bus – or a packed little ferry on an exquisite alpine lake – and chances are excellent that your fellow passengers will include several dogs, some on human laps, others beneath the seats.
Happily, in Bavaria at least, (we were in Bavaria, only) you can reasonably expect that any dog – whether a pocket-sized “little woofykins” or an Inspector Rex lookalike – will have been well-trained.
Literally every dog we saw posed no major inconvenience to any nearby passenger or diner or hiker, and none of them bothered local wildlife.
Their “owners” always cleaned up, whenever necessary.
What a contrast to our experiences with dogs in Italy!
Bavaria’s pleasing absence of “canine noise pollution, disturbing cafe-goers’ peace” was also a striking contrast to contemporary Australian “cafe society”.
(photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken on 11 October 2023, from the cafe by the top station of the Jennerbahn – the chairlift. At 1800 metres ASL, we and our delicious local trout were 74 metres lower than the Jenner’s summit)