We receive several calls a week from members of the public who are concerned that a dog in their neighbourhood isn’t being taken out for walks, and is either left at home alone all day or left to wander up and down a back garden.

Sometimes a neighbour’s perceptions of how frequently a dog is exercised are inaccurate - the owner may take their dog out at dawn or in the dark if they work night shifts, for example.

But there’s no doubt that a significant number of the island’s dogs are not exercised sufficiently, or being given the opportunity to go on ’smell walks’ - for some dogs sniffing every lamppost and bush they go past (not to mention leaving their own ’pee mail’ in return) is more enjoyable than chasing up and down after a ball.

Different dogs require different levels of exercise and environmental stimulation which is, perhaps, why Germany’s plans to introduce a new law about dog walking are being greeted with a great deal of lively debate, scepticism and even ridicule.

The law called the ’Hundeverordnung’, or Dogs Act, will come into effect next year, and it will order owners to walk their dogs twice a day, for at least an hour on each occasion.

The new rules will also mean that dogs can’t be left alone at home all day, and keeping dogs on a lead or chain for long periods will also be prohibited.

Nineteen per cent of German households have one or more dogs, and so monitoring and enforcing the new law will be problematic.

And there will be a sizeable number of dogs that simply wouldn’t cope with two hours of walking every day - old dogs, for example, or those with health conditions.

Whilst the practical aspects of the planned legislation are being hotly debated, other aspects of the new law are less controversial.

These include restricting dog breeders to looking after a maximum of three litters and requiring them to demonstrate that their puppies are in the company of a human being for at least four hours a day.

Enforcement is still going to be problematic, with unscrupulous breeders operating below the radar, but the law is a step in the right direction.

On the Isle of Man we are still waiting for the proposed Animal Welfare Act to come into effect - legislation which will require the keepers of animals to maintain higher levels of husbandry than is the case under current laws.

Just as in Germany, enforcement of the legislation will present its challenges, but it will help the ManxSPCA to prevent cruelty from happening rather than having to demonstrate that cruelty has already taken place, as it has to do at the moment.

The Animal Welfare Act will, we hope, open the door for more specific ’orders’ that will help to ensure the wellbeing of the island’s pets.

The ManxSPCA would, for example, like cats as well as dogs to be compulsorily microchipped so that ownership can be more easily ascertained. Cats are notorious for wandering and our cattery team spend a great deal of time trying to find the owners of unchipped cats who are brought in as strays.

Gorgeous Spider is a perfect illustration of a cat who has clearly been a family pet - he adores people and is super affectionate, if a little shy at first - but we haven’t been able to trace his owners.

If you have a cat and you haven’t had them microchipped, then why not give the ManxSPCA cattery team a call (851672, option 2) and make an appointment for them to undertake this quick and painless procedure?

The charge is just £15 per cat, and the reward is the certainty that should your cat wander off, we’ll be able to contact you straight away.