These are novelties included in the future Animal Welfare and Protection Law, according to EFE People who have a dog will have a margin of two years to complete the course The course “will facilitate responsible ownership” because many people “are not aware of the responsibility that It implies “A free and compulsory training course and civil liability insurance that covers the damage it may cause will be essential in all of Spain to have a dog once the future Animal Protection and Welfare Law has been approved, several experts have confirmed to EFE. regulation, still in parliamentary process, indicates that people who already have a dog at its entry into force will have a margin of two years to complete the course while those who want to have one must complete the training, with indefinite validity, before to adopt the animal. The obligatory nature of the course “will facilitate responsible ownership” because “many times people are not with aware of the responsibility that it implies”, has indicated the head of communication for Royal Canin, Carlota De Lucas. In any case, similar measures were already being applied in some centers, as certified by the director of the National Association for the Defense of the Animals (ANDA), Alberto Díez, because “when you go to a shelter to adopt an animal, they do a survey” to ensure that it is in good hands. In principle, the law specifies that the course will apply only to dogs, but Díez believes that “it should be mandatory for all pets”, without excluding any pet, from cats to turtles or canaries, among others. In reality, the course consists of “rethinking for half an hour of your life about the consequences of adoption” and to do it in a uniform way, something that until now was raised in the survey through questions about availability of time or economic resources to be able to care for an animal. For the coordinator of p Projects by Ecologistas en Acción, Theo Oberhuber, these courses do not offer great difficulties because they are rather “talks with the basic advice that must be taken into account.” One of the points to take into account, according to De Lucas, is to detect if the animal is overweight or obese, a problem that one out of every two pets in Spain suffers today and that “can be noticed if the animal stops following its routines or simply by stroking its back”. To prevent this problem it is necessary “work on body condition” through exercise, in addition to “respecting the daily ration” of food without exceeding it, especially when it comes to giving it a prize. Regarding insurance, Oberhuber recalled that “there are already in the market ” and “they will not be a reluctance for those who are thinking of adopting” since “we are talking about a small amount of money”. Díez added that in some regions such as Madrid this insurance “was already mandatory before” so in his case s It is a great novelty and is also focused on “animals considered potentially dangerous” as in the case of some specific breeds of dog.