Assistance dogs sit in a legally different category from an ordinary pet in Germany, and the right is specific and relatively recent. The Teilhabestärkungsgesetz (Participation Strengthening Act) amended the Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz (BGG, Germany's disability-equality law) to add §12e, which states that a person with a disability accompanied by their assistance dog may not be refused entry to facilities normally open to the public, simply because of the dog.

What makes this provision genuinely strong is who it binds: unlike most of the BGG, which applies mainly to public authorities, §12e explicitly covers private owners, possessors and operators of a facility too — a café, shop or hotel, not only a government building. A refusal can only stand if admitting the dog would amount to a 'disproportionate or unreasonable burden', a narrow exception, not a general opt-out.

The right carries real conditions on the dog's side: it must be visibly marked as an assistance dog, covered by liability insurance, and either certified as a handler-dog team under the law's own training standard or recognised through a statutory insurer, rehabilitation provider or equivalent body. An ordinary pet's access stays entirely at a venue's discretion under the Hausrecht covered elsewhere in this section; a genuinely certified assistance dog's access does not.