Is there a law on the number of dogs that you are allowed to have in a residential area, non breeding dogs.?

no- not unless you live in council/rented accomodation where there may be different rules for tenants

there is a law on standard of care so as long as there arent too many to affect the animals well being you should be ok. and of course its a matter of being sensible.
http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RSPCA/RSPCARedirect&pg=animalwelfareactadvice

Private residential, that's good then, I'm shortly taking on a rescue dog which will mean I have 6 dogs but I also have a curtain twitcher of a neighbour.

Private residential doesn't necessarily cover you. Even private houses can have covenants attached and can include pets. I found this out last year when there was a complaint from a neighbour about our dogs, I discovered we were only allowed one dog (I have five). We had to contact the local council dog warden who visited us and we now have written permission to own five dogs on our property ;)

Oh poo how do you find out if there is a covenant, does the age of the property have anything to do with it? Our is a row of 6 tide cottages circa 1890 in a semi rural local with no other neighbours. My curtain twitching neighbour used to have a pig, goat ducks and chickens (plenty of sniff if the wind was in the wrong direction) plus her two dogs

In that case your Solicitor has some questions to answer if they didn't inform you of any convenants on your property!!

It'll be on the deeds I suppose :-) I would think it's more likely if the houses have ever been "tied" to an employer or a council/charity/housing association.

There are houses around us with more than one dog... 6 Chis in one house, 5 Dachshunds in another and 2 Great Danes and a Lab opposite and I doubt if any of them are aware of this rule.

I can't remember what I was told nearly 20 years ago :-) Fairly sure this wasn't passed on but how do you prove it?

Come to think of it yes the Solicitor would have mentioned if there had been any, they were able to tell us of all of the odd rights of way through our gardens etc. For example we can walk through to the garden 2 doors down to fetch water from the well and we have to pay a penny to the home owner for using the well and we can walk our horse and cart up the track at the side of our property.

I notice I got my tide wrong, the cottages used to be tied to the farm on whose land they sit, only the farm went years ago and part of the land is now a hospital. Thinking about it I'm pretty confident that there are no covenants.

Check the deeds, it'll say on there. :-)

My OH's parent's house is limited to 2 dogs only, as the deeds dictate - but conversely, I have no limit on dogs, cats or other domestic pets but I am not allowed livestock (mainly poultry).

Sounds as though it may be an idea to have a shufty at the deeds, thanks :)

> I have no limit on dogs, cats or other domestic pets but I am not allowed livestock (mainly poultry).

Sounds similar to ours, no limit on domestic pets but no livestock. Not allowed kennels either, but the dogs live in a large heated 4 bed detached kennel and let us share with them :-D

> Not allowed kennels either, but the dogs live in a large heated 4 bed detached kennel and let us share with them :-D

Nice one :)