› Forums › Pets: Furry friends … or fiends? › How to get permission for a dog › Current Page
Wow, that has started some debate. Sloan – I agree that many people do not know how to train or look after a dog.
However, we are not most people – my partner and I are both experienced with miniature schnauzers, both our families own them. Both family dogs are very well behaved subordinate pack members. My mum's dog actually lives in an apartment now (they downsized from a 4 bed family home with big yard to a 3 bed apartment with big balcony) – she is extremely well behaved, won't walk through a door until after you, and only once you give her the nod that it's ok – never howls, gives little warning growls when new people come into the apartment but stops as soon as you let her know they are ok, etc. We actually looked after her for a month in our old 2 bedroom, 3rd floor apartment while they were away, and she was extremely well behaved with an hour long walk in the morning, 15 minutes round the block for poops at night, she pretty much just played with her toys on the loungeroom floor and snoozed all day as far as we could tell. We asked the neighbours – no noise problems, and she seemed perfectly happy to us (I know this dog and her moods well!).
So. I get your points about responsible dog ownership and I absolutely agree that many people do not understand how to look after/train/interact with their dogs.
However, I think these problems are to do with particular owner/dog combinations, NOT all dogs, all owners or all apartments being unsuitable for dogs.
Barking dogs annoy neighbours in streets with houses and large yards just as much – my parents in their previous big house & yard had a neighbour with a malamute over one fence that just paced its large yard all day, and a neighbour over the other fence with a small yappy dog in a big yard that just barked all night because they wouldn't let it in the house (drove them crazy trying to sleep!) – this is definitely not a problem explained by the type of dwelling but by the type of owner.
So it really doesn't make sense to say that all apartment dwellers shouldn't be denied the right to have a pet just because some owners are irresponsible or don't understand what dog care entails!
And finally, of course it matters what kind of dog you get – of course you wouldn't keep a dog that needs a lot of exercise (doberman, kelpie, boxer) in an apartment! But no matter what you say, some smaller breeds (some! not all!) are quite happy with a walk in the morning and at night (your statement that all dogs need 3 walks a day is clearly ludicrous if you think of say, a daschund or an english bulldog that can barely make it around the block once because of their tiny legs or high likelihood of overheating).
Therefore obviously strata ECs need some common sense when it comes to approving certain types of dog, but blanket statements that any dog will be unhappy in an apartment regardless of type and regardless of owner is just untrue.
Cheers