Posted on 09/29/2006 7:10:16 AM PDT by libstripper
One sure sign that a downtown neighborhood is becoming a fashionable place to live—more than just a commercial district—is the number of dogs out and about on the sidewalks. Today, many apartment buildings and individual landlords are developing increasingly lenient pet policies to attract more dog owners to these newly gentrified urban areas.
There’s no question that city living offers many on-tap conveniences that make it an attractive alternative to a suburban lifestyle. But how dog friendly is downtown? There is much more to consider when it comes to your pal’s well-being than the landlord’s consent or the homeowner policy confirming that pets are welcome.
advertisementSeeking Out Pet Friendly Buildings Whether you are looking to rent or buy, the best way to find out if the neighborhood is dog friendly is to take your dog for a walk and stop to talk to anyone else out walking their dog.
Many realtors are now paying special attention to the pet-loving sector of the apartment housing market. So it’s a good idea to seek out someone who specializes in such properties. Veterinarian offices, groomers and pet stores are also a mine of information and many have notice boards with postings of suitable apartments in the area.
(Excerpt) Read more at dogcentral.msn.com ...
Some big and giant breeds are actually perfect for apartments - mastiffs, greyhounds, deerhounds, etc. These breeds aren't very active after the age of 2 or 3 or so.
Other dogs that would appear to be a better fit, like Shelties, are hopeless because of their activity level and barking.
"Now, if the norm was well-behaved animals, it would be a different story."
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It's nice to see someone "gets it".
If the pet owner can't commit to the time to care for and train their pet they shouldn't get one.
I would add, raise & train them PROPERLY. Not at PetSmart (PetStupid).
Oopps...I forgot some people in get upset when people are nice to animals. Must of stuck in your craw, huh?
"What are you doing this weekend, evicting a mother and her three children because their goldfish is too noisy?"
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You obviously don't read well. I think the reasoning is straight forward.
"Do you keep out children too? They can be noisy and pee on the floor too. Let's lump them in that category as well."
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Your dog is an animal. It is not a human being. It's really silly to compare the two.
I don't think it is silly at all. You obviously don't have pets.
My animals are more well behaved than most of the children I come across on a daily basis. It is the owners and parents that make the difference. You are blackballing all renters based on your bias of pet owners. That is so narrow minded.
My animals are more well behaved than most of the children I come across on a daily basis. It is the owners and parents that make the difference. You are blackballing all renters based on your bias of pet owners. That is so narrow minded.
Hey folks, I can see it both ways. It's a pain in some places to find pet-friendly housing, and it's frustrating to try to talk to someone who doesn't see your pet the way you do. My dog is extremely well-behaved: potty-trained like a champ, doesn't scratch doors or try to dig through carpet, doesn't eat vinyl flooring or chew on door jambs. But a pet can put A LOT of extra wear-and-tear on a house. I lived in my last rental for 4 years, and that carpet was OBLITERATED. The landlord was going to replace it before we moved in, but I told him to leave it (it looked halfway decent, but definitely old). Four years later, it looked like we had played polo on it.
True. I just spent most of this week at the local animal control shelter trying to get a sweet dog adopted. It is so sad to see how irresponsible some people are.
It still doesn't excuse you from eliminating responsible pet owners. It is so sad to live in a world that puts labels on undeserving people.
"W'all, a pig that good you don't eat all to oncet . . . "
"It still doesn't excuse you from eliminating responsible pet owners."
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Your thinking that you, and others like you, have a right to impose the consequences of your decisions on others is stunning. If you choose to own a pet that doesn't mean you have the right to impose the behavior of that pet on me or tenants who live in my buildings.
Are you a democrat? You think like one.
Unless they're young marrieds on the way up or retirees taking it easy, a lot of renters are pretty irresponsible. When we were first married we lived in a 2nd floor walkup that was a bit old and creaky, and I was shocked to see how most of our fellow tenants abused the property. The 2nd bedroom in our unit had a new wood floor and new floor joists, because the previous tenant had kept THREE German Shepherds in there and apparently never let them out . . .
Talk about shocked, though . . . when the landlord came to do the walkthrough when we moved out, and found that we had not only cleaned the oven, stovetop, and fridge, but had spackled and primed all the shelf and picture frame holes in the wall, I thought he was gonna stroke out on the spot!
What damage does the urine do if not cleaned up right away?
Get your vet to recommend an obedience trainer. Whatever you're going to do with your dog, a good foundation in obedience is an investment that pays big dividends.
It won't do a thing to the polyurethane, just sits there.
I've had both, had a waxed hardwood floor for 12 years and a poly for 10. Only problem with the poly is that it does scratch eventually, even the good stuff, and has to be sanded off and reapplied.
You sound like a control freak that can't even open their mind to the possiblity of responsible pet ownership. Why is that so hard for you?
Do you ban firearms too? That kind of thinking is a lot like the libs who want to ban ALL guns because they can't possibly consider the fact that there are responsible gun owners. You obviously don't understand the concept of personal responsilbility.
Thanks.
A friend of mine sent me a picture of this 16 year old dog that was on the animal control website. Someone dropped it off overnight in the cage....16 years old! (http://www.pbcgov.com/SNAP/sdog/A1269923.htm) Course some in here would just of shot it to death...save the gas. Not alot of heart out there....
("Fumed oak" is stained artifically. Oak seems to react unhappily with a lot of acids, and wax will protect against water but not acids. I'll never have a waxed wood floor again - too much trouble to maintain!)
I understand where he's coming from, I've never been a landlord, but I have seen some VERY irresponsible tenants. By and large, people don't appreciate what they don't own.
We did not have dogs when we lived in an apartment - we had cats. Now we own (in a non-restrictive covenant suburb!) and can jolly well do what we like with our own place.
But I think that a security deposit, to be employed towards repair/cleanup if the pets misbehave, is a reasonable compromise. Set the deposit high enough to pay for the cost of cleanup in most circumstances (I don't think six months rent covered the replacement of the wood floor and joists in the second BR in our old apartment, but that was an unusual situation.)
It just makes me mad that nobody considers the responsible ones. I still don't think it's right to eliminate them just because they label all pet owners as irresponsible. When housing gets tight or circumstances come about and people have no choice but to rent an apartment temporarily, then the animals are going to suffer from all of these control freaks because they will end up at the pound.
Atlanta has always had an apartment glut, especially if you don't insist on the high end properties like Post. Most individual landlords will negotiate with you, and the ordinary apartment manager will just ask for a pet deposit.
Even in the case of hotels and motels, there are some that will rent to people with pets (with a deposit) and some not. I go to the ones that let me bring my dog (I'm usually on my way to or from a dog trial when I'm in a hotel room) and I let the others know why they won't be getting my business . . . or the business of the other 100 or so folks who're coming to the dog trial!
"I see people living in downtown Atlanta loft apartments with huge dogs - mastiffs and Great Danes"
I've owned both mastiffs and great danes. They were completely inside dogs. Both make wonderful apartment dogs. They have the metabolism of a rock. A short walk once a day is all it takes to make them happy. A typical day is move from the couch to the love seat. Take a nap. Move from the love seat to the bed. Take a nap. Move from the bed to the couch. Take a nap. Repeat.
BTW, they make wonderful afternoon nap buddies. They are experts at afternoon naps.
I have a friend that has a great dane. Exactly like you described. Isn't it funny how people get hung up on the size of an animal?
Almost any lease gives you the right to do so. You can use repairs as an excuse if you need to.
Interesting point, though. We've been in our current house for 10 years, it's 25 years old. The polyurethane was sanded down and refinished around 1990. It has not separated or cracked at all, and the boards have separated in only one place -- at a threshold between two rooms.
Before that, we lived in our old house from 1981 to 1994, and I never had separation between any boards. Of course, that was a waxed floor, so I had to be careful and renew the wax frequently to prevent stains (and I wasn't always careful, esp. in the kitchen, it got away from me in a couple of places. Which is why I prefer the poly.)
Both houses were not spec houses but custom (we built the first one ourselves) with oversized joists and short spacing between the joists, which probably has something to do with it.
My Labs are field line (one on site, one coming Wednesday!) and they are most definitely NOT.
"Afternoon nap? What's that? Why are you lying there when there are squirrels to chase and doves to bark at? Here, let me help you off the sofa!" < tug, tug, tug, bark, bark, bark >
I took a course once on "tenant's rights" - short answer, they ain't got any, not in Georgia anyhow.
You send the guy in to change the light bulbs or the furnace filter, he smells urine or faeces, you issue a warning if you like . . . or just start the eviction process. Excess turnover is certainly an issue, but who says a pet deposit has to be $400? One month's rent? Judgment for the excess damages?
I'm not in the real property rental business (don't have the patience or the temper for it) but my husband used to assist at evictions in his younger and wilder days (he and another large young man would accompany the petite 98 pound landlord when she served the notices, just to head off any trouble) so I've had a ringside seat, so to speak.
Around here, the market tends to take care of this sort of problem. The people with problem dogs go live in a dump with the other problem tenants, responsible dog owners live in middle-of-the-road places (or rent a house with a fenced back yard - you can actually find one pretty cheap), and the high-end folks rent one of the really expensive chi-chi places where they don't allow dogs OR children.
I think the key to successful living with dogs in apts is to ensure that they get plenty of daily exercise. There are a few breeds such as Border Collies/Australian Shepards that I wouldn't dream of keeping in an apt though.
My dogs wish we still lived on 2.5 acres in rural TX. Unfortunately here in S. FL, even with a house, the size of the yard makes this about like apt. living. Sadly.
susie
This is almost like apt. living. Our backyard is like a postage stamp, so we have to take walks. There is a dog park, but I've been a little afraid to take the girls there. They would probably enjoy it.
susie
The dog has a back yard that's about 75 feet by 50 feet -- not much for an active retriever. She has a figure 8 path mapped out so she can run pretty fast, but she can't get up to top speed.
Fortunately, there's a huge polo field down by the river about 1 mile away from the house, since she's E-collar conditioned now I can just let her run. She can get some real speed on if I get my kids to slingshot a bumper at the other end of a 200 yard field!
The ones around here are outrageous - the gangstas bring their pit bulls and scare everybody to death, most dogs are untrained and just run wild. They're crowded, too small, and always dirty and torn up.
Most folks have a place they go, like our local polo field or a regular park. There's a park up the road where a lot of our friends go to train -- in the back of the park behind the maintenance buildings there's a big open field and a pond where nobody usually goes. The maintenance men don't mind if we train back there, so long as we pick up any dog deposits and take our dead ducks with us!
Yeah, in TX I could always find places to run the dogs, even when we lived in Midland in the city (well, ok, we thought of it as a city!). But here, there are not many places you can take your dog off leash. We do alot of walks, but I know they wuld like a good run (which I am too old and uncoordinated to do with them on leash! ;)
Our back yard is about the lenghth of the house (don't know that in yards, but the house is only 1800 sf) and maybe 12 ft. deep. Not alot of space. The little one loves to run jets around the yard, she's pretty amazing. I should have her in agility.
susie
If you get her into agility, the club should have a big, open training field! Our club has a huge fenced yard, big enough for a standard agility ring (110 x 85), plus an indoor training area for when it rains - not quite as big, but it's in a warehouse, probably about 85 x 50.
My apartment is not living with my dog.
Well, she's not quite 6 months old yet, so not quite old enough to do agility. Darn... ;)
susie
No jumping, but lots of clicker training, obedience, and obstacle familiarization with the jumps set on the bottom rung (4 inches isn't going to hurt a puppy!)
As soon as The Puppy to Be Named Later arrives (this Wednesday! Rah! Rah!) she's going to be in the puppy class, which just started a couple of weeks ago. I'll run her at 7, then run the Shelley Dog at 8.
The name of choice at the moment is Candlewood Rock 'n' Roll Ruby, with Candlewood Give My Love to Rose and Candlewood Black Cadillac as runners-up.
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