Questions to Ask Yourself When Looking For a Place to Rent with Your Dog

Questions to Ask Yourself 
When Looking  For a Place to Rent with Your Dog

Are you a prospective tenant with a pet looking for an apartment?

In this section there are many subjects to be aware of if you are a prospective tenant with a dog looking for an apartment. Maybe you are moving from a home with a yard, whether you rented or owned the home, into an apartment and you need to know how to acclimate your dog to the new lifestyle. This new lifestyle will include a routine of walking, feeding, exercising, grooming and attention in order to prevent potential behavioral problems. Even though additional time will be needed to care for a dog living in an apartment, the benefits of living with a dog in an apartment will outweigh the additional time required for its care.

For more information on living with a dog in an apartment:

Chapter 12 “Renting an Apartment as a Pet Owner” section “Some Benefits of living in an Apartment with a Dog.” 

Moving from a home with a yard into an apartment

You might have had a yard at your previous home, where your dog could exercise or eliminate when the need arose. Now, as a renter, you need to be ready to take the dog out several times a day in all kinds of weather both to exercise it and to allow it to relieve itself so that it can urinate and defecate some place other than your floor. As a courtesy to the other tenants, always carry plastic bags with you when you take you dog outside, to clean up any feces. Be a model dog owner so your neighbors can see what a responsible pet owner looks like.

Moving from a home you owned

In my experience, many people take better care of their environment when they own it. Sometimes when people rent a dwelling, they have less connection to it and thus tend to treat it poorly. If you are moving from a home you owned to a rental, be responsible and take care of the property even though it is not yours. It does belong to somebody. 

Stick to a strict schedule of food, water, and walking.

When a dog lives in the confines of an apartment, you become the center of their lives and their wellbeing. They obtain all sources of food, fun, and relief from you. They no longer have free access to the outside and a yard if they did before. A dog can hold its bladder successfully for up to several hours at a time, but this is something they need to learn; it is not automatic. To teach the dog to hold its bladder you must stick to a strict schedule of food, water, and walks.

For more information on housetraining techniques:

Chapter Eight “Tools to Help You Train Your Dog” section “Housetrain Your Dog in One Month”

There are several people at home to care for the dog.

If you are a single-person dog owner, be sure to maintain a daily schedule of feeding and walking. Dogs are routine-oriented creatures, so meals and walks at consistent times are very important.  

In a home where there are multiple people handling the dog, it is best to leave the primary responsibilities to one or two people at the most. Doing so keeps the dog’s routine as consistent as possible, which is very important in an apartment. A consistent routine of walking and feeding and exercise will help in housetraining issues and giving the dog a sense of comfort to know when he or she will be walked. A good way to keep track of your dog’s routine in a multi-person household is to keep a printed list of routine tasks, posted in a central area where everybody can see it, such as the kitchen.  When a family member has completed a task, such as feeding or walking, then he or she can record what time something was done and initial the sheet.

Budget for the extra time.

If you are used to living in a house with a yard for your dog, you will find an increased amount of time is needed for caring for the dog when living in an apartment. As mentioned, the dog needs to be walked several times a day, not only to let the animal go potty, but to also let it get exercise. A tired dog is a happy dog. A happy dog is less likely to chew the furniture, dig at the landlord’s floors and carpeting, and bark or possibly injure itself.

Additional time for grooming and bathing will also be necessary. It might seem that grooming will require less time because the dog is not ouside in a yard getting dirty. However, the dog will still be going outside for walks and exercise and the potential for getting dirty still exists. More grooming time may also be needed because your dog now lives inside where he or she will come in contact with more people, as well as your furniture, your clothes, your bedding, and so on. In addition, rather than the dog’s hair being shed outside, his or her hair will now fall off inside the house. For this reason, more brushing and vacuuming will be needed to keep it from accumulating on your clothes and surfaces. 

For more information on grooming your dog:

Chapter Five “Keeping Your Dog Healthy” section “Grooming and Your Pet’s Health”

Finally, you will need to devote more time for your dog’s exercise. He or she will not be exercising in a yard, so an adequate amount of exercise is required to prevent behavioral problems due to frustration and boredom. These problems can be exhibited as chewing on objects, digging at the floor and barking at noises. Your dog may also chew on him or herself or pull out its own fur. This habit is called “self-mutilation.” 

For more information on self-mutilation:

Chapter Six “Preventing Undesirable Behaviors” in section “Self Mutilation”

For more information on fun activities for your dog:

Chapter Seven “Fun Activities You Can Do With Your Dog ”

Your dog depends on you for everything

Living without a yard means that almost all of your dog’s time will be spent inside. You will become your dog’s sole outlet for entertainment, exercise and attention. Your dog will be looking to you when he or she becomes bored because they don’t have out-of-doors entertainment like barking at the next door neighbor, digging up your flower bed, chewing on the fence or even jumping the fence and roaming the neighborhood. Of course, these are negative forms of entertainment. More positive forms of entertainment done in a yard would be sleeping in the shade on a hot day or rolling on your freshly cut green grass.

We live in a media saturated world. We get all types of information from radio, TV, newspapers, the Internet and each other; we can hear about everything happening everywhere, if we choose to do so. Dogs don’t have that access to such information. They don’t read newspapers or have the Internet. I have heard of dogs watching TV, but I believe they are only seeing the forms moving. Dogs do read information from the smells outside their environment that are important to them. Their “calling cards,” for example, leave messages about who has been in a particular spot and when. This information-gathering process is one of my top reasons why dogs need to be walked more. My point is that our animals rely solely on us for their entertainment, food, information, training and total well-being. 

Pet ownership is not a job to be taken lightly; it requires a lot of responsibility. If you fail to fulfill any of these areas, then your dog will begin to have behavioral problems such barking, digging (boredom and frustration), biting and fighting (lack of proper socialization and confidence building) and more.

For more information on living in an apartment with a dog:

Chapter Twelve “Renting an Apartment as a Pet Owner” section “Some Benefits of Living in an Apartment with Your Dog”

Potential Problems that May Occur when Switching to Living in an Apartment

Consider the extent of your experience as a dog owner. Your perspective on renting will be different if you’ve been a long-time dog owner, or if this is your first dog. Your perspective will also be different if this is a new pet, or an old friend. To have a happy and healthy outcome for everyone involved, living in an apartment setting with a dog requires a basic understanding of dog behavior as well as how to solve problems when they arise. 

For more in-depth information on potential behavioral problems that may arise and how to solve them:

Chapter Six “Preventing Undesirable Behaviors”