Good Habits to Establish If You Live in an Apartment with Your Dog

Good Habits to Establish

If You Live in an Apartment with Your Dog

Living in an apartment can be an enjoyable experience for both you and your dog. The following is a suggested list of good habits in order to keep an apartment experience fun. 

1. Teach your dog a specific word for bathroom breaks so when it is pouring rain or you are traveling, you will need them to go quickly or in an unfamiliar location.

2. Keep your dog on a consistent and regular food because if your dog suddenly has a bout of diarrhea due to a sudden change in food they will not have much control to wait until you can take them out.

3. Provide daily physical and mental exercise for your dog. 

For more information about the benefits of exercising your dog:

See Chapter Nine “Acclimating Your Dog to Living in an Apartment” sections “Socializing Your Dog with People, Other Animals and Noises”,  “Exercise is Important for Your Dog’s Health” and “Mind Stimulating Exercises are Good for Your Dog”

4. Designate a space in the apartment that each animal can call its own that others do not share. 

For more information on creating a unique space for your dog:

See Chapter Nine “Acclimating Your Dog to Living in an Apartment” section “Dogs Need to Have Their Own Space” 

5. You can also designate your own space in the apartment that the animals are not allowed into such as the bathroom or kitchen for safety reasons or certain pieces of furniture. Baby gates are very helpful to block access to certain locations. 

6. Since an apartment is small and limited on space and storage compared to a house, you will end of sharing a lot of space with your pet simply due to the fact that there is very little space to begin with. For example, it will be difficult to prevent your dog from being on certain pieces of furniture, especially if you don’t have a crate for your dog. 

Author’s note: My dog, Scout, does not have her own crate and hasn’t since she was a puppy, but she has designated her favorite spot and sleeps in it religiously. It is a 1930’s oversized and overstuffed arm chair that belonged to my grandmother. I had it reupholstered several years ago when my mom decided she no longer wanted it. At first I was very stern about her not sleeping on it since I had just spent $700 to have it reupholstered. I did think ahead and had the material scotch guarded. Eventually she did end up sleeping in it, but I made the rule that she could only sleep on it with a blanket to give the chair some protection. That did work, and we made the compromise. Now, if I had been living in a large house, I could have easily been able to put the chair in a more secluded and protected spot and given Scout another place to sleep. However, that chair is the only place to sit in the living room since I don’t own a couch or love seat, and it quickly became a prized spot. Besides, my grandmother would be extremely happy to know that she made a dog happy with that chair since she was a big dog lover herself.

7. I have been able to apply the same rule to other locations that a blanket must be in a certain spot for the dog to lay on it, or they are not allowed. When the blankets get washed, then these locations are off limits. I will enforce this. I figure my dogs can wait a couple of hours until the blankets are cleaned and they do. The use of the blankets does seem to give the dog a clear understanding of when they can be on a piece of furniture and when they cannot.