How come it's so fucking hard to find an apartment that will allow a golden retriever

[Connonym]

70 pounds of golden loveliness in the usual mellow, friendly golden retriever way. Nobody wants a dog bigger than 30 lbs. Never mind the fact that I have 2 dogs and that doesn't fly with ANYONE. I've been doing serious apartment hunting and the only place that will take my golden is really skeevy and NOBODY will allow 2 dogs. I think I'm going to have to take my golden doodle to a rescue and it weighs heavily on my heart. When I got the dogs I never in a million years thought I would end up going through a foreclosure. I took the dogs for life and now I don't think I can live up to that, and seriously, I'm crying just thinking about it. Hell, I don't even know that anyone will rent to me at all with a foreclosure on my credit rating. I don't know what to do, living in my mom's house with both my daughters and I sharing a bedroom has become so stressful I can barely handle it. I feel so stuck.

[dembotoz]

1. don't give up hope.

just keep looking something will turn up.
You have a whole bunch going on right now.
It sucks.
But you are taking positive steps,
thats all you can do.
Keep trying to do the positive stuff.
Can life seem sucky
yes
Can life BE sucky
also yes.
But you are making progress.
just keep it going.

dembotoz

[LostinVA]

2. Is it possible to find a house to rent or talk to the landlords?

Around here, a two bedroom house is about the same as a two bedroom apartment, and more lenient on pets.

We also were able to work out a deal, where we could have cats. Originally, this was a "no-cat" house, although dogs were inexplicably allowed.

[zanne]

4. I once talked a landlord into letting my Newfoundland into an apartment.

I said "he's very small". (He was a puppy at the time).

[dropkickpa]

17. Cat's pee in weird places

I'm allergic to cats, and have turned down otherwise great apts because I could smell cat pee the minute I walked in the door, even when the previous tenents had been gone for months and the place scrubbed clean.

[LostinVA]

26. Most cats don't pee in weird places

All of mine just pee in litter boxes. Now, the dog, he would run around peeing on things, if men came in the house. And, shortly thereafter, he got his balls cut off.

[hedgehog]

31. The dog or the men?

[LostinVA]

33. hehehehehe -- the dog

The men were too hard to catch.

[Brewman_Jax]

3. You'll need a house

I have friends in your situation with dogs. Sorry that the options are so limited. :(

[Chan790]

5. Yes..

no pets is the landlord's tyranny of our time.

I remember when advertising as "no-pets" locally was a promise that you'd have an unrented space forever...even people without pets would use that as a D/q for renting because it was the mark of a "bad" landlord. Now...I can't find an apartment who will allow me a single 9 1/2 year old litter-trained cat.

[MrCoffee]

6. "the landlord's tyranny of our time"?

:rofl:

[Chan790]

11. Dude...I'm 3 cappuccino short of a good mood. j/k

What? I know it was hyperbole.

[Rhythm]

7. We have the same problem here...

This place is sort-of falling down around us (i'm just not able to do the kind of repairs this place needs, and hiring someone else is out of our always-tight budget), and so we have been looking into the assortment of apartment complexes that litter the landscape of this bluging college town.

Most have strict 'no pets' policies... the few that DO accept pets want them kept under 50lbs, and require an outrageous 'pet deposit', and/or 'pet rent' on top of their exorbitant rental rates.

As much as it breaks our hearts to do so, we hare beginning to look into rescue orgs here... no one we know can take him, and we'd rather suffer here for another year before giving him up to the overcrowded shelter.

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. If you were closer or could get him here, I would take him.

What kind of dog is he? We have a Sheltie that is a bit shy around other dogs/cats, but she's learning to get over it.

[Rhythm]

10. Toby's a 3 yr old AKC Goldie...

Great dog, and we hope we can find him someone who has a large yard to run in, because he is the master of the neverending game of fetch.

[jane_pippin]

9. That's a tough one. I'm sorry.

:hug:

[ThomCat]

12. Fewer and fewer landlords are allowing pets.

Supposedly because of the cost. Pets supposedly do damage. But I have not known that to be true, and besides, that is what security deposits are for.

I think landlords, like everyone else, are getting into the idea of arbitrary authority. They now want to dictate more and more of the lifestyle of the people who will live in there apartments and homes. x(

I really hope you find a place for all of you. :hug:

[datasuspect]

16. it isn't arbitrary

the landlord is the property owner. they have the right to say what is and what is not allowed on the property they own.

people are much worse than pets.

but at least people can make it to the toilet. sometimes dogs can't.

and no matter how vigilant a person is about walking their dog, pets still have accidents.

who wants to clean up a flat that smells like dog piss and shit and has stains?

it's easier to just not allow it in the first place.

cats, on the other hand, seem to be low impact.

[Madrone]

13. I agree that you shouldn't give up hope -

And you should definitely look for a house, if that's an option. The problem you face with an apartment is that if the landlord allows you to have your dogs he faces problems with all of the other tenants.

The house I'm living in now was advertised strictly as NO PETS. Well, I moved in with 3 ferrets, 3 sugar gliders, 3 cats, and a dog - got a bird a month later when my former neighbor died and I inherited it. I made sure the landlord knew if there were any problems or any damages I would take care of them without question. My dog is crate trained - that made him more comfortable too. He asked for an extremely reasonable non-refundable pet deposit that I had no issues with. What it boils down to is that I talked to him, explained my situation, made him understand I take the care of my pets seriously, I don't want to move again for a LONG time, and I have a stable job and keep the rent paid. He took a chance and let me move in - it's been 4 years now.

This house was the ONLY place I looked at when I started looking. I called on it even though it said NO PETS, figuring I was pricing the market at the very least. He immediately liked me and was trying to get me to sign a lease right then - but I mentioned the pets. He paused for a moment, then we discussed it. Since he already wanted to rent to me he was willing to entertain the thought and give me a chance.

[MicaelS]

14. Unfortunately this is because of a few bad owners

The kind with big dogs that lets the dog crap anywhere and doesn't pickup after them. Every place I've ever rented it's been the same thing. You go outside and see a big pile of dog crap every damn day, until either the tenant is fined, moves, is evicted or made to get rid of the dog.

[RetroLounge]

15. You can find some out here Tosa way

Lot of duplexes in the area. Everyone seems to have a dog.

:hi:

RL

[Redstone]

18. I feel your pain, although in the past tense. I remember when I was a renter, and

it was SO hard to find a house (I always rented houses rather than apartments, even when I was single) where the owners would let me have a dog.

And I remember when my older son was a baby, and we had a dog, and lost our lease, I ended up having to put a classified ad in the newspaper asking something like "Hey, we have a kid and a dog, but we're not going to wreck your house while we're renting it, is there anybody out there who understands that renters have families and pets?"

Good luck to you.

Redstone

[pitohui]

19. it's pretty much the way it is these days

i would never recommend anyone to get a large dog who rents, it's pretty standard now that you'll be denied a place

what's done is done, i don't know what to tell you if you can't continue with your mom, i'm not so optimistic that things will work out, from the landlord's point of view, why would she rent to someone with a big dog and take on that liability when she can rent to someone who doesn't own a pet?


i have a friend in a similar situation who was active in rescue, she has been homeless for two years plus now, basically moving from contact in animal rescue to another contact in animal rescue, she can afford to rent a place but no one will rent to her because of the size of her dogs

she's still looking but i worry that she'll be forever homeless until the dogs pass on

some of the other posts seem to suggest that you can just sweet talk the landlord, good luck on that, if we all had the sales/con artist personality then we wouldn't be posting about these problems on the internet, we'd already know how to hustle landlords and employers and all the rest...the people victimized by these policies are the very ones who are more animal oriented rather than mr personality and can't just talk our way out of the problem

[LeftyMom]

20. Would a big dog really be happy in an apartment?

When I managed an apartment building, we forever had people trying to sneak dogs in, and most of our units didn't even have patios. Rules aside, it didn't seem like a very good place for a dog to live.

[bicentennial_baby]

21. My thoughts exactly...

Even if I could have a dog here, I wouldn't. No place to run and play. Alas, not an issue anymore, now that Buddy has passed on. x(

[LeftyMom]

23. .

:hug:

I can have a dog here, and there's enough room in my townhouse, but we share a yard with quite a few other people, and it connects to two streets so a dog would still need to be leashed outside. It just doesn't seem like there'd be any place to cut loose and play, and that seems like a bad situation, both in terms of potential behavioral and health problems from being relatively sedentary, and just because I don't think it would be a happy situation for an active dog.

[pitohui]

24. the issue is the dog would be happier alive than dead

the reality is that a 3 yr old dog isn't going to get adopted, it's going to get gassed, just going by the odds of being rescued/adopted -- the animal rescue people themselves already have MULTIPLE animals and can't take on any more

(same with older cats)

i don't know what to tell this person, based on my friend's experience in the post above, i would urge the poster to try to see if there's some way to make it work better with her family so that they don't have to move

[LeftyMom]

25. I do rescue, and my bf does rescue, and my two best friends too. You don't need to tell me the odds

My point is that, unless the apartment is a very short term thing, she either needs to look for a more suitable space or another home. And goldens are pretty easy to adopt out, because they have a very good reputation as family dogs, so should it come to that she'd have much less trouble than most people would.

[Connonym]

28. I think they could be, very easily

The golden has arthritis from a fracture of her leg and she can't be very active. A walk around the block is about all she can do without limping. I had to stop taking her to the dog park because she would get so excited running around that she'd limp for a couple days. The doodle gets walks and goes to the dog park where she can run around leash free playing fetch and sniffing other dogs' butts. I wouldn't take them to a shelter, I'd find a rescue organization so I'm pretty sure that they won't be killed (I've looked into it and there are tons of golden rescues and a couple of poodle-mix rescues). Of course I want the dogs to be happy but I also want them to be with me. Losing them after everything else that's been lost would be really painful for my kids and I.

[PeaceNikki]

22. I know it's probably not an option for you...

But there are duplexes all over River West on the East side that would be big enough, within your budget, have a yard AND allow your dogs.

Just sayin'.

[flvegan]

27. Well

could the two dogs stay with your mom for the next year while you take an apartment, build up your credit and hopefully come across a house for rent that will allow the two dogs?

Yeah, that sucks, but at least you get to keep your dogs, and it'll be temporary.

Have you looked into renting a house instead of an apt?

[mnhtnbb]

29. I think you should contact some realtors. So many houses aren't selling

that you might be able to find a house where people have decided to rent the property rather than
trying to sell.

Just this week I saw a house on a nearby street lose it's for sale sign and a for rent sign went up.

There are a couple of realtors in our town who specialize in rentals.

We're living in a rental and when we took it we had one dog and two cats. The owners were so happy
to get the house rented they allowed the animals.

[mnhtnbb]

30. You also might try looking on Craig's list for your area.

[Lyric]

32. We are having exactly the same problem, and it's killing me.

I don't know what to do. I can't stand to lose my baby. God.
:cry:

[Connonym]

34. :'(

:hug:

[harmonicon]

35. shucks

I'm sorry that you're in such a bind. My girlfriend is looking for a new apartment now, and it's really hard to find a place that will let her have her one 50 pound dog. Do you have friends in the area that are also renters? You might have better luck if you actually knew the landlord, or have someone who can introduce you to a landlord who may be lenient about these things for someone they've met before.