Is three a crowd?
August 29, 2010 7:52 PM   Subscribe

Asking for a friend....NYCDogFilter: Can two early 20s newlyweds (students and/or with jobs) with their first tiny 1bdrm apartment deal with having a dog? Logistics issues? Potential for difficulties? Anecdotal evidence?
posted by weaponsgradecarp to Pets & Animals (14 answers total)
 
What type of dog? Wht are their schedules like? Will either of them be traveling frequently/ever? You basically need to give us a lot more details so we can better understand the situation at hand.
posted by cmgonzalez at 8:27 PM on August 29, 2010


Response by poster: Queried the couple, and here we go:

Her responses (his responses)

> Small dog (big dog)
> 9-5 (6a to as late as 11p some nights, but usually around 6p)
> no (no)
posted by weaponsgradecarp at 9:19 PM on August 29, 2010


Have they lived together before? If not, they should probably take a few months to get to know each other in a small space before adding a family member.
posted by freshwater at 9:40 PM on August 29, 2010


Do either have experience with keeping a dog? If not, then getting a dog sounds a bad idea to me. No dog is happy to be alone 9-5, and I think a dog left alone by people with no dog experience is a recipe for misery all concerned.
posted by anadem at 10:42 PM on August 29, 2010


A dog in tiny 1 bedroom apt? No! What are they thinking????
posted by Joe Chip at 3:50 AM on August 30, 2010


Of course you can. There are tons of people all over the city with dogs. We are an early 30's/late 20's married couple with a 25lb terrier. It does however require a pretty big life change so you'd better really want a dog and be willing to give things up. Staying out til 11 w/o coming home first? Gone. Sleeping past 7? Gone. Every morning and every night - sometimes twice a night you'll be walking the pup. January 6:30 AM, Dark, 20 degrees out? Pull a Parka on - time to pee and poop. Plus it can't just be a quick walk - they'll need exercise. We combined spend 90 minutes or so a day walking him + we have a dog walker who comes in the middle of the day. On weekends he usually gets at least one multi-hour walk, usually two. Its not like the burbs where they can just run around in the yard. Now granted we chose a high energy breed, if you choose something a little more low key you can probably pare this down a bit- but still recognize it is a life change. If you think this is still worth it, then do it. But you can't give back a dog. Make sure you know.

Small Dog/Big Dog thing is a false choice. A Great Dane is a tremendous apartment dog, a Jack Russell can be a tough apartment dog.

A dog in tiny 1 bedroom apt? No! What are they thinking????
I will guarantee you there aren't many happier dogs then our little pup. They don't actually need a big home, just lots of exercise. Frankly you don't know WTF you are talking about.
posted by JPD at 4:45 AM on August 30, 2010 [4 favorites]


My partner and I have a dog in NYC, we even got him as a puppy. That said we could only do it because one of use can take him to work 95% of the time. The other 5% we take him to daycare which can be as much as $30-40 a day. When he is older we will probably just get a dogwalker on those days (still $15-20 a day).

A dog is really expensive, especially as a puppy. I think we spent at least a few thousand dollars on vaccinations/neutering (planned) and general sickness (unplanned) in the first 8 months. Now that he is nearing 1 year in age he's just about perfect. Mostly because we were quite strict with him from day one, but also because he (a bulldog) is a great breed for NYC living and very happy with his lot in life. Also the best bonding thing to do with him is to take him to the many great dog runs in the city.

I am more than willing to answer more questions about our dog!
posted by 2bucksplus at 6:19 AM on August 30, 2010


As a point of reference - we got our dog at about 15 months old - precisely because we knew we could not be home enough to properly socialize a puppy. I think 2bucksplus is right on about the need to be with a puppy nearly all of the time.
posted by JPD at 6:48 AM on August 30, 2010


Everybody has to get their first dog sometime; inexperience is no reason to say people can't get dogs. It does help to have researched the topic beforehand and especially to have handy references in case something happens that's worrisome--and to have a clear idea of how you're going to cope with the various issues that a dog brings (many already mentioned).

Consider getting a doggy health insurance policy or putting together an emergency vet fund.

I found that, of my foster dogs, the larger lab-types often had temperaments most suited to small apartments (once they were a couple of years old). It can help to adopt from a rescue like the one where I volunteered: one that has the dogs in foster homes, so they're housetrained/have some other training and so the foster homes know their personalities well and can help you find one most suited to you.

Such rescues also may have people (generally, the fosterers who want to see their foster pets going to a good home) who can spend a while talking with you about logistics, help you locate a good local vet/petsitter/etc, and generally offer a lot of advice getting set up with your new buddy.
posted by galadriel at 7:01 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Having a dog can be a total joy, but it can easily turn into a stressful, sad situation if the owners don't know what they're getting into. I don't know if your friends should get a dog, but here are some things to consider:

I think the work schedules are going to be the biggest issue. Are they financially able to pay a dogwalker or put the dog in doggie daycare--and to commit to doing this for as long as they're both working full time? Because if one person (the husband) is guaranteed not to be available for at least 12 hours a day, possibly more, even if the other person (the wife) works a strict 9-5 schedule, there are going to be days when she's running late or has errands or otherwise isn't able to get home in time to let the dog out for a pee and she won't have back-up. Even a 9-5 schedule is pushing it, time-wise, depending on the length of her commute. The dog really shouldn't be alone for more than 8 hours, both because he'll need to pee and also because dogs are social. Another potential issue with their schedules: the wife is going to end up doing a lot of the work. Is she ok with this? Will the husband be able to pitch in and walk the dog before he leaves for work, or take the dog out last thing in the evening before they go to bed, or will he be too tired from his demanding work schedule?

Also, regarding the small dog vs. big dog question, many landlords put a weight limit rather than an actual activity-level limit on the types of dogs they'll allow, so there's that. Moreover, while it's true that there are lazy big dogs and hyper little dogs, my little Dachshund is totally wiped out if I take him for 15- or 20-minute walk (me walking, him trotting on his teeny little legs) whereas a lab or shepherd would be like, "OK, can we run now?" I thought I wanted a big dog, but I'm realizing that I would be spending a ton more time getting a bigger dog the right amount of exercise. A big Golden Retriever might be content to sleep all day while his owners are at work, and a little terrier might tear up the apartment, but in terms of the actual exercise each of those dogs requires, there's a big difference between the time you'd need to spend walking/running with the big dog and the time you'd need to spend walking the smaller dog. A tired dog is a happy dog, so you need to consider the amount of exercise that will tire your dog out, and whether you have the time (or money to pay someone) to provide that exercise.

And finally, there's the trade-off of getting a puppy vs. an adult dog. I don't think a puppy would work for your friends. Puppies need much more frequent attention than adult dogs, and if one half of the couple is working 9-5 and the other is working 12+ hour days, that's just not going to be possible. On the other hand, getting an adult dog means not necessarily knowing what his earlier life was like. I lucked out, big time, with my shelter dog: he is totally sweet, loves people, is housetrained, and gets along pretty well with other dogs. This is not always the case with shelter dogs. And if you're keeping a dog in the city, you need to know he's safe for people (especially kids) and other dogs because you don't have the luxury of keeping him isolated the way you would if you had a big yard in the suburbs. If they adopt a shelter dog, they should block out a chunk of their dog budget for obedience training and/or a behaviorist, just in case the dog has some type of behavioral problem or quirk that wasn't immediately apparent.
posted by Meg_Murry at 7:03 AM on August 30, 2010


We got a 4-month old puppy back in March, and it definitely takes up a lot of time, but is very rewarding. We're out of the house from ~8:30 to 7:30 every day, but our schedules allow the division of work to be much more equal. We have a little 15 pound poodle mix, so his individual walks can be short, and when combined with the occasional trip the the dog park tire him out.

Keep in mind that pets, just like everything else in NYC, are more expensive here than elsewhere. We have spent almost $5000 on him in the last 6 months (around $2400 on daycare/walking at $15-$20 per day, $1000 on vet visits and neuter, $500 on food/treats/toys/crate, $300 on training classes, $400 on grooming, $250 to carry him on a plane ride). Some of those were one-time expenses, and there are definitely ways to spend less money than we do on our dog, but I'm just giving you an example.

Also, just because their current apartment may allow pets doesn't mean it will be easy to find another one once they want to move. We're running into that right now, and the pickin's in the already tight rental market are looking even slimmer.

That being said, our little fluffy guy is one of the best parts of my life right now. I really miss him while I'm away at work all day, and throwing a toy for him to fetch and watching him play with dogs at the dog park are really rewarding. I just have to remind myself of those rewarding parts while I'm being woken up at 7am on a Saturday, or walking him in the rain wondering when he's going to poop already :) Feel free to MeMail me if you're looking for more info.
posted by twoporedomain at 9:49 AM on August 30, 2010


Also - we live in a 600sqft one bedroom apartment. Seconding the advice that the size of the apartment doesn't matter as much as understanding how much exercise the dog will need.
posted by twoporedomain at 9:53 AM on August 30, 2010


Well, it's certainly possible - and I've had friends in NYC would managed (granted, it was three of them in a decent sized apt and they all took turns doing the dog park thing and whatnot).

But for the dog's sake, please don't.
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:27 AM on August 30, 2010


Think long and hard about this. My husband and I got a dog last year (we live in a 2BR apt in the city) and I cried almost everyday for about two weeks over how hard it was. I really missed the freedom of being able to come home whenever I wanted, and I worried about the dog crying while she adjusted to her new home. I hated hearing her cry every time I shut the door and was sure that we'd make a huge mistake. I almost lost it when my husband left the country for a week. We rescued an adult dog - there's no way I could have handled a puppy.

Fast forward one year: I love our dog so much and can't imagine living without her. We've all adjusted to each other and have a great thing going. She's a greyhound -- which is a terrific apartment dog. They are the laziest creatures on earth (more like a cat than a dog, really), doesn't bark much, and doesn't smell. She's a "big" dog with a pretty small footprint.

One thing - if you can't absolutely commit to coming home everyday around 5pm, you MUST get a dog walker, which adds up fast. Again, think long and hard about this.
posted by jrichards at 12:20 PM on August 30, 2010


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