Anyone here living in Oklahoma? I emailed a real estate agent letting them know we are going to be stationed at Ft. Sill in June. Told them we are coming with two yorkies and a german shepherd. They emailed back telling me that in Oklahoma, german shepherds are considered a "dangerous breed" and that we will have a hard time finding someone to allow us to rent with her. Boy was I ticked off. First off its people that allow dogs to become dangerous. Not to mention there is a breeder in that same area that breeds these "dangerous" animals. So to anyone living in Oklahoma, is it really going to be that hard? She's coming with me so someone somewhere is going to have to rent to us.

I will not let anyone talking me out of not bringing my dogs anywhere. I don't live in Oklahoma, but I believe you can find a place to live where it permits large dogs. When I was little we moved to three different states and all our dogs came with us everywhere. Also, I will be moving to New York this summer so I am bringing a dog with me. I would suggest you to find a different real estate agent to help you or you can look on your own. If you have no choice, but have to use that agent. I would say that I will "NEVER" get rid of my gsd.

http://www.apartmentfinder.com/default.aspx

Tell the prospective landlord it's a service dog, or service dog in training. They can't do a thing about it. Read the first thread. Its very enlightening.

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/211644/page/0/fpart/1

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/211800/page/0/fpart/1

While I don't agree with using the Service Dog guise as a way to beat the system, I'm vehemently apposed to selective breed banning more. Besides, if the ADA doesn't care about scammers using a vague law to get over on the public monetarily wise, I'm not opposed to a good person using the same existing vague law to live happily with a four legged family member...but thats just me.

Howard

I think that real estate agent might be reading a bit into the law there. We've run into that problem before when the person has a "personal" problem with certain breeds. From what I can find on the current law, it states that "Potentially dangerous or dangerous dogs may be regulated through local, municipal and county authorities, provided the regulations are not breed specific." I copied and pasted that from the below link on the state's laws, which appear to be current.

Oklahoma's Dangerous Dog Laws

From my personal experience changing duty stations with a GSD, I would recommend contacting several realtors in the area. Your sponsor (I'm assuming your branch of the military does that also) may also be able to give some good advice. Finally, if you offer to pay extra rent, some places will magically consider the dog to be fine. A nice lonng down stay can go far to making a landlord feel better about the whole thing.

We paid an extra $400 a month once to find a place with our GSD. Luckily it was just for a school, so we didn't have to be there long.

Edited by MichelleMeyer (03/31/2009 01:34 PM)
Edit reason: edited to make more sense

Usually "dangerous breed" is something that insurance companies use for whether or not they want to insurance a homeowner. The Automobile Club in southern ca cancelled my brother's home owner's insurance(which he had with his auto insurance) when they found out he had a Huskey (dangerous breed). They base their information on number of money they have had to paid out for dog related incidents and what type of breeds were high risk on those statistics.

I don't know Oklahoma's law, but maybe your agent is getting this term mixed up with insurance companies definition instead of what he may think is State law (or whatever he/she is talking about). Not all insurance companies are the same and some will give policies to owners of these "so called dangerous breeds" at an extra charge.....so my point is, if this is what the agent is talking about, there should be homeowners who have a policy that allows these dogs and would rent to you....again, I am not sure about Oklahoma.

If you find this is some type of Government law, I would like to know about it...Anna

Michelle idea is very good. If you read what she gave you "Oklahoma's Dangerous Dog Laws" I see nothing about what breeds they consider dangerous....I think your agent is confussed. If you want to keep this agent, ask him/her to show you the information he/she is talking about in writing. Always best to look and not listen.

The funny thing is that she is more trained than my yorkies but no one said a thing about them. Im going to mention she's CGC and maybe get some letters from our trainers about her behaviour. Im definitly finding more real estate agents. Thanks for the advice, and letting me rant a little lol.

Good luck with your search. Changing duty stations (especially from overseas) is stressful enough. Adding pets just adds another layer to that. We've always managed to bring ours, but it's frequently been stressful and frustrating.

I thought about the CGC after I posted. I think that's a great idea. We did trainer references that one time we needed short term housing, and it really helped. Since most of these people have no idea what the various titles and certifications mean, they tend to give them even more importance. Suddenly, you take on an aura of being very professional with a "special" award winning dog.

Best wishes on finding housing.

I apologize for the multiple posts, but I thought of something else. Twice now, we've opted to live a little farther out from base...about 45 min drive time. It really helped with the rental search.

I don't think the rentals further from base get as many military renters. In our experience, we've come across more that were willing to work with us if we were willing to drive a bit.

thats good advice, we are definitly going to be looking further from base and finding someone with some common sense. this real estate guy has rubbed me the wrong way now so i wont be emailing him back lol.