Kristel,

Everything in your post is exactly what I fear. I am very strict with what is allowed with my dog and what is not.

I know my dog walker thinks I'm overboard with it. I have told him that she is not to go off lead in the city, ever. Not to tug with her, not to play games where the human chases the dog, etc. I even left him a note once about not walking her on a flexi lead unless they were very far away from the road!

I'm paying this guy, so he has to put up with it if he wants the job. A house mate probably wouldn't care enough to comply with the dog rules. Never mind the basic stuff about being careful of doors and potential issues with visitors.

It might be too hard to find the perfect person unless I could find a dog trainer to move in.

Jasmine,

That would be a great option but my lease states that I am only allowed to have one dog living here. Maybe I could get the landlord to change it if I found someone really good.

Thanks

I'm a college student, I HAVE to have housemates or I'd never be able to afford an apartment near school XD


I have two of them, one is a cat person, one isn't really a live animal person....both are animal science majors however. The rules in our house are simple. Ryuk is MY dog, not OUR dog. His crate is in my room, he is not permitted into anyone elses room. He is allowed in "group" spaces like the living room and kitchen. I do all of the training but hold weekly group "sessions" at the request of one of my housemates so she can control him if needed. As a result even my completely "non dog" housemate has no problem getting him to sit politely and stay, not to beg, etc. At first I did not permit them to have Ryuk out of his crate when I wasn't around but that rule has changed. They're allowed to let him out of his crate, take him out to pee (on leash ONLY), and if they want puppy company he could stay out in the living room with them. However if any guests come around, into the crate he goes until I come home. Overall it's worked out really well. The only time I've had to yell at them was the time they had him out of the crate when I got home and he ran to the door to greet me and immediately peed on the floor when he sat by the door asking to go out. Turned out they hadn't let him outside since taking him out of his crate (they told me they were home and he was all set so I hadn't come home as quick assuming that meant they'd let him out)...poor puppy had been holding it (with access to water on a hot day) for 12 hours....poor dog lifted his leg for 5 whole minutes when I got him outside -_-

Thanks Jaime.

Maybe I will reconsider my friend. She is the type of person who would respect and at least try to be accommodating, and while she was raised with dogs she is not the type to claim any expertise.

I am still friends with the guy who originally did our puppy training, maybe I could ask him to come over and give her a few lessons once Tasha gets used to having someone new around.

I am thinking about running her through the pack structure program again anyway. Since the first time I did it things are a lot better, but she can still be much too pushy with me a times for my taste. Its totally my fault for giving her too many freedoms too quickly.

If could get the potential roomie to keep her in the crate and just ignore her, maybe drop a cookie in every once in a while if she is being quiet and good, things might work out ok.

I have no idea what i would have done in Kristal's case that's just mind blowing. I guess i really lucked out. he is long time friend and knows the way i am with my dogs, and does think i'm a little overboard about it but he so far has respected the rules and only really brings home family or a girlfriend and all of them are respectful to the dogs.

"they just want to be free man"....

Kristal good for you for not beating him senseless... i'm assuming you didn't, if you did perfectly reasonable

I keep thinking i will no longer be shocked by people's stupidity but it just keeps happening.

I didn't beat him senseless...tempting though. I DID tell them to leave immediately though, and that they weren't welcome if they couldn't follow rules (actually I think I said they weren't welcome until they could find more than two brain cells to rub together....I wasn't all that nice about it).

For both incidents, my housemates weren't even home. They had left their friends alone while they grocery shopped or ran errands.....?! They were surprised to come home and find their friends gone, but oh well.

I had a little fun with the psycho who provoked my dog into biting her: She said she wanted to call the dog warden and report the bite, so I gave her the phone book and told her to go ahead. Every time she called the line was busy....because she was calling MY phone number

She looked so disappointed...

 Quote: Kristel Smart

I had a little fun with the psycho who provoked my dog into biting her: She said she wanted to call the dog warden and report the bite, so I gave her the phone book and told her to go ahead. Every time she called the line was busy....because she was calling MY phone number

She looked so disappointed...

That's too funny

Hi, Lauren!

I have 4 dogs and I've had roommates all of my 10 years in Athens (my oldest GSD is 8yr). Now my BF and I own our home and always have 1 to 2 tenants that rent rooms in our home.

I just make my dogs out to be really scary prior to move-in

I'm only sort of kidding ... Porter is a rescue who previously had serious aggression issues and Kobi functions as a guard dog for our home. I make it very clear that my dogs are not to be messed with. Period. I warn them, point blank, to never allow anyone (who does not live here) to come into our home without escort. I warn them not to allow visitors to try to interact with the dogs w/o my supervision and make it clear that just because my dogs are cool when I'm around, it doesn't mean they're going to behave the same way without el pack leader.

Most importantly, I have *always* (even pre-Kobi) kept my dogs contained when I'm not home. Some are kenneled, some may have freedom in my bedroom... but never, ever loose in the house. As described by previous posters, it's a recipe for disaster to let them run loose with roommates! In apartments, my bedroom was my dogs' sanctuary as much as it was mine, and they're only out and about if I am, so unsupervised mingling is/has always been nearly non-existent

Now that I have a guard dog, I'm (obviously) even more careful about new tenant intros than I was before. When the person is brand new to our home *all* of my dogs are contained in my/their bedroom behind a gate (the once aggressive one in a kennel) when I'm gone for the first few weeks. Eventually (length of time is dependent upon the new roomie's personality) Kobi is once again loose in the house for guarding purposes (he's completely trustworthy with established roommates and their escorted guests), the rest of the pack are confined in their bedroom when I'm away.

More than anything else, when screening for new roomies, try to avoid big time animal/dog lovers. I look for people who are indifferent to the dogs. Obviously I don't want someone who dislikes or is afraid of my dogs, but I find that people who could give or take them are much less likely to try and mess around with them. This helps avoid the whole "Oh, but he just looked so *sad* in the kennel! So I let him loose upon the neighborhood ..." situations

This is what has worked for me with all of the dogs that I've owned and fostered. Good luck

 Quote: kacie hackett

More than anything else, when screening for new roomies, try to avoid big time animal/dog lovers. I look for people who are indifferent to the dogs. Obviously I don't want someone who dislikes or is afraid of my dogs, but I find that people who could give or take them are much less likely to try and mess around with them. This helps avoid the whole "Oh, but he just looked so *sad* in the kennel! So I let him loose upon the neighborhood ..." situations

What great, constructive advice!

leih

I came to a conclusion with my last housemate concerning my dogs. I needed to be as fair to my housemate as I was asking them to be with me and the dog. What this basically meant was I would insist that they not touch, walk, or deal with my dog and I would NEVER ask them to. Basically the roommate and the roommate's stuff was one big "leave it" and I wouldn't ask the roommate to treat, walk, feed, watch etc the dog even if I was in a bind like stuck in traffic, at work, etc.

Happily my last roommate was a cat person.