Well, over the past year I've been relocating horses and closing the barn in preparation for eventual moving. After losing my Greyhound in February the deal was sealed. I'm moving to town, to an apartment that's very conveniently located. The cost of gas to get into town has been killing me. I've really wanted less responsibility too, so I can travel a little more. So my daughter and I and my young Dobe are leaving our open country setting for something much more communal.

I have never lived in an apartment with a large dog, and I'm wondering how I can make this transition as easy as possible on my pooch. We're a pretty active family so I'm not too concerned about exercise, but I have no frame of reference here. Any advice? Anything I should know?

Can't give any advice because when I moved from a farm to an apartment I left my GSD with my mother in the country. She would have hated living in an apartment.

Only learned one thing living in an apartment for six years: I'd rather have a shack in the country than a mansion in the city.

Hi Kristel!

Sorry to hear about your greyhound... But it sounds like you're looking forward to your upcoming move - exciting! I hope the change is refreshing and less stressful/taxing than your previous situation.

Oscar has only ever lived in apartments, though we've been fortunate to live in pretty quiet neighborhoods, even when we moved to MA (I'm sure if you're anywhere in VT, it'll still be pretty quiet, even in the "city" :grin.

One thing Oscar had to get much more used to here in Cambridge was having active downstairs neighbors. Not sure what your situation will be, but our neighbors teach piano lessons, so there are constantly people (lots of kids) coming and going, lots of doors opening and closing, and general coming and going sounds on the porch that would alert a watchful dog. Luckily, Oscar got used to it pretty fast (I'm sure a dog's keen ears can learn to distinguish OUR door from the neighbors door with little effort, even if the doors are right next to each other, but some dogs might bark at ALL of it).

Every place is different, but we're also encountering LOTS more urban wildlife around here... gotta be extra watchful on the last pee walk of the evening. More dense population = more concentrated garbage cans and the like = possum, raccoon and skunk buffet...

Not sure what else might be a hurdle - you know how to handle your dog like a pro , so you can deal with any moving stress-related issues he might have. Oscar pretty much flipped out DURING our moving process, but settled into the new place beautifully and hasn't looked back. Just keep an eye on Murphy while you're putting your whole life into boxes and make sure he doesn't experience any loss of leadership when he needs it the most - His little brain WILL be trying to sort out why his world is turning upside down...

Good luck with the move!

~Natalya

Thanks Natalya! That's exactly what I meant . It's true, that a city in VT is more 'town' than 'city' . I'm moving to South Burlington, so it's not even the hub, but it's in one of those new developments with a much more dense population than we're accustomed to. Good to know Oscar has always lived in apartments; it tells me a big, active guy can be fine as long as the owner has an active lifestyle, like I know you have. The move will actually put us closer to the hiking trails and camping areas that we like. It WAS getting pretty stressful...hard to be responsible for so much as 'an army of one'. I'm looking forward to having less 'gotta do's' and more 'wanna do's'. I'm finally going to be free to do a little competing, which, living in VT, means traveling and time.

Noisy neighbors, I hadn't thought of that. Murph's usually pretty sensible, so I think he'll adjust to that fairly quickly. I will definitely be on the lookout for skunks! No more fence between 'us' and 'them'....but also no more moose in the backyard, either. Thank you for the heads up on that one! I'm going to board Murph when we do the physical move (Murph would flip out too), but you made a good point about leadership in the new diggs: My plan was to pick him up at the kennel, drive him to the new place and walk him for about an hour before we even go in, timing it so he can have dinner and relax in his crate for awhile before I 'show him around'. Should I go back to tethering him again for awhile? Did you do anything special with Oscar?

 Quote: kristel smart

Should I go back to tethering him again for awhile? Did you do anything special with Oscar?

We never tethered Oscar as a young lad (would like to try it with a future pup, but as it was, we did ok without it - Oscar never left my side anyway... momma's boy immersion training started on day one ), so it didn't occur to me to do it when he lost his sh*t over the move. Instead, we sort of went back to all the OTHER basics of groundwork - in short, we just made sure we basically ruled his life for a while and he didn't so much as get to choose which side of the bed to get out of... in tandem with the crackdown I also started working in all kinds of extra OB into our walks, to reinforce the "rules" thing, and give him lots of chances to feel like a really good boy. The more he did for me > the more praise he got > the better he felt about the whole "completely new environment" thing... or at least, the less time he had to concentrate on it. It worked really well.

I will take responsibility for what happened - it wasn't Oscar's "fault" for starting down a path of pretty bad behavior - it was our fault for lapsing in leadership and training with him. He's a dominant dog and the minute we got too busy with all the umpteen things that had to happen before we left for good, he took the opportunity to start acting out through the stress. He was GOING to feel stressed, but we could have prevented him from expressing it with aggression... if we had been paying attention. It was a REALLY rough move for all, but thankfully, we picked the reins back up once we arrived in the new digs and he's actually been better behaved here than he was back home... I'll take responsibility for that too!

I have some good friends moving to So Burl this summer too - I think it's a great spot - city amenities without being right IN the city. And Burlington is a pretty sweet town... I mean city. You should have no trouble finding lots of fun things to do. What sort of competing are you looking into? I'm assuming you mean with Murphy, as you won't have horses anymore... competition obedience maybe? Protection sports? Iron dog??

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Good to know Oscar has always lived in apartments; it tells me a big, active guy can be fine as long as the owner has an active lifestyle, like I know you have.

Absolutely! I think Oscar misses the quiet, pristine woods of VT, and a place like Manhattan might actually be really hard on his psyche, even with lots of exercise - but the kind of move we made, and you're making now, is hardly into a concrete jungle. I think you'll be just fine - closer proximity to hiking and camping is AWESOME! I'm hoping to get Oscar to the ocean this summer - for the first time in his life! And I don't know about your boy, but with the exception of the few hours a day that we're out running or walking, Oscar pretty much continues his "active lifestlye" by snoring, sprawled out on whatever bed is in the same room I'm working in.

~Natalya

Just starting to pack, and I've noticed a little of what you're talking about. I'll nip that in the bud ASAP, thank you for sharing your experience of how far it can go. It's easy to take the status quo for granted. Still, I'm glad Murphy won't be here when the movers come!

I love the suggestion of doing more obedience while out walking...It's normal, it's structured, it's an opportunity for praise and reward, and in a chaotic circumstance it will provide some known, safe purpose. Maybe I'll add some drive work to it too as a stress release, for an all-around exhausted dog:-) I love it when they snore. Oscar and Murphy seem to like that part of being 'active' in similar ways .

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What sort of competing are you looking into? I'm assuming you mean with Murphy, as you won't have horses anymore... competition obedience maybe? Protection sports? Iron dog??

Iron dog...I love it:-) I've been tempted to use him to skid lumber out of the back yard after a blowdown.....hehe, but I really like obedience, and Murphy seems to enjoy it too. We're both over-thinky creatures, so it fits our personalities. I was a dressage queen (I'll always be a dressage queen) and obedience is like the doggie version of dressage so it will be an easy, 'downward transition with good forward movement', hehe...(dressage joke). I'll miss the horses, but my daughter is college bound soon, and the ol' lady is TIRED of running the whole farm. We didn't sell her horse, we leased him so she can decide what she wants to do later.

Murph's a velcro dog, so I'll play the tether part by ear. If he velcros on his own I won't bother with a line. I'm quite excited about being so close to so many things...it blows my mind that I can walk to get to just about everything! Right now I'm about 17 miles from the interstate, and another 10 to the nearest grocery store. In the summer that's bad, in the winter, a little scary re:gas.

I wish you were still here now that I'll have more time and am closer to the good trails! It'll be nice to be in the great outdoors to play instead of to work all the time. I'll actually have a lot more time for Murphy, so hopefully, like you, after the initial adjustment all will be well.

 Quote: kristel smart

Still, I'm glad Murphy won't be here when the movers come!

Yeah, Oscar had to hang out in a few bathrooms while our movers did their thing. He was quite agitated about it, but at least everyone was free to do what needed to be done, and he was safe. I thought he got the best deal during the whole event - his last view of our old apartment was chock full 'o boxes > enter bathroom > when he came out, clean empty apartment! Then we drove to the NEW clean empty apartment > enter bathroom > and when he came out, there was all our stuff!! Like magic!!

 Quote: kristel smart

obedience is like the doggie version of dressage so it will be an easy, 'downward transition with good forward movement', hehe...(dressage joke).

Oh I gotcha! Good transference of terminology!

 Quote: kristel smart

I wish you were still here now that I'll have more time and am closer to the good trails! It'll be nice to be in the great outdoors to play instead of to work all the time. I'll actually have a lot more time for Murphy, so hopefully, like you, after the initial adjustment all will be well.

Would be fun for sure (sometimes I wish we were still there too... ). But we do make somewhat regular trips up from time to time - maybe we could still get together for a hike with the dogs at some point... I miss that "wilderness" time the most down here... you have to really make an effort (and get in a car) to go somewhere remote and quiet...

Cheers,
~Natalya