Creative Dog Training

Moving With Your Dog

Moving is stressful for everyone, but moving with a dog can be especially stress ful for them. I recently moved into an older apartment in the city from a house in the suburbs, and during that process I had to take my 2 older dogs (plus my girlfriend’s regularly-visiting American bulldog) into consideration when shopping for a place. It took me a good bit of time to finall y find the right one that fit all of my and my older dogs needs. Since I went through all the work, I’m going to share what I learned with you.

When I started thinking about moving my requirements where pretty short. Basically, I wanted to be closer to work instead of driving 22 miles just one way, and not spend an arm and a leg to do it. So off I went looking at all the cool old apartment buildings that are sprinkled throughout our downtown area. The first place I went to look at was a typical city apartment where I had to park on the street and trudge up 40 steep stairs until I finally got to my intended floor. As I was making my way up the stairs, I had a flash of clarity: how would my 13 year old dogs fare on these stairs? And where were they going to go to the bathroom? Ah geez. My requirements just got A LOT tighter.After nixing that apartment from my list of possibilities, I decided to sit down and think through what my 2 older dogs would need in a new home. Here’s what I came up with:

• Where am I going to walk the dogs?

  Is there grass or a park nearby? Or maybe it’s a city where dogs must go on the sidewalk and we clean it up. (Thankfully Birmingham has lots of publicly owned, street-side grass so it is not like that. My dogs would have a VERY hard time getting accustomed to that at this age)
• 

  How many Stairs?!?

  My dogs are 13, one has mild hip dysplasia and the other one is just lazy. So ground floor was key for me. The other thing I didn’t even consider, but was pointed out to me is - the ground floor for older dogs is helpful in emergency-escape planning. Since they are no longer as quick or agile, this is definitely a solid consideration.

• What kind of flooring?

  I recently took Eeyore, the boy one, to the animal rehab clinic to have a limb checked out. The very amazing vet mentioned to be weary of tile and hardwood floors as they get older, since it can allow slipping and twisting of joints. (My new place is all hardwood, so I have massive rugs in each room so they have good flooring to exist on.)

• How do the Windows Look?

  Low windows where your dog can watch the world go by can be fun, but it can also promote guarding and negative behaviors, like barking. I have 2 neighbors that allow their dogs to sit in the windows and “protect the house” from everyone. Which means barking at every leaf. Oh, and don’t forget about mailbox location. My new one is right at my front door. If your dog reacts to things like that, try to block your dog’s view of the area or confine them away from the door.

• Neighbors, and their dogs?

  This one is a catch-22 scenario. When apartment shopping it can be hard to get a vibe for neighbors, and of course the rental person always says they’re wonderful people! Keep an eye out for who has dogs, and how they let their dogs act. Thankfully mine don’t bark at other dogs barking, but if they did, my dogs would have a field day in my new place (and that’s definitely not a good thing for my other neighbors who don’t have dogs.)

• Heaters and Utilities?

  Shiny new apartments and houses typically have central heat and air. But apartments built in the 50s and 60s may not have this. In-wall gas heaters and using space heaters can be dangerous for your dog and other animals. The place I moved into is this type. So I try not to use the gas heater when the dogs are there because I’m afraid they’re going to fling a floppy tail into it. 

• Door and window security?

  Be sure to keep an eye out for drafty windows and doors (especially if you have a dog with short hair), weird leaks, old connections for utilities your dog may mess with or get into, and flimsy locks and doors with “character” that may be easy for a rambunctious high energy dog push open. (Combine this and a new, closer mailbox, and your poor mailman may be in for a bad day.)

After answering all of these questions I was able to narrow down my choices considerably. In the end, I only had to look at 3 places. All of them were ground floor with good grass to walk the dogs (2 of them actually had little courtyards in between the buildings). Since are all from the same era of construction with very little updated, they all have hardwood floors. Two of them were central heat, one with a gas in-wall heater. And doors and windows were all roughly the same. 

 

So how did I decide? Neighbors and their dogs. The first one was nixed because the neighbor I met reminded of the character Jessie from Breaking Bad. Also, the place was tiny, and Eeyore and Ruhni take up lots of room (and that’s before Zoey comes over to visit). The decision between the last two places was made when I visited one and the courtyard was being used as a private dog park. A big, boisterous lab mix came bounding out of the bushes to visit and give hugs when we walked in the only building entrance. Maybe if my dogs were younger this would have been perfect, but my dogs don’t like bringing work home with them. They prefer not to socialize with overzealous puppies when on a bathroom break at their own home.

 

The place I chose is exactly right for my dogs and me. Once we get settled in, my next blog post will be about bringing them to our new home for the first time, and tips on leaving them home alone for the first time.

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