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Old October 19th, 2011, 06:15 PM
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Myka Myka is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Saskatoon, SK.
Posts: 945
Personally, I don't think big dogs belong in apartments. The reason I would be against recommending it is that there will be days that are too hot, too cold, or too miserable to spend much time outdoors and your dog will still want to get some exercise. I had an 85lb Pit Bull/Boxer cross in a 1000 sq ft condo for a couple years. She was 22" at the shoulder (she's in my avatar too). She was a couch potato, but was always easy to "get going" even when she was 11 years old! I found the limited space of the condo made it difficult to do simple things like throw a ball. I personally think that a treadmill is definitely a strong recommendation for any dog in an apartment, but especially for a large dog (no matter their activity level). I also think that no matter how good a person's intentions are when they get their new dog that very few people will have the same time and exercise commitment to their dog after a few years as they did in the first year.

There are some breeds of dogs that are small/med that have "big dog" personalities, so maybe you could be happy with one of these smaller dogs. At the very least, consider adopting a dog that is at least 3-4 years old so that you can skip the energentic puppy stage. A puppy in confined space? Probably not the best idea.
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Ella - Jun '20 - Reg AmStaff
Squeak - '15/16? - Tabby cat (adopted Nov '18)
Streak - '18 - Black cat (adopted Nov '18)
Peewee - Jan '06 - 6.5 lb Chi (adopted May '09)
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Roxy - Feb '05 to May '20 AmStaff (adopted Jul '11)
Myka - Nov '98 to Jan '10 - APBT X
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