# Breeds not allowed at my apartment



## Rinchan (Jan 4, 2011)

My finace and I finally got the paper that specifies which breeds are not allowed in the apartment. Some I am wondering why. Here is the list

German Shepherd
Doberman Pincher
Rottweiler
Pit bull
American Staffordshire Terrier
Basically any other type of pit bull
Bull dog
Great Dane
Irish Setter
Any dog with any of these mixes
Any dog over 50lbs

I expected GSD, Doberman, Rottie, and any bully breed to be on the list. But why specify Great Dane or Irish setter? Are people afraid of those dogs? Do insurance companies deny people with dogs of these breeds and if so why?

And yeah Great Danes are obviously over 50lbs, but so are many other large dogs that were not specified.

And why not add Chow's to that list? I've heard that home owners insurance will deny people with that dog breed.


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## Keechak (Aug 10, 2008)

They can all bite people, they forgot to add 400 other breeds to the list.


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## ThoseWordsAtBest (Mar 18, 2009)

Because people who are bias tend to be ignorant and random about it?


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## sassafras (Jun 22, 2010)

Because the apartment manager hates Irish Setters? Who knows? I doubt there's a very satisfying explanation behind the list.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Probably someone had an Irish Setter who wrecked their apartment (after all, if one did it, they all do it, right?). Housing management people can be awfully arbitrary.

Funny that they specify Rotts and Great Danes, even though they're always over 50 pounds. Well, maybe a small Rott bitch would be less, but still. He forgot Huskies. . . a LOT of landlords won't allow them. They tend to find ways to amuse themselves when they get bored.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

I'll warn you that when your apartment complex has a list like that, it is far too easy for people to make your life miserable if you have a breed that even vaguely resembles one of those dogs on the list OR if you get a shelter puppy (for example) who is expected to be "small-medium" and grows up larger. 50 lbs isn't a huge dog, lots of "medium" dogs hover around that mark. 

One of my friends has a smaller brindle mix; very leggy, maybe whippet or italian greyhound mix. NOTHING like a "pit bull" and yet she has had several people ask her about her "pit bull mix".... which if their apartment banned, would create a problem.


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## Nargle (Oct 1, 2007)

My apartment complex bans Cocker Spaniels...  Lots of breeds have weird random stereotypes. Apparently Cocker Spaniels are stereotyped as unpredictable and aggressive. I've heard that Greyhounds are bred to be vicious killing machines (You know, so that they'll chase that lure down the track). And of course Chihuahuas (or basically every other toy breed) are yappy ankle biters that can't be trained! I wouldn't be surprised if every breed has some sort of terrible myth that some people believe.


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## mitzi (Aug 3, 2010)

"Any dog over 50lbs"

Around here the lease weight limit for dogs is 35 lbs. In my mother's complex it's 25lbs. I think their rationale is smaller dogs create less damage?


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## Kai Reddtail (Nov 15, 2010)

They could have a semi-benign non-breedist reason against Danes.

Maybe they figure that large breeds shouldn't be in an apartment? Now we know this isn't always necessarily the case, and there are plenty of breeds under 50lbs that wouldn't do well in apartment, but we're not talking about breed experts here.


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## Cracker (May 25, 2009)

As much as Ontario has pitbull BSL, they also have a law that says rentals (buildings) cannot deny you because of pets regardless of breed, size etc. They can only give you grief if the animal causes a ruckus and disturbs other's peaceful living expectations (ie noise or pee or poo in public areas). My biggest client (170 lb dane) lives on the 15th floor of a highrise. He's a couch potatoe.

The exceptions would be apartments as part of private homes (income suites) and condominiums where they make their own rules. Condo buildings can limit size but condo townhouses cannot. Still there are many pet friendly condos that don't discriminate..you just have to know where to look.


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## Shaina (Oct 28, 2007)

Shell said:


> it is far too easy for people to make your life miserable if you have a breed that even vaguely resembles one of those dogs on the list OR if you get a shelter puppy (for example) who is expected to be "small-medium" and grows up larger. 50 lbs isn't a huge dog, lots of "medium" dogs hover around that mark.


Yes to all the above...

When we got Kim we lived in a place with a 35lb upper limit to dog size. Kim was supposed to top out around 25-30lbs, so said the shelter vet. She's now a 23.25" tall, 48lb dog (very light for her height so people tend to think she weighs even more than she does). Fortunately our apartment management ignored it but we were ready to move out if we needed to, once we realized she was going to be over the limit, and had family members prepped and ready to temporarily take care of her if needed. 

When we moved states we had just Kim when we were rental shopping. We found a place with no upper size limit. Their banned breeds list, according to tour lady, was Chow-Chows, Rotties, "Pit Bulls", and Dobes. I don't agree with ban lists on principle but we needed a place to live. They sent us paperwork after our approvals came through and I saw that on the written version, German Shepherds were added...the tour lady must have forgotten them, but w/e. Had to send in a pic of Kim. We were asked to prove Kim WASN'T a German Shepherd because she, in their opinion, looked like she could be a GSD mix. I asked if they would finance a DNA test, they said no, just have your vet write a letter saying she's not a GSD. I asked if my vet was supposed to use their DNA-splicing vision to determine this (okay I was being snarky but seriously...). 

Long story short, we didn't live there. And I still have no reason to believe Kim is part GSD. Then again, she could be. I don't really care. 

Moral of the story: you just never know what you'll run into...


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## ThoseWordsAtBest (Mar 18, 2009)

Back when we were renting we just had Smalls and Jack. First apartment allowed all breeds. Second place did, too. All the ones we looked into? 35 lbs weigh limit usually, and that ruled out Smalls at 55 lbs (but she is very short, so she could have slipped by) and Jack at 50 lbs. No such luck. And others that had Husky on their banned list looked at Jack and said he fell into that category.


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## Rinchan (Jan 4, 2011)

Yeah my apartment said that they have the right to determine what breed of dog we have. I saw a collie mix that i liked but he was tan with black on his back and I was worried that the apartment would say he was a German Shepherd mix. The dog IMO was too small to be a collie shepherd mix and was probably 25-30lbs. 

The complex we are staying at is cheap which is why we chose it. It is also fairly nice for the price. We are newly college grads (and I am still finishing clinicals) so we had to be a little cheap. We were also a little desparate at the time and were happy to find a place that even allowed pets. We only plan to stay there until Feb 2012 when our lease is up. We also want to wait until we both have stable jobs to find a house. Then we'll get our big dogs! But I am fine with a smaller dog. My fiance prefers larger though and he is not a fan of small. He's fine with medium.

And I'm sure the reason they ban Irish setters is that they had a bad experience with one. That is such a random dog breed to ban though. When I first read the list I almost had the impulse to go "Wait any dog can bite blah blah blah blah." But the last thing I want is for the management to decide that based on what I said, that all dogs would be banned!

I am also wondering on how much those rules are enforced. I wouldn't chance them or anything, but two of my neighbors have dogs that look as though they are around or over 50lbs. And one has a dog that looks as though it has american staffordishire in her or even pure bread. She says it's a boxer mix. But maybe the management has no idea what a pit bull or American Staffordishire looks like.

The ironic thing is, one of my neighbors likes to party. Nearly every saturday he has people over and they drink. He is also an angry drunk. If you disagree with him when drunk, I hear he can get pretty nasty. I think I'd be more likely to be hurt by him than a dog! And according to another neighbor, the managment will not do anything about him because he comes from money and the management knows the family <.<. If he comes from money, what is he doing living there! He could definently afford better!

Too bad they have the weight limit, because then I'd ask how they felt about komondor's a very protective breed! Maybe I should just get a chow chow and laugh everytime I walk by the office. But nah, I'd never just get a dog for that reason.


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## marsha=whitie (Dec 29, 2008)

if you don't mind me asking, which complex is it? I just wanna know so that I can skip the process of calling to find out their breed restrictions. Since Callie _remotely_ looks like a GSD, she'll be denied, and since Bryna is a boxer mix, they'd tell me that she's a pit bull. *sigh*


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## Jare (Aug 12, 2009)

I think the most random one I heard of ( I didn't move in there, although I could have because at the time I only had my rat terrier, Jack) was an apartment that allowed all the "dangerous breeds" but had this weird random restriction on poodles.


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## ThoseWordsAtBest (Mar 18, 2009)

Jare said:


> I think the most random one I heard of ( I didn't move in there, although I could have because at the time I only had my rat terrier, Jack) was an apartment that allowed all the "dangerous breeds" but had this weird random restriction on poodles.


You know, I am not surprised. I hear so much hate towards Poodles. I quite frankly don't get it. If I could bend my boyfriend, a standard Poodle would be a dream dog for me.


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## Jare (Aug 12, 2009)

ThoseWordsAtBest said:


> You know, I am not surprised. I hear so much hate towards Poodles. I quite frankly don't get it. If I could bend my boyfriend, *a standard Poodle would be a dream dog for me*.


ME TOO. Dream Dog. A want a white male one and I want to give him a ridiculously foo-foo name. Plus they're great, I've met quite a few and liked every one.


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## ThoseWordsAtBest (Mar 18, 2009)

Jare said:


> ME TOO. Dream Dog. A want a white male one and I want to give him a ridiculously foo-foo name. Plus they're great, I've met quite a few and liked every one.


I have always wanted a black standard and I would name him Bane. I used to groom a Poodle that was so gorgeous I couldn't stand it. He was a standard, and he was black and cream. His coat was patterned in such a way that he literally looked like a swirled pound cake. I never had a Poodle give me trouble grooming. I have no idea where the hate comes from.


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## Jare (Aug 12, 2009)

Me either. Every time I mention wanting one, someone says they're annoying, or ugly, or high maintenance, mean, or some other silly insult. 

Then there is of course the:

"A poodle? You also want (and have one) pit bulls! Those would attack a sissy poodle!"

Er?


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## cshellenberger (Dec 2, 2006)

FYI, at one time Irish Setters had on of the highest bite rates among breeds (this was back in the '70's I think) and a VERY bad reputation. Like many other breeds they had suffered from overbreeding and being very popular. The along came the "Doberman Gang" movies and ruined the reputation of Dobes.


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## ThoseWordsAtBest (Mar 18, 2009)

In the same vein we just were looking for quotes for home owners insurance. Most companies we got quotes from had a list that included Chows, GSDs, Pits, etc. Geico we clicked "none of the above" all though I think if they came out and LOOKED at our dogs Magpie would be considered a Shepherd even though she barely looks Shepherdy at all. They gave us $547 off and it was called "Purebred dogs award" 

Farmer's insurance, however, had zero interest in what kind of dogs we own. Said any dog is covered by liability insurance without jacking up our rate, so thumbs up to them.


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