Can you really have a dog/ puppy without a garden??

Sorry, just saw this on another site.... "I want a collie puppy but rescues won't home to be as I don't have a garden" (sorry, I corrected the spelling).........

I cannot imagine having a dog without a garden... it is so easy to let them out to toilet, an extra space for play/stimulation.......

Has anyone here ever had a dog without a garden?

There are lots of dogs who dont have access to a garden and live quite happily, however, I would find it a struggle and I think my current dogs (who have always had a garden) would suffer if my circumstances changed.

Personally, a garden for my dogs would be a big priority. Like you say, it's easy for toilet access and in summer, my dogs lounge out there all day. Plus, they eat out there because I do not like raw meat on the floors etc.

Plenty of people keep dogs and don't have gardens.

It obviously suits some dogs more than others. For instance, you probably wouldn't keep giant livestock guarding breeds without outdoor space.

We have a small garden that is not used for exercise but I would always prefer to have one when keeping dogs, if only from a toileting perspective. If the dog is ill and cannot go out (or needs to go out frequently!), if you are ill, etc., it makes life that bit easier to have a little bit of outdoor space. Mine also love sunbathing in the summer.

I have a garden, but it is not enclosed - I don't have the option to either, which is a problem. I do miss having an enclosed garden, as it's so much easier, however it's not a problem with the dogs we have anyway. We have Portia, who cannot be allowed offlead, so we have a long tie out cable for her, and she's more than happy with that - actually the rotten sausage refuses to stay outside for more than the time it takes to do her business! Dudley has good recall, and doesn't leave the boundaries anyway - and we only ever let them out when one of us is out with them, I don't let them out unsupervised. It would be nice to have an enclosed garden when dealing with fosters though, as some are not housetrained, and it's much harder to housetrain them when they can't go out without leads etc.
xx

People do have dogs in flats, I personally would not mainly because I am very lazy.

I like to be able to keep my patio doors open most of the time both for air and the dogs who can go in and out at will.

I like to be able (if necessary) to open the doors for my dogs if I am ill so that I do not have to put my own health at risk because I have to take them out to toilet.

Or, on the rare occasions I have a lie in, again to open doors and creep back under the duvet.

Also, if a dog is ill, I think having a garden is a practical must as it is for puppies.

But I am bone idle.

I agree with every word of that.

I personally wouldn't have a dog without a garden (or to put it another way, I wouldn't get a house without a garden if I owned a dog ). I just think its nicer to let the dog out to toilet on its own piece of land, and if the garden is large enough, you can do agility, obedience etc in it, which you obviously can't do in a house.

But I have no problem with people who keep toy/small dogs in flats or houses without gardens.

When Max came to live with us we lived in a flat, it was a large flat so there was no problem with space, it was the convenience of a garden that we missed.

We were up on the second floor with no lifts. It wasn't a problem when Max was young and fit, it would have been a problem if we had him as a puppy because he would have been a large puppy and heavy to carry up two flights of stairs. It would also have been a problem if we would have still been there as Max aged. When Max had to be x-rayed once, when he came home he was still very woozy. Dave and I had to part support him and part carry him up two flights of stairs - not easy with his weight.

Because Max came to work with me during the week it wasn't so much of a problem with walks but weekends were different. Every time he needed to go to the toilet, he had to go for a walk. People automatically say to me 'that must have been awful in winter' when actually it was harder in the summer because it was too hot to walk him in the middle of the day. I used to have to drive him out to the woods where it was cool just so he could go to the toilet.

When Max came to us he was frequently suffering with bouts of vomiting. He would always go to the door to let us know he needed to be sick. I once tried getting him outside, he made it down two flights of stairs and then promptly threw up inside the doorway of the communal entrance. After that we just had to let him throw up in the flat. It was horrible because he is such a clean dog and he was telling us that he needed to to get out but we couldn't let him out because.

For me, one of the hardest parts though was that Max had access to a garden at work so when we came home he would look out at the communal garden through the window and then look at me and look back out to the communal garden, rest his chin on the window sill and let out the saddest of sighs.

Within a year of Max coming to us we had made the decision to move, got the flat ready and on the market, exchanged and left our beautiful flat for ever. I will never ever forget the look on Max's face when we took him to our new house, he looked out of the patio doors longingly and I let him out into his own garden for the first time.

Having said all of that, a lady who also lived in our block of flats had a terrier who used to go to work with her all day - she worked in a stables so the dog was constantly outside even without having the benefit of a garden. So it can work, depending on your lifestyle but, in our experience, it was hard work. I would never want to go back to that situation now.

Me too; when I got Jin I used to wake up early to open the back door then go back to bed. I love having the air flow through my house, it was open last week before this random cold snap! And I cant imagine if the dog was poorly and I had no garden I dont mind opened the door or standing outside at 3am in my PJS in my garden but else where would be a different matter!

I have two dogs and no garden. They do not suffer in any noticeable way because of this!

Its not a huge deal really, they are taken for a 20 minute walk first and last thing and they get a good hour long walk somewhere in the middle of the day, usually off lead.

It would be nice sometimes to just open the back door in my pyjamas to let them out, but to be honest, its better for them in some ways that I can't do that.