Hey everyone,

Last night i had the company of 2 ADORABLE puppies. They're staff crosses and are so so beautiful, healthy and playful. Anyway, both me and my OH fell in love with one of them, a bitch and now are seriously considering talking to the landlady about letting us have one in our flat.

We have the ground floor flat with a massive patio door that i just know would be perfect for housetraining the pup, i have plenty of time on my hands and there are nice parks where we can play with the pup and give her the exercise she'll need when she's a bit bigger. SOOOOO..i wanted to know, how much do you think i should offer the landlady as an increase in the deposit. When we moved in, we paid over £560 as a deposit so i was just wondering what you guys thought would be a reasonable amount to add to that?

We were lucky. We rent, and have done now for seven years. I let the landlord get to know us, to see that rent is always paid, and that I'm a stickler for cleanliness anyway. Then I just asked him, based on that, if we could have a dog. He just said yes.

I would start with an offer of about £300.00 to £350.00, which should cover most things that the landlord could have worries about.

With my landlord, he wasn't so much worried about damage, as complaints from neighbours about barking. So you might want to mention that you intend going to training classes.

Ohhh, I was so keen that I've just sent a letter, offering to pay upwards of £200. I also said i'd have the carpets professionally steam cleaned when I leave and that i'd make good any damage caused. I understand the worries that landlords have because some people are nightmare tenants and I suppose if they include a 'no pets' clause, it saves them from the hassle.

Fingers crossed anyway, thanks for your reply GSDLover.

Mysterious' advice is geat.

Always get any agreed terms written up though.

We lost a GSD because of this. The landlord had agreed to a dog, we lived in a house converted into apartments and had no problems dealing with a dog in this situation.

We think it was a neighbour who complained (she complained about everything really and the other 3 apartments knew what she was like). We had a large gravel communal car park out the back and some owners would let their dogs poop there at night. It wasn't our dog at all but she was the sort of person who would put notes through your door (unsigned even though everyone knew who it was) about anything she didn't like.

Anyway, the letting agent told us the dog had to go or else. So she went back to her breeders. That was not a very happy time for us at all.

So...... 2 years ago we bought our first house, and its a biggun so doggies are very welcome! Hooray!

That's a real shame beckyc but at least now you can do as you please.

Unfortunately for me, the answer is still no. Just had an email from my landlord which basically says that dogs are renowned to be smelly, noisy and destructive. It's a shame because I really like this flat but it means i'm not going to stay here any longer than the duration of my degree. I was planning to stay here for a while after my course because I can't be doing with the upheaval but if I'm never going to keep a dog on the premises, no point staying

Just to come in from the other side of this arguement, when my ex and i moved into our house we had two dogs (his corgi JRT cross and my whippet JRT cross full time, and my other JRT part time the rest she was with my parents,) 11 fish tanks (I used to breed fish) and a cockatiel. Anyway my Jazz was only 10 weeks old so I got her a puppy cage to make sure that she couldn't chew, and made sure that she was house trained, but when I went in to hospital the ex let both dogs poo round the house and didn't clear it up, let his dog eat chicken bones, which meant it was bloody poo, never put Jazz in her crate and I suspect didn't feed her so she had to steal Jake's food. He also cleaned out the bird cage by letting the bird out and shaking it upside down over the carpet. He forgot to leave the windows open so the tanks made the place damp, and he also never turned the dehumdifyer on so that made it worse. By the time i got home the house was in such a bad state that it had to be recarpeted and most of the walls repapered.
Having said that he also left food on every kitchen surfae, and there was even food on the ceiling, (I never asked how), and some parts of the house were even worse than a week of walked in dog poo, (his toilet habits it seems were worse than theirs).
Now that was one very bad house, but when I tried to rent on my own, only with my dog, (he kept Jake) , then the other landlords kept telling me this story (and I was not going to tell them that I was involved,) so I can see why a lot of landlords will say no, it only takes one to ruin it for the rest of us. I eventually moved back in with my parents, luckily their landlord is a dog lover himself.

WOW, that is shocking. I understand why many landlords are against tenants having pets because of the sort of stuff you mentioned River. My parents rent one of our houses out and I very much doubt they'd allow dogs in the house. I understand why my landlady doesn't want dogs in the flat, from her point of view I could turn out to be a nightmare tenant and wreck the flat, it's just that I know i'm cleaner than many (i've got a thing about germs) and I couldn't live in a house that was less than. I understand though, it's just one of the downsides of renting privately.

We had problems trying to find a rental house last year when we sold up and moved. The funny thing was I found that many agents said 'depends' - how many pets do you have and what breeds.....
Of course when I said we had 3 cats, a bullmastiff and a dogue de bordeaux, we found that the answer was a resounding no!
As if it makes as difference weather you have 1 pet or 2 or the size or them? You still need to tidy up after them!!!

Luckily we did eventually find a landlord who did not mind. Now we have had a couple of run ins with our letting agent because I have had to re-arrange their inspection and an electrical safety test twice!!! Although they have the right to enter the house even if I am not here, as long as they have given 24hours notice - they are EXTREMELY peeved that they CANT just enter unless i AM here - due to the fact that my male dog is extremely guarding of the house.....
I think they have realised that when we hand in our notice they are not going to be able to 'easily' show other prospective tennants around the house

HI, we have rented for the past 2yr, we have been here since Aug and the landlord knows we have/had 4dogs. He was fine about it, no extra deposit needed as the hosue needs work doing to it so it couldnt get any worse. Our last Landlord wanted £100 per dog extra.