Working with apartment's breed restrictions.

[pax8]

I never cease to find it interesting that despite the fact that countless apartments in my area specifically ban pitbull type dogs, many of my friends and coworkers who live in those apartments are able to keep their pits and pit mixes because the dogs are labeled as boxer or mastiff or lab mixes with their vets and the city. Of course, we don't know for sure if any of those dogs that look purebred are actually purebred, but apparently that is part of the reason the apartments don't seem to care? As long as the dog is a rescue, and doesn't cause trouble, there seems to be a general attitude of "there's really no telling what it could be."


And now I'm trying to decide what to do about my situation. I have been looking at several pits and pit mixes at the shelter and my apartment is one of those that has a breed based restriction on pits....but there are clearly five or more pits living in the complex. In talking with my landlord, she seemed to be clear that she didn't feel like she could judge them as pits unless they were actually from a breeder that sent the person home with paperwork. As long as the dogs don't cause trouble, she's more than happy to go along with their vet and city registration as boxer/etc mixes. I feel like it would not be a problem for me to adopt one as long as I put it down as a boxer mix. Plus my landlord absolutely loves me and loves the fact that my dogs are always CGC titled and competitive in sports. It just seems odd that a prejudice so often judged solely on the dog's look can be changed so quickly by one word on a registration tag.

Does anyone else have experience with this or am I just in a weird area that doesn't care? 

[maryellen]

when I lived in my apt the complex allowed pitbulls. then a pitbull bit a 2yr old in the face in the complex.after that they were not allowed anymore unless the complex office met the dog.i was allowed to bring another in if I wanted as the complex knew how responsible I was. I decided not to as if the owner felt a stick up his butt he could have all dogs banned and it wouldn't be fair to the dog. I feel that just because others break the law and say their dogs are other breeds doesn't mean I will.. but that is just me. a lot of places will take a paper on what the dog is, while some will go by looks.. all it takes is one dog to bite someone and it will be bad for all the dogs there that look like a pit..

[emilys]

well, if you get a shelter dog, you DONT know what breed/mix it is (technically speaking.. of course an expert CAN tell to a reasonable degree if a dog is likely to be an APBT or AST). I don't see anything wrong with calling your shelter dog a "mixed breed" (or "terrier mix" or "boxer mix" or "bulldog mix" or whatever you think is most plausible

[RealPitBull]

If you truly don't know what it is and your landlord doesn't seem to care, then you may be ok and get away with it, especially if your landlord already has Pit Bulls living in the complex, knows you and has met the dogs and likes them. However, I personally wouldn't be comfortable living in a place that specifically bans Pit Bulls, even if I had a "shelter mutt" that didn't have papers. If I reasonably thought my dog was a Pit Bull, and could potentially be identified as such, I'd be too nervous. You never know when something could happen, a mishap between two dogs/a person, someone complains and suddenly the landlord is evicting everything of unknown origin that "looks like a Pit Bull".

I do find it a little odd that the landlord allows dogs that look like Pit Bulls, but would automatically not approve APBTs if they happened to be registered as such. Usually it's dogs that look a certain way, period. In a sense, that's lucky - for the shelter/rescue dogs; for those of us with registered dogs, that kinda sucks. It's something I'm seeing more and more, though - as long as it's not a registered APBT, AmStaff, or SBT, it's "not a Pit Bull" and seems to get away with not being included in certain restrictions.

[pax8]

The big thing is for insurance reasons. The apartment complex's insurance provider won't cover liability for dog incidences that involve an APBT or AST (as well as a couple other breeds). But if the dog has no papers, then she says she can't claim to know exactly what type of dog someone may have. Of course, she's also pretty clear that while she is very lenient, a police officer or someone else would not be as lenient if someone's dog were involved in an incident and it may result in expulsion of the resident if the officer, company representative or second party involved felt that the dog was a APBT or AST.

On a second note, I just found out that their insurance company WILL do exemptions for restricted breeds that have earned their CGC

[RealPitBull]

^ That's great that the insurance company will do exemptions!

P.s. The dog in your avatar is gorgeous!

[pax8]

Ha, thanks, that one is Kaiju, my current dog. I was definitely excited to find out my apartment does exemptions as Kaiju would love to have a pittie brother or sister (as well as another dog for me to do sport and therapy work with!)

[suziriot]

Agree that the best option is to get that exemption. Kaiju is so cute! And I love that name lol! One of mine is nicknamed Kaiju Moo Moo.