What's the biggest problem with dogs?

[The_Bludger]

Have just accepted a tenant who has a dog and 2 cats. Pets will be outside during the day, but will sleep in the house at night. All pets trained. House is generally all floorboards and tiles, has no curtains and carpet in the two bedrooms is pretty old anyway. Carpet needs replacing soonish(once they leave).

I have taken 5 weeks bond and there will be a pet clause in the contract. Apart from a few scratches in the walls maybe and the smell(who cares, I won't be living there), is there anything else I should be worried about? Long term smell, etc. House will be inspected after 3 months.

 

[wylie]

We always accept dogs (except vicious ones). Our main concern is whether they will eat the neighbouring children .

We also have polished floors so there is nothing much that can be damaged. The only damage left by the last tenants who had two dogs was that the back door had some scratches where they had scratched to get in. We painted through the whole house anyway, so it was not really a problem. We have a dog and our doors are scratched, so perhaps that is why it is not such a bother to us.

If we had carpeted houses, I would be much more wary and picky about letting them inside.

The other thing is they can dig up a yard, but we have never had any issues with this so far.

I believe we have a much better chance of getting tenants by allowing dogs because so many landlords refuse to have any pets, and reduce the pool of prospective renters by doing so.

 

[kathryn d]

We like dog people, mostly.
Children do much more damage.

 

[Alabex]

Problems i have seen in Property Management in my time:

Dogs: Scratches on wooden framed doors (wanting to be let in), stratches on floorboards from dogs standing up after lieing down on it, greasy/dirt marks to light coloured tiles from dog lieing on them, smell in carpet, digging up plants, making wear marks in lawns, clean up of doggy doo on lawns at the end.

Cats: scratches/holes in flyscreen, tears to curtains, cords at the bottom of verticals broken, smell in carpet, clawing at carpet can cause some pilling...

But having said that i have never seen anything that dramatic that a bond wouldn't fix. And like has been said before children cause alot more damage!

 

[Puppeteer]

Some dogs like to eat reticulation. That's been my biggest problem with them. I've vitually replaced 4 complete retic networks due to various dogs. I don't allow pets in the houses I have any more mainly because of this, and the resultant damage to the garden when they don't get watered.

 

[rambada]

Always had tenants with dogs - just had one with kids. After fixing the place up after the kids, we will always always favour pet owners over kid owners!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

The bggest problem with dogs? That breeds like poodles and chihuahuas are allowed to breed with impunity. Yeesh.

Mark

 

[wylie]

The bggest problem with dogs? That breeds like poodles and chihuahuas are allowed to breed with impunity. Yeesh.

Mark

You come over to my place and say that..... I'll set my toy poodle on ya.

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

You come over to my place and say that..... I'll set my toy poodle on ya.

Hey! What happened to my ankles?

Mark

 

[kathryn d]

You come over to my place and say that..... I'll set my toy poodle on ya.

And I'll set my chihuahua on ya.
Pound for pound, he is a vicious dog.(protective wise)

 

[fernfurn]

Biggest problem I had was with the owner of the one rottweiller I let in. Dog used to run full pelt barking his head off and crash at the wire back fence eventually pushing it over. Then had 8 puppies owner didnt get rid of until they were practically full grown. This was a unit type backyard and the smell in summer from faeces was revolting but the worst problem was his way of dealing with this was to get a shovelful of faeces and dirt and turn it over, quite soon making all the backyard raw dirt which the dogs then walked in. In Melb back in the days of rain, so it was a quagmire as well. Very aggressive person to try and talk to as well. Ah the joys of landlording.

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

People with dogs don't have problems with burgalars.

 

[MonSqueek]

In my opinion the problem is never with dogs themseves... but rather their owners..... It all depends on how responsible they are and how much care they take of a dog. (or cat)

Any dog- regardless of size, sex or breed if left in the back yard alone, not played with, trained or interacted with will become distuctive and engage in nusance barking ectra.... the very same dog with responsible owners who exercise, engage with and train that every same dog would NOT be any problem for a landlord.

I have been registered breeding, training, rescuing and showing dogs since I was old enough to walk. Its very, very, very rarley about the DOG and 99% of the time about the owner.

If you take the time to make a judgement on the PERSON making the application and not their pet owing status your likley to have better tenants. Dont discount a pet owner simply becasue of the pet. MOST of the time I think that pet owners will be better tennants because we apreciate how much harder it is to find a rental that accept animals on the lease too.

Some of the things that would indicate a responsible pet owner include:

*Is the pet microchipped?

*Is it desexed? If not the only acceptable reasons are its too young yet OR it is a pure breed, show quality animal with registed CCC papers - ask to see the papers. No papers the animal should be desexed.

*Is there a supporting letter from their vet? This shows the animal gets regualr vertinary care. Irresponsible pet owners dont spend money on their pets for things like routine check ups, parasite preventatives and vaccinations- Ask to see vaccination records these should be obtainable from the vet on request.

Just these few questions can tell you alot about a pet owner.... If they can say yes to all of the above its a pretty good bet the animal means the world to them and they are prepared to do whatever is neccicary to keep it - including ensuring it does no damage to your property. If they can answer yes to all of the above and seem knowlagable about animal husbandary I would think that they are no more of a risk then any other non-pet owning tennant all other factors being equal.

If they dont answer yes to all of the above then I would wonder how responsible they are about owning their pets and in turn - how responsibly cared for the pets and the property will be.