Just to come back quickly on a recent thread that has been locked, on the point of having puppies when you live in a flat. I think a lot of people believe it to be impossible, unfair, unmanageable etc... Well, I am originally from France where people in towns generally live in flats. There is no such thing as town houses for everyone like in England and only a few very priviledged people can boast to own a garden.
So the vast majority of people owning dogs and not living in the countryside keep them in flats. I have personally raised 2 dogs while living in a flat. My current dog -Golden Retriever is one of them. It is possible but it is a LOT of work and dedication. I was studying from home when i had him and had to take him down to the patch of grass behind the block every hour for the first month. Then I could anticipate when he'd need to go but obviously, there was a lot of pee to be cleaned for MONTHS.
I even moved while he was still being trained to a place with no lift and had to carry him up and down 4 flights of stairs every 2 hour when he was already pretty heavy! Kept me fit! He was faultless day and night by the age of 6 months.
Everyone I know back there has had to do the same and people just deal with it. Also, as there are a lot less 'green' areas in towns (that's what I love about it here in the UK, so much grass, so many trees in towns!), he had to be trained to go on concrete which is a bit unnatural to dogs. Still, I easily trained him to go in the gutter as is acceptable over there.
So far, he was more of a success regarding housetraining then my current puppy bitch even though I now have a garden!!

Anyway, just to say that even though the person sending that other thread was completely out of order to me, one shouldn't judge too quickly people trying to keep dogs with different lifestyles that may not sound 'ideal' to most of us, but are nevertheless acceptable as long as they do it with love and dedication.

I quite agree with you. I lived in a flat for several years and had dogs at the time. I found that I was more likely to take my dogs for a walk than to just let them out into the garden, making me fitter ;-)

I have a lady who will be renting a flat from me, she has just seperated from he OH and she has a lab that she does not want to lose, as a dog owner we allow a dog so she is moving in. Dont penalise everyone in flats as the writer said it just takes more work.

I agree, similar background. I'm from Sweden and the majority of people, unless pretty well off, live in flats so a LOT of dog owners live in flats. It isn't nice to live on the 6th floor and try to housetrain a puppy, but it can be done! I notice how lazy I've got though since living in England as I was visiting my mum in Sweden in the same flat last summer, and as we were entered in the world show had one dog with us. I hated having to go out late at night and early in the morning, getting dressed, taking the lift etc, when normally I just open the back door. And you can NEVER skimp on the walks. So in many ways far better for the dogs! Plus they get a lot more socialised.

my brother recently came back to uk from usa and they dont walk dogs over there! they have a small dog like a yorkie and it goes on training pads in the house!

I stayed with a friend of mine who lives in a flat on the second floor- and I took Stormy along for the sleep over. It gave me a new respect for people who have the dedication to raise a dog without a garden! After the weekend I was sick of taking her outside, two flights of steps, past the neighbours onto a tiny piece of grass! She usually just asks at the back door to go out then goes for a mooch until she wants to come back in. Now that I know how much I hated it there is no way I would live in a flat ever again (lets hope I have that choice available to me!) However, just because having a dog in a flat is a lot mroe work, doesn't mean people shouldn't do it- they just need to fully realise just how hard it is going to be before they take a dog into their life.