Finding a rental house, condo or apartment that will accept pets can be a bit of a challenge. Over the years I’ve learned a lot about finding dog and cat-friendly accommodations from “cozy” studio apartments, to lovely guest houses, luxury doorman buildings, and everything in between. It did take time and patience, but in the end I was always successfully in finding a safe and welcoming home for my entire family, including all my four-pawed kids. Read on for my tips for finding your ideal pet-friendly rental, and you’ll be happily unpacking in your new home in no time!

Where can you find pet-friendly rental listings? One of the first places you can contact is your local animal shelter or humane society. Some maintain printed or online listings of pet-friendly landlords, buildings, or even offer the old fashioned pushpin bulletin boards with vacancies posted. Other places you can look for listings in person, aside from the usual places (real estate offices, churches, community centers) are your local vets offices, pet boarding facilities, and pet supply stores.

There are also many rental listing websites that allow you to search for listings that allow dogs, cats, or both. For metropolitan markets and spreading into many rural communities too, the most well-known (and free) is Craigslist.org. If you can’t find a good free local website with a pet-ok search feature built in, one trick is you can use any rental listing site that allows searching by keyword. Try putting “pet” and “pets”, then “dog” or “dogs” or “cat” in the search box, you will bring up listings that say “dogs ok” or “small pet allowed.”

So, you see a listing that piques your interest, and you’re ready to email or call. If listings say “pets considered” or “pets welcome” (or even just do not say “no pets”), those of us with multiple pets, larger dogs and certain breeds of dogs may need to be very convincing that we are as good or better a tenant as a pet-less applicant. I’ve found it helps to have a bit of conversation first, establishing a rapport with the landlord/manager, and then ask them about their pet policy. Know your own skills: are you better “in person”, on the phone, or writing letters and pet resumes? If you can, when communicating with the landlord or management company about your pets and their pet policy, use your strongest skill first. That first impression can make the difference in getting their attention, and the property you desire.

If the landlord has any pet restrictions, it can help to mention that you would be willing to carry renters insurance. Farmers Insurance is one company known for its lack of breed discrimination, and offers $500,000 renter’s insurance for under $20/month.

Other reassurances that you can offer a landlord that may hesitate at first are: if your dog has passed his Canine Good Citizen test, if your previous landlords have provided a letter of reference for your pets’ good behavior, an invitation from you to them interview your friendly well-behaved pets, bringing cute pet photos with you when you first meet them, and/or offering an additional pet deposit to cover any possible damages.

Now get ready to sign on the dotted line for the pet friendly rental of your dreams!

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Getting ready to adopt a new puppy? These guidelines are not a complete guide to raising a puppy (there are entire books devoted to that topic!) but will give you some of the basics, to help you prepare for the arrival and first few months of your new puppy. This basic training, socialization, and guidelines can be used starting at the age of 8 weeks, the earliest age at which most people would be bringing a puppy into their home. If your puppy is slightly older, as long as they are under 6 months old, these steps can still be followed. For puppies older than 6 months, many of these tips still apply, but start with our 10 Tips For Welcoming Home Your Newly-Adopted Dog blog article, and stay tuned to this blog for future older puppy & dog training articles here too.

Prepare for puppy’s arrival

Being prepared can mean the difference between getting a good start, or getting started off on the wrong paw. A puppy needs a safe, warm environment. Being raised indoors with as much human contact as possible is critical at this stage.

* Puppy-proof a play area. Puppies will chew everything, from electrical wires to socks and shoes. You need a secure, puppy-proof, enclosed area and a crate for those times you cannot directly supervise your puppy (see our article about crate training for tips). Puppies typically are not housebroken, and should be kept in an area when it is ok to have accidents.

* Establish a daily routine from day one. A puppy feels secure having dinner, playtime, lessons and walks at the same time each day. Also, being left alone all day on Monday after having spent his entire first weekend with you can cause lots of anxiety! If you do bring him home on a weekend, leave him alone for progressively longer periods of time. Schedule your puppy’s feedings so that all meals are fed by 5-6 pm (if you go to bed at 11), and so your puppy drinks very little water after that. Be regular about your (and your puppy’s) bedtime and time getting up in the morning to help your puppy learn to hold it through the night.

* Establish your house rules. If you do not want your adult dog on the furniture or jumping up, do not allow the puppy on the furniture or to jump up. Ask all visitors (and family members!) to follow your house rules. No matter how cute it is when he’s tiny, most people do not want their full grown dog jumping on everyone.

* How you deal with crying, whining and barking. This depends your puppy’s age, temperament and experiences. There are preventative steps you can take for training your puppy not to cry in his crate during the night (which we will detail in our future crate-training blog article) but we’ll mention a key point: The worst thing to do is to let the puppy cry and bark for a long time, and then go get it out or give it attention. When you do that, you teach the puppy to PERSISTENTLY make noise in the crate, because you have shown the puppy that persistence pays! You don’t want to respond quickly to a puppy making noise in the crate, provided you are sure the puppy’s needs have been met.

Teaching basic commands

At the minimum, your dog should learn to come when called, walk on a leash and sit/stay.

* Never repeat a command. Repetition is dulling, and having the puppy ignore you when you say “come here come here come here” is training him NOT to come when called.

* Try saying “come here” in a fun, high tone of voice every time the puppy starts running towards you,and give the puppy lots of rewards/tummy rubs/verbal and food treats whenever he comes running to you.

* Say “Good sit!” every time the puppy sits for the first week. Then begin asking for a sit, and use a treat to lead the puppy by the nose toward you, then put your hand over the puppies head to so he looks up, and backs into a sit (this can take some practice – on your part!). You can also use your other hand or a wall to gently stop the puppy from backing up as you lead the nose up and back. Do not push down on their behind to ‘make’ them sit. You want to teach them to sit on their own!

* If the puppy does something undesirable, you can use a calm, firm “no”, but avoid a harsh tone and never yell and NEVER use physical punishment. Punishment and yelling serve only to make your puppy afraid of you. Cowering does not mean your puppy ‘knows’ he did something wrong, he is just reacting to your voice right at that moment and showing submission. It will not help him learn what is the right thing to do. If your puppy is cowering when you are verbally correcting him, use a softer tone of voice, and focus on rewarding the positive and avoiding/redirecting negative behaviors.

* Be consistent. Always use the same command to elicit the same result. Don’t use the same word to mean two different things. When you say “down” do you mean lie down or get off the counter? When you clap, does that mean “come here” or “stop chewing on that sofa leg”?

* Socialization during a puppy’s early months is critical. Time spent with the family means the puppy will become comfortable with the sights, smells and sounds that people make, and grow up accustomed to them, rather than afraid of them. Puppies can usually be left alone in a puppy-safe area (crate, kitchen, puppy run) for 1-2 hours for every month of age (i.e., a 2 month old puppy can be alone for 2-3 hours). Leaving young puppies alone for too long means they are not being properly socialized. Try to plan your absences during naptime, or play with your puppy to tire him out before leaving. Using safe toys to entertain while you are gone, such as rubber toys stuffed with goodies, can make time alone easier. Crates can make being alone less frightening as well, by giving them a small secure “den”.

What’s next?

With the basic guidelines above, you are off to a good start getting ready for your new puppy! You’ll want to read up on housebreaking, teaching bite inhibition, possibly crate training, and when your puppy is fully vaccinated (usually at 4  months old), walking on leash and exploring the world outside your home. Enroll your puppy in a puppy socialization class, and then follow up with  a good dog obedience class. Dog training and socialization are an ongoing process usually throughout a dog’s adolescence, and are a wonderful way for you and your dog to enjoy time together, and with other dogs.

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This week features a two stories, first an amazing story of Starfish, a severely abused dog who was rescued and given a second chance at life, second a man in Portland who has started a homeless pets food bank

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If you haven’t heard, we are promoting the use of Twitter and Adopt-a-Pet.com! The idea behind TwitterACritter is simple: if you find a pet on Adopt-a-Pet.com that you really want to see adopted, just click “Tweet Me” on that pet details page to share that pet with all your followers. It’s a simple action that can have a huge impact. Lots of celebrities have been catching on!  Kevin Nealon, Alyssa Milano, Denise Richards, Kristin Chenoweth, and many other celebrities have taken up the cause and tweeted links to their favorite shelter pets listed on Adopt-a-Pet.com. In each case, immediately after the celebrity’s tweet, hundreds of their followers tweeted homeless pets as well… and their followers tweet, and so on and so on. The celebrities create an avalanche of compassion!

To learn more about TwitterACritter and how you can help by Tweeting a homeless pet go to http://www.TwitterACritter.com. You can follow the campaign on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/TweetACritter

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