I was working to help place this Boerboel dog in Toronto when I saw someone once again comment on the “I wish I had a big yard for him” and that made me wonder if lots of potentially good homes were wrongly self-selecting themselves “out of the bidding” for dogs, thus I wanted to discuss that a sec.

In a quick search of Boerboel/Apartment, I see lots of this sort of sentiment in response to people considering a Boerboel for an apartment:

Are you serious? I think its cruel to keep a dog that size in an apartment! Large mastiff type breeds need space to run or they loose there proper muscle mass unless you have nice size yard you should not own mastiff type breeds.

(In the above thread, someone asserts that a Jack Russel Terrorist is the ideal apartment dog. WTF??! Have you ever seen those guys go?! Those are NOT recommended for any apartment I’d be in, anyway.)

First off, in full disclosure, we currently have a large yard. But our house — a renovated cottage at best described as “quaint” — is really small by most people’s standards (approx. 1000sq.ft.)

That said, note that we have lived in an two bedroom apartment briefly with the kids and dogs, and in some ways that worked out really well. So let me take in some myths:

1) Big dogs need a house, but small dogs “fit better” in an apartment.

Um. Not only is this not necessarily true, I suspect in a lot of cases the opposite is true. There is HUGE variance in breed characteristic here, but a mature Boerboel who has had a bit of high quality play time is quite happy to curl up on the couch and not move for a big chunk of time. I have 3 dogs (just under 400lbs of dog, actually) and I have lots of room for more.

2) Big dogs need a big yard

This is something I can only imagine is passed down from person to person as a fact (I believed the same myself before I got my first GSD) but it is not really based on any real canine observation that I have seen. It is at least very very breed specific. Large, social breeds such as Boerboels, GSDs and Danes, etc. want to be with the pack, typically. In most cases, you are the pack and they’ll go outside to pee and bark at the kid next door, but then in four minutes they want in to see what you’re up to. Maybe you’re putting your coat on? Are those car keys?

When we lived in an apartment, it was a bit of a bother to walk down the stairs in winter with a sick dog at 2am in your pyjamas, but it wasn’t much worse than opening the door and waiting for them to return from the yard. I learned to appreciate a lot about how the city looked through the seasons, etc. and during various hours, and it was really quite good for the “brain chemicals” of the dog — but also the me — to be out and active and connected as often as we were. As a side benefit, I noticed I was into socializing my dogs much more actively as well, as there were kids, crossing guards, bicycles, drunks, etc. for them to take in and deal with. Now that I’m back in a house, I find I need to take them for walks or runs to burn off energy that I didn’t have to do when walks were part of my three times daily routine.

My “large yard” is used as a toilet, mostly, and still a number of times a week we need to go for runs or load the dogs up in the car and go to some (even more) rural location, and hike cross country or walk the lakeshore or whatever, to burn off our excess energy as a group, before falling back into the house to sleep on the sofa. You can do that just as easily from a downtown condo, or a suburban house, or a farm.

3) Big dogs need lots of excercise

I think this is correct, actually, but it’s no different than any sized dog, big or small (remember that Jack Russel? He’d better be getting some serious workout!): Most breeds need to have some stimulation, physically and mentally, and that can be helped via exercise. Big dogs need no more than small dogs, all things being equal.

Anyway, my overall point is that if you’re good enough at discipline about taking the dogs for lots of daily walks, no matter what’s on your social calendar, etc. for better or for worse, then maybe you can take a large dog in, even if your house isn’t a massive mansion with a couple acres out back. Be honest about the time you can spend though, as that is the real limiting issue.

Ron