I really don't know if I agree with that [USER=71]@NikkiR[/USER]. You say that most dogs are quite lazy and love to sleep for many hours and that is true, at the same time they love to run and as well and have the space to do it. They might get depressed being in a confined space.

If the dog is happy and healthy living in the kennel when his master goes to work, then it is ok. It is a common thing for people who have a job to go through and many dogs are contented with the situation.

I don't see any wrong with it. I rather know that the dog has a home than knowing the owner dumps the dog at a shelter to be killed.

I have a guy living next door to where I live now in the top flat and he has a rottweiler and we rarely ever see him take it out or if it does go out it's usually in the front garden which is his garden and it's tied up outside which doesn't give him much exercise. I always believe that if you have a dog you should be prepared to take it out a few times a day for a walk or run for it to get the exercise. Seeing a dog trapped in a small flat or tied up in a garden is not my idea of looking after an animal.

I once rented a room with a lady who was an international student at the university I was going to. She was doing her masters but her family was rich enough to buy her a house. She had a lovely little Samoyed girl who lived in a cage. Her training was totally disregarded and she would jump all over you and if you were not careful, she would scratch, push you down accidentally. She was also not trained to walk with you on a leash properly either since she was indoors all day except to go out to potty.

What I'm trying to say is that, dogs, big or small, need room to walk, run, play. The bigger they are the more space they will need. Some working dogs need much more exercise than others. A Samoyed had plenty of energy to burn and this little one directed her energy to "give trouble" since she couldnt get to go on her walks. Each dog also has a temperament and a personality so they all have different behaviours as well.

What you'll sometimes find is that the dog will become frustrated by being cooped up in the flat all day, and it will start to misbehave.

The owner may then blame the dog for the way it's behaving, when really it's the owner that should be looking at their own actions.

I think some dogs do better in a small space than others. Greyhounds are large dogs...but they're sprinters and don't really need more than a couple of long walks a day. They sleep most of the time. Adult Great Danes are huge but they're lazy couch potatoes most of the time. A small dog might be able to run around and get all the exercise it needs chasing a ball in the living room. Some breeds are more independent and don't mind being alone. I think it's more a matter of matching your realistic lifestyle expectations with the needs common to the breed. There are definitely dogs who could be happy in an apartment or small space. Others might be okay if they got a lot of exercise or went to a doggie daycare to play while the owner was at work.

Exactly, it's a vicious cycle. One of the dogs I had when I was a kid we had to give him away because we were living in a flat. It was really painful for me, but at the end of the day it was the best for him.

It would not be a bad idea to have a dog in a flat since dogs adjust to the environment they have been exposed to. However, the best approach is to have the dog brought up in a flat from their infancy as a grown up dog would experience alot of stress if brought from an expansive compound to a smaller hamlet.

Well It entirely depends of your dog's breed. Some large sized dogs don't require so much activity, compared to some small or medium sizes dogs, like shiba or akita inu. The miniature pinschers are very restless but they can fit very well in small flats given its ludicrously small sizes. They need high activity periods, nevertheless.

I don't think dogs should be cooped up in an apartment at all. It's even worse when companionship is not available to it at all times. They are extremely social beings and feel the absence of their owners quite terribly. I think dogs only make sense when there are wide open spaces and the company of other dogs available.

That's precisely how I think too. Sure, we love dogs and we want to have one, but if we are living in a flat we should seriously consider if we are being selfish in having one in such a confined space.

I respect animals a lot so it totally puzzles me to see people that have big dogs stuck in a flat all day. I have a friend who is exactly like this and when he gets home after work and goes out with the dog for some minutes the poor animal is pure joy, in opposition to when he return home for let's say 23 more hours or close stuck there. Should we have a dog if we live in a flat?

This same thing was experienced by my friend's dog as well. SO i just asked him to keep his dog with us while goes to work, as we have a backyard where the dog can play with my dog and thus have some outdoor time as well, to ensure that the dog is not depressed.

23 hours a day indoors, would just depress the dog, nothing else. You can have a dog inside a flat, but you need to make sure that the dog is spending 4 to 5 hours outside each day to ensure that the dog is not depressed.

So much that we can't predict where we live with our dogs but it's very important that we put our pets in consideration while looking for a nice place to live.

Having a big dog in a flat isn't bad but the only solution is to make sure that they take walks before you leave the house and then when you are back, you take them out again in the field.