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My boyfriend and I are moving to the Albany area this summer where I will be attending graduate school. We are very interested in living in the Colonie area. Although we have found many great apartments and homes to rent, it has been quite impossible to find somewhere that will accept our dog. We have a two year old mastiff/rottweiler/lab mix, and apparently if a dog is any mix of rottweiler, she is a restricted breed. She is trained, attends "doggie daycare" twice a week, and loves people and pets of all ages. My parents have offered to care for her while I am in school, but I cannot imagine 28 months without her. If anyone is renting a house, or knows someone who is renting a house that would be willing to meet her before restricting her, I would be very appreciative! Thank you!
Look in Albany too. With the mass exodus of students next month you might find landlords to be a little more flexible on pet restrictions just in order to get a renter this time of year. I know it's not Colonie, but you might have luck in Troy too.
Keep looking - you're bound to find someone sympathetic to your big, wonderful beast.
You'll have better luck with individual landlords than larger apartment complexes -- the latter generally have these blanket insurance policies with that long list of "restricted breeds" whereas landlords who own a building or two are sometimes more flexible. Both my current and last apartments were listed as "no dogs," but I made the call and met the landlords anyway. Sometimes you've got to reach out and take a chance that you'll make a good impression when you see the unit and the "no dogs" listing is actually flexible and just meant to ward off people who aren't interested in making an effort. Though, sometimes they mean it.
And to clarify before anyone jumps on this, I did not sneak my dog into my apartment or lie to my landlord about having one. I did however call the landlord about the listing to say, Hey, I'm a responsible dog owner with a well behaved dog. Can we talk about under what circumstances you would allow a dog in the unit?
I had the same problem when I moved out here with our dog. The advice were given was to look in the Gazette, its one of the local newspapers. Sure enough it worked. We were able to rent a house with a small deposit fee for any damages our dog might make. We moved out a year later and got our whole deposit back.
I take issue with this "you'll have better luck with individual landlords" line of thinking. As a small time landlord, I've had 'landlord policies' with a couple different insurance companies and they have all been VERY clear and firm on the dog breed restrictions.
The couple of landlord friends I know agree with me - they would not do anything that adds to their liability by giving their inurance company a reason to drop them or not cover a claim due to violation of these restrictions. I'd be concerned that any landlord that went against their insurance company might be unscrupulous in other ways too, or desparate, or taking advantage of your situation.
Sorry, I know this doesn't give a lot of advice or optimism to readers, but may help explain their difficulties finding rentals with certain pets. Blame the insurance carriers. That said, when I lived in Albany, there was no shortage of pit bulls. Assuming not all pit bull owners are homeowners, someone must be renting to them (unless the tenants are lying about dog / breed).
I didn't mean to suggest that the smaller landlords I dealt with violated their insurance policies, but that they had insurance policies that did not disallow certain breeds.
What's your price range for rent? I imagine that would make a big difference. If landlords have to pay more for a policy that will allow "restricted" breeds, then that would obviously need to be reflected in rent.
Please do not put your dog on craigslist, it is a known fact that many dog fighters go on there looking for dogs.
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