I live in a townhome with a 6 foot wooden fenced back yard. I usually do not think apartments are ideal for Goldens. At the same time, I do not think people who live in apartments should be denied ownership if they have other resources to make it work like dogsitters and extra long walks. I think houses with wooden back fences are great for Goldens and the bigger the yard, the better.

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Birthdate: February 5th 2012

Gotcha Day: March 30th 2012

We live in a town home on base. Lots of sidewalks to walk on, and when the weather gets nicer out, Germany has wonderful walking paths. There is an old softball field not far from my house that is used as a small dog park, nothing fancy, but my kids take Ellie there to run her around. I normally do the walking, but they let her burn energy! We are the middle house in a set of 3. She's just learning about the neighbor kids (they have toddlers, mine are 16 & 10). The socialization aspect of being here in a close community is fantastic for her!


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We live in an apt and Retto does well. When she was younger it was hard to get her enough excerise since we did not have a dog park in the complex yet. I had to take her a few long walks around the complex a day, Made sure i came home at lunch when ever possible.

There is a dog park in the complex now, so we will take her there at least once a day for a half hour. Usually there are other dogs there if not she gets the play fetch.

I have always tried to take her to the big dog park thats about 10-15min drive away (once it opened) or hiking on the weekends. She has also been going to daycamp once a week for the past few months.

It is a bit tough being in an apt but its possible, now that we are looking for houses a nice sized yard is the list of must haves.

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I live in a one bedroom apartment, 3rd floor with two dogs and two humans . I honestly don't think where you live really matters when it comes to getting a dog - its the person getting the dog that matters. There are many people out there who have large lots of land where their dogs are mistreated and neglected while there are people who live in tiny studios who make it work because they love their dog and make time to take them to parks etc. (It goes both ways, but my point is you shouldn't get a dog unless you're main priority is the dogs happiness). Obviously it would be ideal to have the space readily available - I am very excited for my boyfriend to close on his house so we can just open the back door to go play, but I love our trips to the dog park where I get to play soccer one (human) vs. pack of dogs!

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"Nothing can bring more happiness than a Golden Retriever"

We live in a condo - a little under 800sqft including the balcony we don't really use.

We moved into the condo when Walnut was about 4 months old - prior to moving in, we lived in a pretty big house with big backyard (parents house).

Anyway. The transition was fine with Walnut.

From 4-9months he got daily dog walks for 1 hour, 15 minutes before we left for work, and another 1-1.5hr before sleep. Total of 2-3 hours per day.

When he turned 9months, we started weaning off the dog walks to teach him to be alone longer and longer.

He is now almost 15 months old, and stays home alone for about 10 hours from Mon-Friday.

Our schedule changed a bit without the dog walks. It goes like this now:

Morning walk: 30 minute walk around the block, pee, poo, etc. before work
After work walk: 30 minute walk around the block, pee, poo, etc.
Before bed play time: 1-1.5 hours at a public park by our condo
before bed training: 15 minutes training to mentally tire him out

He turned out to be a great dog. He's very attached, but also very independent. He doesn't chew anything other than his toys. If you put shoes, clothes, socks, and his toys all in a basket, he will move everything else to get to his toy.

He doesn't bark, growl, cry or anything, and plays well with everyone and all other dogs.


If we did not have the dog walks, and amount of time to train and work him out, i think things would have turned out a little differently. He basically isn't allowed to do anything without permission..which my parents think is mean, but we believe it helps him mentally.

For example, he cannot eat until told to do so, he cannot go on grass unless we tell him he can (or if he continuously glances at the grass), cannot leave the front door without ringing the bell, must sit behind every door on the way out of the condo until door is fully open, must only sit in the corner of the elevator. All of these have now become default behaviours...but we still enforce it and add new things to tired his mind.


He's finally getting neutered on Valentines day, and we're hoping the neutering doesn't change him...because he's perfect right now.

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Check out walnut on Facebook (don't forget to like for updates )
http://www.facebook.com/WalnutTheGoldenRetriever

I live in an apartment but it has a pretty large fenced in backyard (much bigger than the apartment). We used to live in a bigger house and honestly, I don't think it makes a hill of beans worth of difference to the dogs. They have the backyard to play in, go on walks, go to training (agility for Riley, so that's exercise), and go to the park. I really don't think it matters, although they do have the yard which I think does help a lot.

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-Valerie

We live in a house with a small yard. We spend a lot of time walking trails, in wooded areas nearby , in parks. So yes,we could manage in an apartment.
Yesterday we went to my son's house. They have an acre fenced in for their dogs. Jess and my son's golden spent most of the time at the door, wanting to get in with their people. In fact, they were in and out so much, I was thinking , much easier to just take them out for a long walk.

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[SIGPIC]

I have a three bedroom house with a fenced yard in town. Newman is so lazy though, most of the time he wants out just long enough to do his business in the yard and come back in. The only exception is when it is a little windy and he finds leaves to chase all over the carport

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I live in an appartment of about 120 square meters - 3 bedrooms and a big living/dining room with kitchen included - my dogs are allowed in every room except the bedrooms... I do walk my them in the mornings - when I get home from work at about 1pm and a loooong walk including obedience training and playing in the later afternoon - and of course special walks and hikes at the weekends ... they both are very quiet and cuddly dogs at home and kind of explode outside .. as far as I can tell, they are happy with their lifes

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Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and than wait to hear the answer.

Thank you everyone you are all awesome for giving me so much help I found a miniature Golden up for adoption but he was on hold for someone else but they said I would be next in line if they don't take him. Don't know much about miniature goldens but that they are small & mixed with cockerspaniel?