dog in dorm?!

[roxydiva]

ok this is totally random, but has anyone ever successfully kept an animal in a dorm room? i just got a 2 pound toy chihuahua, and it breaks my heart to imagine leaving him at home this school year! now i have a single room at school, thats fairly good sized. has anyone ever managed to keep a pet with them? if you have, any tips? once again, sorry this is totally random and off the wall! haha

roxydiva

[straightBOS]

My suitemate last year got a kitten. It was the cutest little thing-- but it had to go. They fed it out of "people bowls" and then put the bowls in the sink with the other dishes. She ketpt he litter box in the common room and it stunk up the place.

The last straw was when she bathed it in the bathroom sink. Might also add that she was one of the most disgusting people--hygiene-wise-- that I had ever met.

If she had been a better suitemate, maybe the cat could have stayed, but since she was not, I had to "let the cat out of the bag".

[Peaches-n-Cream]

My roomie had a goldfish. It didn't last the year.
Some guy had a ferret in my dorm. It looked like he was walking a rat!

[Kevin]

A friend of mine at Oklahoma State tells me that in the dorms they practice a 3 minute rule with pets.

That is if it can survive 3 minutes underwater it is okay to keep in your dorm room.

To this day I've never heard of a dog or cat that holds its breath for 3 minutes.

[Eirene_DGP]

I had a fish in my room, but he didn't last a semester. He decided to commit suicide and jump onto the counter. Unfortunately, I was not there when he did and he is in Fish heaven right now.

[aephi alum]

ktsnake, have they actually applied that test to a dog or cat??

Several people in my dorm kept cats. The only pets we were allowed were fish... one guy actually named his cat Fish so that if he were asked if he had any pets, he could truthfully say, "Just Fish." My dorm had suites - usually people with cats would let their cat have the run of the common areas and keep the suite door closed, so the cat had a little more space to run around in. (Kept the mouse problem down, too! )

I would be very careful with a dog. They need a lot of attention and care, much more so than cats. If you leave a dog alone all day in a small dorm room, he is not going to be a happy dog.

[JMUduke]

i think it would be a really bad idea to keep a dog in a dorm. you are going to be busy with classes and socializing, so when willl you have the chance to take it outside to go to the bathroom and for all the exercise it needs?!? even little dogs need lots of attention and exercise, if faced with boredom they might tend to chew things up to relieve it...plus you will be spending a lot of money on dog food...but really i think that trying to hide a dog in your dorm is just a terrible idea....you need to think twice before subjecting your dog to this torture.

[Hootie]

If they don't accept dogs then DON'T DO IT! Why you ask? When we got our puppy, we didn't have a lot of time to train her. She was fine being home alone, but the initial process of learning how to potty train it was a failure. She's now 4 months old and still potties on the floor occassionally...which does NOT sit well with my mom (now that I moved back home). Not to mention my puppy, when left alone, sometimes got into things....it's harder I'd imagine in a dorm room because you don't really have an area to gate off. Make sure you have a crate at least...and be very patient. She's bound to do something like pee on the carpet, chew up a shoe, or keep the neighbors awake.
I'd advise against it until she's potty trained at least.
Hootie

[PenguinTrax]

NO! Dogs take as much care as a small child. Imagine hiding a small baby in your dorm room for hours on end, sneaking it out just to change diapers, sneaking around to feed it, etc.

Small dogs require lots of attention and need exercise just like larger dogs. Unless you are going to be able to rent an apartment and go home every few hours to let it outside and play with it, the dog should stay at home with people that can care for it.

As far as potty-learning - for every month in age, that's how many hours between trips outside. A four month old dog needs to be taken out every 4 hours. Also, dogs should be fed on a schedule so you can know exactly when they need to 'go'.

[juniorgrrl]

My freshman year, my floor had fleas. Specifically, the room I ended up moving into when I transferred to LSU. I'd meet people and tell them my room number and they'd say "OH! The flea room." How did the fleas get in? From someone bringing pets.

Please don't do it, its cruel to the animal and will more than likely annoy the other residents. Plus, you would jeopardize your spot in your nice private room.

[DeltAlum]

Probably the most important point here is that it simply isn't fair to the animal. Dorm rooms are small. Even cats need places to roam and play.

All of the other things notwithstanding (fleas, potty training, etc.), this is a bad idea for the animal's sake.

[lilsnakeyk]

This past year, my suite and I had a virtual menagerie of animals, and the RA didn't find out about any of them.

We had:

* A kitten (the litterbox was in somebody's room under the bed)
* Two miniature hamsters
* 7 Beta fish
* A frog
* and a turtle

You would think with all of those animals in there, plus twelve girls it would start to stink, but our suite still smelled better than any other suite in the building.

On a side note, our kitten, Skippy, was the most good natured cat you would ever meet. He could sense when any of us were having a bad day, he just went around spreading sunshine to everyone who needed it. It was pretty adorable when he would fall asleep in somebody's pile of stuffed animals.

He was also deathly afraid of the two mini-hamsters. We would put them in their little balls, so they could roll around wherever they wanted to in the suite, but poor little Skippy just could not handle that those balls were moving all on their own.

[DRau]

i think it would be a really bad idea to keep a dog in a dorm. you are going to be busy with classes and socializing, so when willl you have the chance to take it outside to go to the bathroom and for all the exercise it needs?!?

You are going to be very busy, and you will probably start to feel bad because not only will you have to find the time to take it to the bathroom and to walk it, but you cannot give the dog the attention it is going to crave.

Can you imagine being locked up in a room 8-10 hours of the day with no one else there? I sure feel guilty leaving my kitty at home when I have to come to work everyday!

[KillarneyRose]

Originally posted by straightBOS
My suitemate last year got a kitten. It was the cutest little thing-- but it had to go. They fed it out of "people bowls" and then put the bowls in the sink with the other dishes. She ketpt he litter box in the common room and it stunk up the place.

The last straw was when she bathed it in the bathroom sink. Might also add that she was one of the most disgusting people--hygiene-wise-- that I had ever met.

If she had been a better suitemate, maybe the cat could have stayed, but since she was not, I had to "let the cat out of the bag".

Sounds like you should have kept the kitten and booted the roommate!

It still p**ses me off to remember this, but my brother-in-law and his housemates would get a dog every year at the beginning of school, keep it throughout the school year, and then just set it loose when school was over and they all had to move home. Then, come fall, they'd start over again. They went through three or four dogs this way, and as far as I know they don't know or care what happened to any of them.

[valkyrie]

Hey, I have a question -- if you have a dog, shouldn't you be looking to move into an apartment where you can actually have a dog?