I'm having a dilemma really, for a while now I've wanted a pet, I had a cat for a few years (family pet) but we mutually disliked each other so my view of cats is somewhat poor. Lack of loyalty, general disinterest and laziness of a cat are very unappealing for me, on the flip-side they're quite good companions (if it likes you) and are much less of a hassle, cheaper for veterinary bills and much more suited to the situation I'm in.

I'm currently at university in Bristol (UK), and whilst I live on the outskirts of the city centre, I may in future years choose to live in the city centre, which aren't very suited for pets in general. I'm drawn to dogs more, in particular, I'm very keen on german shepards, who are exactly the opposite of cats, they're big, noisy, attention seeking, very active and very loyal, I really like the idea of having a german sheppard as a pet, but I'm 19, never taken full unaided care of a dog in my life, living on a budget with housemates who may or may not like dogs. I love the idea of growing up with a dog, I had a dog until recently when it was hit by a car, and I feel so empty without a pet. I'd like to adopt a German Shep. from a local shelter, young, below 1 year, but what's really putting me off is for the next 3 years I don't know my situation, and I really don't want to make a stupid decision, whereby I adopt the dog, then after a few months realise it's too much or have to give it up because my housemates are scared of it. I'd hate to form a bond with the dog to then end up returning him/her to the shelter, it'd kill me. 

Long story short...(because I have lots of other things which I've battled in my head) Has anyone else been in this situation, or known anyone who at university adopted a domestic pet, and how they dealt with it, what are people's experiences & suggestions, please the more detail the better, I promise to take time to read through peoples responses.

Thanks in advance. 

No offence but this is LCPDFR.com not the student room. Most of the replies you're likely to get will be from people studying in different countries or at different universities. Hell you'll probably even get replies from children or adults not in university.

You'd be much better off having such a discussion on the student based forums, but I would advise you to contact your accommodation services first, whether thats your university or a 3rd party student housing (so a landlord) to see what they say, you'll probably find they wont let you have pets of any kind.

Nonetheless I will leave this topic open for now, it is after all general discussion.

Unless you are living with parents for University, your choices for accommodation will be limited.

Your first option is probably student halls, or private student accommodation. Unless you have a lot of money, space for yourself will be limited, I cannot imagine anything other than something like a hamster living with you in such circumstances. At best, you might even have your own bathroom.

And I guess your second option would be private rent. Most likely you'd be sharing with other students, and this runs into its own set of problems. Are any of the other students allergic? Does the landlord even allow pets? If the pet damages the property - who is responsible? Who will clean up after it?

The possibility you'll be able to look after something like a dog is unlikely.

When I was in Baltimore, Maryland, I take a look at how much would a person spend if the said person was to own a dog. It was quite an amount. And I can imagine that having a dog in London would be twice as that... 

Adding to what Cyan said, having a pet may limit your accommodation choices simply because some landlords might not allow pets in their properties. Here in Aberystwyth, the uni doesn't allow students to have pets in student halls, and many private landlords say no pets allowed on their adverts. However, Aberystwyth is a pretty small town, so you might have a larger pool of more lenient landlords in a large town like Bristol, so you may want to do some accommodation research first.

You need to answer all of the questions you posed to yourself up above before you can consider getting a pet. A German Sheppard is not a dog you leave alone for a prolonged period of time, or have in a small space. It has a ton of energy that it needs to release every day through playing or performing a work task. If you have too much work to do, and you live in an apartment where it won't have a room of its own and wide open space to roam around, then its the wrong dog for you. Dogs that can be left alone and are low energy are largely in the terrier family. Examples of bigger or more masculine dogs you can leave alone in a smaller space would be:

-Bulldogs (both American and British)

-Great Danes (Scooby Doo! A dog I'm considering for myself in the future)

-Akitas (Cousin of the Husky that doesn't bark as much but the apartment must be air conditioned, as they are built for cold temperatures, and will overheat easier than other dogs)

-Bullmastiffs


I recommend all of these dogs for single males who live in an apartment or house because they are nice, friendly, easy-going dogs that appear as though they can protect you, potentially making someone approaching you with ill intentions while walking your dog a lot less likely, or a home invasion a lot less likely. They still have energy to expend, but not nearly as much. Great Danes are very lazy. They enjoy lying around and they are nick-named the worlds largest lap dogs because they for some reason behave as though they are much smaller than they actually are. Ironically the Great Danes were bred as war dogs, meant to be large enough to take down infantry men, but all of the aggression has been bred out of them, so you have something that looks like it will gladly fight any human, but turns out to be exactly like Scooby Doo himself.

you can play in the university on gta V now?

On 7 December 2015 at 5:07 AM, unr3al said:

You need to answer all of the questions you posed to yourself up above before you can consider getting a pet. A German Sheppard is not a dog you leave alone for a prolonged period of time, or have in a small space. It has a ton of energy that it needs to release every day through playing or performing a work task. If you have too much work to do, and you live in an apartment where it won't have a room of its own and wide open space to roam around, then its the wrong dog for you. Dogs that can be left alone and are low energy are largely in the terrier family. Examples of bigger or more masculine dogs you can leave alone in a smaller space would be:

-Bulldogs (both American and British)

-Great Danes (Scooby Doo! A dog I'm considering for myself in the future)

-Akitas (Cousin of the Husky that doesn't bark as much but the apartment must be air conditioned, as they are built for cold temperatures, and will overheat easier than other dogs)

-Bullmastiffs


I recommend all of these dogs for single males who live in an apartment or house because they are nice, friendly, easy-going dogs that appear as though they can protect you, potentially making someone approaching you with ill intentions while walking your dog a lot less likely, or a home invasion a lot less likely. They still have energy to expend, but not nearly as much. Great Danes are very lazy. They enjoy lying around and they are nick-named the worlds largest lap dogs because they for some reason behave as though they are much smaller than they actually are. Ironically the Great Danes were bred as war dogs, meant to be large enough to take down infantry men, but all of the aggression has been bred out of them, so you have something that looks like it will gladly fight any human, but turns out to be exactly like Scooby Doo himself.

Hmmm, for some reason I didn't see this post until now. 

I feared as much really, I knew beforehand that the possibility of owning a GS was low, I had already figured that most dogs don't like staying alone for a long amount of time, and with me potentially gone from the early morning until almost 6:00pm then it's too much for a dog to be left unattended. Plus with no real stable guaranteed income, vaccinations, vets, food etc. it'd be much harder to manage finances to ensure I can survive. The Great Dane is more like a horse than a dog :) it's enormous, plus me being active means I can't have a lazy dog. Realistically, as much as I'd love to, a dog is just too much commitment for a uni student really. 

And as they mentioned before, limited housing for students and even fewer for students with a pet. Some properties have spot inspections and it's hard to hide a large German Shepard in a house. It's a crying shame, I'd go ahead and do it anyway because solutions can be found but I don't want to find myself unable to feed the dog or running really low in money and having to return it to the rescue centre. I'll probably go through this every year. 

Thanks for taking the time to write that, it was a very interesting read. Good luck with your own future Great Dane.

No problem, sorry it didn't work out for you.