minimum house size you WILL place a puppy in?

what are breeders views on placing puppies in " smaller" houses???

reason i ask is im pretty fed up with the old " you must live in a huge house to own a bernard" speech people give me!!!

would you house a pup in a ground floor flat? how about a one bed house with a small garden?

do u have a minimum size or do you go on the trust the owner will exersice there dog enough, but not too much?

i often get told " i bet puppies love running around your big garden " the fact is they arent allowed to run around the garden all day long... or even half the day!!! at 8weeks they arent even allowed to the end of the garden!!!

Doesn't matter how many bedrooms people have as most don't let saints upstairs any way. as fo garden size it depends how commited the people seem as quite often those with a smaller garden actually take their dogs out rather than just let them run in the garden,so they get more excersise,road walking and 121 with their owner.
Tony,Bud,Bhindi&Jackson

I obviously don't have any puppies to place, but I feel like I have to chime in!

I've known more people with large gardens that don't do anything with their dogs than people with smaller or no gardens that do tons!

My fiance and I got Ben and Maggie when we were living in a 2nd floor, 2 bedroom apartment where we already had 4 ferrets and 2 rabbits! We eventually moved to a 3 story, 3 bedroom house because it was getting cramped, but we didn't have a yard to let the dogs into there either. However, we frequented dog parks and my fiance used to take our weimaraner on 15 mile walks around the city since we had great trails right behind our house. Our saint never wants to go further than 3 or 4 miles before laying down, and in fact is perfectly content to lounge around all day long, unlike much more hyper breeds!

I think a good, committed owner is going to exercise their dogs no matter where they live. We still go to dog parks (even though we're living with his parents, who have a huge garden!) just not as much as we did before we moved (8.5 mos pregnant at a dog park isn't a good idea haha!).

It's good to know that some people will place saints into homes no matter their size. Obviously an efficiency-sized apartment may get crowded, but honestly I've never had a saint bernard that was overly hyper or destructive, save the occasional chewing during teething, so I think that people with high-energy dogs like weimaraners, labs, retrievers, etc. would have a more difficult time in a smaller place! Our weim gets stir crazy and runs laps around the house for hours on end if she doesn't get exercised, but our saint is happy to lay by my feet!

I have placed pups in all sorts of homes, from very large homes to those that arent so much so. I have also been to homes to collect dogs for rescue, (not just saints, but another giant breed) and i have to say that the most dogs put up for rehome have been in this case from the larger ones, where the dog has made a mess of their lovely landscaped garden! These dogs have often been confined to just one small room to save damage! Im not saying that all people with large homes/gardens are the same, but it does seem that the dog is more of a status symbol & a case of 'look what we have' kind of situation.

We personally do not take people on what they have or dont have, I dont care much for status, never have. All I am concerned with is can they look after, care for & love this puppy as much as I could? I find the meetings with them & watching the interaction with our other dogs, mum & pups tells me alot, as does my dogs reactions to them.

So for us, size of home, garden etc is irrelevant. I am very careful tho not to place where there are lots of stairs into or out of the property, that in itself is a problem for babies, let alone adults. But i do agree that the larger the garden, the more chance of the dog not getting the required socialisation at a young age, even adult hood to experience 'life' can often happen.