Renting with a Shepherd

For the time being, my little Shepherd will be masquerading as a Sheltie mix. Thanks to breed bans, especially from Insurance Companies, most apartments won't allow certain breeds if they allow dogs at all (One place offered to give me their info in case I would be willing to part with my dog. Um, no thanks). The lists I've seen are pretty predictable - Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Dobermans, and German Shepherds, and Mastiffs top the list followed by Dalmatians, Akitas, Huskies.

Australian Shepherds are not on any of the lists, but unless the leasing office knows something about dogs, the only word they'd hear is Shepherd. One place I looked at just had "Shepherd" on their list next to a clip art image of a German Shepherd. Trying to explain that Iris is probably more of a shepherd-sheep-herder than most pet GSDs, but she's really a completely different breed that's not even really Australian and decidedly not German is just a battle that I don't really want to fight.

Iris is spending this week with my dad while I'm getting the apartment set up. I have to put in some overtime at work this week, and it's just not fair to Iris if I leave her alone for 12 hrs at a time. She did spend some time in the apartment over the weekend, but I think all of the packing and moving is really stressing her out. I wonder if any of her previous owners gave her up because of moving? I'm going home for agility class with her tomorrow and her chiro appointment on Wed, so I'm not completely abanndoning her. On Fri, I'll bring her back to the apartment to stay.

So far I haven't seen too many dogs around the apartment. I have seen a Husky being walked, so maybe I'm living in a more lenient location concerning breed bans? Although I've only seen him out after dark, so maybe he's not really a Husky. Maybe he's a Sheltie mix too.

Chiro Update

Last Wednesday, I took Iris in for her second adjustment with Dr Anne. The good news is that Iris' adjustments from last time held. Hooray! She hasn't had any limping episodes either. I think Anne was just as happy as I am to hear that. Iris has two more appointments scheduled and then hopefully everything will be in alignment.

While we were there, I asked Dr Anne about Iris' runny eyes. I've been suspecting a food allergy but changing Iris' diet hasn't helped (I've tried switching chicken, lamb, no grains). Well, Anne said Iris isn't allergic to anything she's eating. She thinks the problem is a household cleaner. Of course, I have no idea what we use for cleaners so we couldn't narrow it down. However, I'm in the process of moving into an apartment this week. Once we're in the apartment, I'll be using only all natural, no chemical cleaners. Hopefully that will fix the problem! The only thing I'm not sure about is that it looks like the rugs were just cleaned. If Iris keeps having problems, I'll have to clean the apartment rugs again myself.

I brought Iris to visit my mom this morning, and sure enough her eyes dried up after being out of the house for a couple of hours. As soon as we got back home, she was all teary again. My poor girl.