I was thrilled with how my recent piece for Edition Dog (on the minefield that is renting with dogs) came out. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who shared their opinions and experiences.

As we have discovered, renting with one dog is hard enough; renting with four is almost impossible. We actually got to the stage where we thought we would simply have to split our household – Marc and I going one way with the boys and Mum going her own way with the two girls.

Maybe St. Roche heard my prayers (St. Roche is the patron saint of dogs…yes…really!) for, quite out of the blue, a spacious bungalow came up for rent in the leafy Surrey Hills.
Marc and I went to view it. Snow was still lying on the ground as we looked around it; although it was decidedly chilly outside, the house felt warm and welcoming with a large back garden and no near neighbours. Perfect.
The owners of the bungalow were also very open to our four dogs setting up home there.
We registered our interest straight away but none of the other viewers showed any enthusiasm for the place. Admittedly the interior was rather dated and lacking in the latest appliances, but such things aren’t as important to dog lovers, especially those whose main priority is for their pets’ comfort and happiness.
The fences were quickly repaired by the owners of the property to make it 100% dog proof and, when we eventually moved in, we found a lovely “welcome” card along with a bottle of wine and a pack of dog biscuits.
We’ve been in a month now and (touch wood) we are all very happy here. The garden abounds with birdlife and we’re even visited by Red Kites and the dogs have rabbit-scented walks (through miles of heathland) to bowl along and are extremely contented.
To anyone out there with dogs, desperately looking for a place to rent, please don’t give up hope – make a good friend of your agent and be completely honest about your situation. Over the coming years there are going to be more and more pet owners wishing to rent.
If you can demonstrate that you are a responsible dog owner who will look after and respect the property you hope to move into, I’m sure that you too will find lovely landlords like ours. There must be more of them out there? If you have a positive, dog-friendly, landlord story leave it below.

You can read the original article that was published in Edition Dog here