Condo Living: Happy Tails at Home

IN A CONDO with an area of about 650 square feet, space could be a little tight for two people. Add a 60-pound mutt to your life, and you're looking at potentially even less comfy quarters — not to mention a lot of hair on the sofa.

But Emily Knaus and Giovanni Pindilli, who live in the aforementioned home in Arlington's Hartford condo complex, don't seem to mind. And judging from the constantly wagging tail of their 8-year-old border collie-golden retriever mix Dakota, neither does she. Dakota's actually got more space at her disposal than you might think.

With a little creativity and Pindilli's handiwork, the couple turned the bottom half of their hall closet into an indoor "doghouse" for Dakota. Pindilli nailed a horizontal board into the back wall to section off the space for Dakota to sleep in. The dimensions of the doghouse floor are about 3 feet by 4 feet — just enough room for Dakota to freely wander in and out of the miniature den, and to curl up on her full-size bed inside.

"When she was a puppy, she used to look for places like this," says Knaus, 27, an energy analyst.

"She likes to go in there if a service person comes into the condo to repair something or if we have guests over," adds Pindilli, 31, a government civilian with the Army. "For the dog to have her own space in the condo is pretty clutch."

Creating a people and creature-friendly zone is vital for pet owners who live in an urban environment. Dogs that might naturally want to frolick in fields, forests or even backyards can easily seem stifled in a downtown studio apartment. Plus, canines and cats aren't even welcome everywhere: Plenty of condos and rental units ban animals or restrict the types of pets owners can keep (beta fish or cacti, anyone?).

For dogs, weight and height limits are fairly common, meaning it's especially difficult to keep a large pooch. In some condos, for example, even if dogs are allowed, they must weigh less than 20 pounds, meaning you might want to reconsider adopting a mastiff if you live in tight quarters with tighter restrictions. Given these obstacles, it takes a little extra planning and ingenuity to keep creatures content in the city. Yet, as anyone who's ever been to a local dog park or attended a pup-friendly happy hour (with or without a furry friend) can tell you, city life with Fido or Fluffy is certainly manageable.

First things first: Finding a condo in the Metro area that allows animals of all sizes can be time-consuming and tricky. Condo buildings or associations often have the ultimate say about whether your best friend is welcome.

"From our perspective, it's very tough to have pets in the building," says Michelle Giannini, the senior vice president of sales and marketing for development company PN Hoffman. Noisy or rambunctious pets can become a nuisance to other tenants or cause damage to the buildings themselves. PN Hoffman's buildings do allow pets, Giannini says. "But we really do leave it up to the homeowners to decide what type of pet policies they would like to put in place [in individual condo buildings] because we find each building is different."

Other companies have no qualms about accepting all types of pets. Take the Lacey Condos, a Wilson Enterprises building at 1100 Florida Avenue NW that's due to be completed this fall. The Lacey has an anything-goes pet policy, which is "a definite plus," says Debi Fox, a Realtor with D.C. Real Estate who is selling units at the Lacey. "Our whole philosophy is about a certain kind of lifestyle: It's about comfort and a stylish life," says Fox. "We wouldn't want to tell people they can't have pets. Obviously, you couldn't have a giraffe, but any type of house pet is definitely allowed."

Most of the Lacey's 26 boutique-style units (ranging from about 600 square feet to 1,800 square feet) include outdoor space — a perk for animals that like to bask in fresh air. The building's welcoming attitude and architecture also make it a friendly place for people and pets alike, Fox says. "In the city, you get a lot of businesspeople and a lot of young people, and a lot of those people have pets, so the condo buildings have to appease the trend of what's going on," says Fox, whose husband, Ali Honarkar, designed the Lacey for Division1 Architects. Fox, Honarkar and their two children live with their border collie-husky mix, Brutus, in a Shaw townhouse. "It's a very social thing to have an animal," Fox says.

While she believes it's not too hard to find a pet-friendly condo in Washington (at least half of the places on the market today permit pets, with some restrictions, she says), others think it's still too difficult to hunt down accommodations for feline or canine roomies. Lisa LaFontaine, the president and CEO of the Washington Humane Society, wishes there were more resources available for pet owners. Every day, she says, her office fields calls from people searching for high-quality pet-friendly housing.

"There are a number of people who have to give their pet up because they can't move with them," LaFontaine says. "And as we saw in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, people look really hard for the type of housing situation that will let them stay with their pets. So, we would love to see many more pet-friendly housing complexes."

Minnie An, 30, a Georgetown University administrator who rents a unit in the Villages condo complex in Falls Church, says she had a "very difficult" time finding a place that would also accommodate her 5-year-old Yorkshire terrier, Pepsi. Eventually, she realized condo rentals would be more flexible than apartment buildings.

"Most apartments had monthly fees [for pets]," An says. "With condos, they didn't, since it was up to the owners." (Once, when she was living in South Korea about three years ago, An says, she kept Pepsi in an apartment building that didn't allow pets. She doesn't recommend it. "I would always have to leave the windows closed and lock the door," An says. "I was paranoid. It was stressful.")

Today, An is thrilled with herrental because it has a large floor-to-ceiling window in the living room that looks out onto the front lawn and An's parking space -- a perfect for Pepsi to hang out. The energetic 9-pound pup often sits, sleeps and people-watches on a small pillow in front of the window.

"The main reason I liked this place is because of the window," An says. "Pepsi likes sitting here in the sun, and she just loves looking out the window."

For Dakota, too, tall windows and glass doors — and their ideal dog's-level view — are key, Knaus and Pindilli say. Living in a small condo with a large, "lazy" dog is "not a space issue — it's an entertainment issue," says Pindilli. "And that dog's a people-watcher."

Of course, besides having a pet-friendly home with the right types of spaces, most dog owners also need to consider whether their condos or apartments are located near inviting outdoor spaces. Dakota's owners bring her to the dog park behind their North Hartford Street condo daily so that she can run around and socialize with other pooches. "You see the same crowd there every day," Knaus says.

If there's one thing Knaus would tell a condo dweller considering adopting a dog, she says she'd recommend researching the pup's personality. "The breed and temperament are really important to consider," she says. "I got lucky with Dakota."

LaFontaine of the Washington Humane Society says that personality can often trump size in determining how a dog behaves at home. "One thing that would surprise people is that Great Danes make fabulous apartment and condo dogs because they don't need a lot of exercise," says LaFontaine, who lives with three dogs (two Labrador retrievers and a pit bull-retriever mix) and two cats (tortoiseshell mixes) in a small house in the District. "As long as those dogs get basic exercise, they can also live very happy lives. For dogs in general, the big thing about them is they're pack animals, so they want to be with their pack, whether that's one person or other animals. They can live very happily in small spaces."

And cats — which are generally allowed in more buildings than dogs, anyway — are actually ideal condo dwellers, LaFontaine says. "Outdoors, cats can fall victim to injury, disease, wildlife, so we advocate for them being indoors. I'm actually very happy to see cats living in condos with loving owners."

Still, even if you're sharing a penthouse suite with a kitten, you might find yourself yearning for extra space from time to time. But Knaus says there's a silver lining in her full house with Pindilli and their dog, Dakota: "It's beneficial in terms of the amount of time I spend vacuuming," she says. "The less space, the less vacuuming."

Photos by Lawrence Luk/Express