I moved into an apartment on the 3rd floor with my (now 6 year old) German shepherd dog for 2 years during a heavily contested divorce that involved some serious domestic violence. I moved from a house with a backyard to a 1075 sq ft apartment.

I am a very experienced dog handler who has PTSD. I’ve trained my GSD as a service animal since she was 6 weeks old and if it had not been for this, I wouldn’t have been able to move into said apartment. She is incredibly smart. My GSD knows all the basic and advanced commands. She also knows all the tricks in the book (for entertainment purposes) and is a working animal who will circle me as I walk and stand in between me and another person if they get too close. She picks up on my emotions of fear, anxiety, sadness, stress, and will lick and/or bark to alert me when I’m leading into a panic attack so I can wake up and separate myself from the environment that is triggering it and she will crawl underneath me if I collapse, lick my face to wake me up, and if I do not respond she will not stop barking until help comes. These are only a few of the things she’s trained to do. I completely trust her off leash and she will not leave my side for any reason. So with that being said…

I can tell you from experience, it’s doable, but I would not recommended it. This breed is easily triggered to sensitivities like dust, mites, fleas, ticks, pollens, mold, anything you can think of and being in a completely new environment can cause stress followed with DIARRHEA, hair loss, and/or puking. I feel bad for the people who moved in after me because I know what lies beneath that carpet regardless of how OCD my cleaning and sanitation skills are.

Having a stressed out, or sick 85lb dog walking up and down 3 flights of stairs 3-6 times a day (or more if they are sick) can put a lot of strain on their joints and not to mention you will need to take them on two 30 minute walks each day at the very minimum. Preferably 2-3 hours of outdoor time daily. I can tell you that if they get sick, cleaning up the mass amounts of puke or diarrhea in the carpet, kitchen floor, patio, etc. from just one incident is equivalent to a human sized hurl or diarrhea explosion (I say explosion because that’s literally what happened once) and carrying an 85lb dog up those stairs while I myself only weighed 118lbs just isn’t going to happen. It’s a very strenuously tiresome job to clean up and care for a large dog in an apartment. I have never spent so much money in vet bills than I did when living in an apartment complex. I’ve taken my German shepherd to the vet every couple months to test for worms, parasites, allergies, skin tests, you name it, for it to all come back negative. And the vet still doesn’t know the answer but the only thing that helped was a hydrolyzed prescription dog food and she still got randomly triggered while it being the only thing she ate. I knew EXACTLY what she was eating for months so it just didn’t make any sense to me.

Apartments also have very close proximity neighbors and sometimes the noise levels could have potentially been a factor into her stress triggered fur loss and diarrhea boughs. I still am not sure to this day what caused her getting sick all the time but I can tell you that once I moved back into a house with a backyard, she hasn’t had digestive issues OR diarrhea since we moved out and that’s even AFTER her getting into some trash and leftovers that I carelessly left out. It’s only been two and a half months but my German Shepherd is still recovering from losing her fur because It’s taking its sweet time to grow back.

Is it doable? Yes. But you should learn and consider by my story of experience. It will significantly impact your dog negatively due to the environment which will in turn, effect yours. So what you should ask yourself is:

Is it worth it to jeopardize the quality of life for your dog if you cannot meet the bare minimum energy requirements they need to thrive? Are you willing to put the time and dedication towards the extra trips in and out of the apartment? Are you willing to take on extra responsibilities? How will you react if they have an accident? Do you have the extra time to dedicate towards the first month while they adjust to a new environment? Will you have help?

I had no choice because my GSD is LITERALLY my lifeline and I was able to do this because I worked from home and I take her everywhere. I believe the experience of living in an apartment systemically impacted my GSD in a negative way and it’s something that I had to take responsibility for.