@augustus_33ad Everyone always says don’t get an ACD if you live in an apartment.
But it depends…
I have a purebred ACD in an apartment that’s about half the size of yours. I don’t take her for agility training, to dog parks, or do any type of intensive exercise on a regular basis. She’s rarely even ever off leash. We walk 10k steps every single day, have some play time indoors, and she sleeps most of the day otherwise. She’s the most well trained and well behaved dog I’ve ever met.
The key, for me at least, was to learn a routine that worked for us. At first things were stressful, but I learned she’ll always be happy as long as she’s beside me. I work from home; if I didn’t, this would never work. I’m a homebody; if I wasn’t, this would never work. I’m extremely routine oriented; if I didn’t instill those routines onto her, this wouldn’t work.
She stays stimulated by following me around all day. When we go for walks, we do the exact same routes. She knows where to turn, she knows to sit before crossing the street and before any door/elevator opens. Every aspect of the approx. 18hrs that we’re awake together, she’s doing micro routines. That’s how she stays stimulated. And she’s the happiest pup.
From my experience, I would only recommend an ACD to someone who is going to be by their side all day, every day. That’s when the dog is their happiest.
We do a lot of canoe tripping in the summer and I often get asked how I trained her to behave so well in the tent and in my canoe. I didn’t. She’s just trained well in general, and she doesn’t care if it’s a canoe, a tent, my car, or my apartment… if she’s by my side, she’s happy and she listens to me.
The puppy part of the equation… that will probably be a big challenge. But that can be for any puppy in general. I adopted my ACD when she was around 2 years old, so I didn’t need to deal with the puppy stage.
Edit:
pup tax
