Students can make good pet owners if they know what they're doing

Skeeter, a 6-month-old Australian cattle dog and boxer, chases other dogs around the Athens Dog Park on West State Street as his owner, exercise physiology graduate student Joe Kelley, sits on a bench studying.

"I try to get him out here at least once a day, and I take him on short walks, too," Kelley said as Skeeter followed two other dogs through the agility course at the park.

Kelley is one of many college students who bring their dog to the park each day. Living in rental housing and leading a student's busy lifestyle can pose problems for student pet-owners, but local experts say that with the right planning, students can be just as good of pet owners as anybody else.

"Students are a big help to us," said Athens County Dog Warden Jeff Koons. Each year students adopt dogs and volunteer at the county Dog Shelter, Koons said. He added that while some think students are responsible for an increase in strays, the shelter saw no rise in stray dogs when students moved out in June.

"College students can be as good or as bad of pet owners as anybody else," said Sarah Filipiak, of Best Pets Dog Training LLC in The Plains. Many working people have pets and are good pet owners, and students are no different, Filipiak said.

When looking into whether or not to adopt an animal, students should consider the emergency and long-term financial responsibilities of owning a pet, the long-term love and care a pet needs, and the student's living situation and challenges it poses, said Arianna Rinaldi-Eichenberg, president and adoption coordinator for the Athens County Humane Society.

"Don't get a pet in the first place if you don't have time for one," advised Shelley Lieberman, vice president of the county Humane Society. "Volunteer to foster first before getting a pet to see if your lifestyle works.

Dogs require space to run and play, which can be difficult in Athens' rental market, as most backyards aren't fenced in. Though it's not as "anything goes" as it used to be, Athens is a dog-friendly town, with lots of places to walk a dog and the dog park for a dog to run and play in, Filipiak said. Dogs are social animals and require stimulation, she noted. Giving chew toys to pets is important because students are often gone throughout the day for extended periods of time, and toys occupy a dog's time, she said.

Rinaldi-Eichenberg and Filipiak both said that making sure roommates are all on-board with a pet in the house is crucial.

"Roommates are one thing people overlook a lot," Filipiak said. "It's easy to make assumptions about who does what with the pet, but you need to make sure everybody agrees on the pet's care."

It's also important that roommates all discipline the pet consistently so it is not confused, Lieberman said.

A pet's behavior takes on even more importance in rental housing. When a landlord is showing the house or apartment to a potential tenant, an unrestrained dog can make the showing difficult, said Myke Linscott of Grace Rentals.

"Most of our tenants are responsible about their pets," Linscott said. Grace Rentals allows pets in most of its houses and apartments and simply adds an additional security deposit.

Stained carpets are one of the few problems Linscott said Grace Rentals has seen with pets, but he said that most responsible pet owners can get those stains out of the carpet before they become a problem.

As for cats, Lieberman said students should not live anywhere that requires cats to be declawed and should provide scratching posts and toys for cats at all times.

Cats can sometimes be good pets for students because they are more independent than dogs and do not need to go outside, Rinaldi-Eichenberg said. When getting a cat, though, students need to make sure that if they do go outside, their yard is far enough away from traffic and predators, she said.

If a student does not have time for a dog or a cat but still wants some animal companionship, Michael Favage, owner of Fish N' Stuff, said that snakes make the best pets for students living in rentals.

"You only have to feed them once a week and their care is minimal," Favage said. "If you're going home on the weekend, it's not a problem."