I am human.  I make mistakes.  Sometimes I don’t even take my own advice.  This time I was desperate/frustrated/annoyed that I could not rent out a great 1 bedroom apartment that we just renovated with new windows, redone hardwood floors, new kitchen and bathroom.  I was renting it for $725 per month and then dropped it to $695 per month with a couple showings, but no applicants.

Finally a guy shows up with his pregnant girlfriend.  Very well spoken.  He is a contractor and made decent money.  She had a full time job.  Things were looking good.  Until he tells me he has 2 pit bulls.  I knew that I knew I should never take this guy.  But it was coming to the end of the month and I was going to lose another month’s worth of rent, so after he convinced me they would be OK and not a problem, I agreed.

That decision bit me in the ass, (figuratively).  The dogs were very aggressive to anyone in the yard.  They tore up the grass and even cornered a neighbor lady and wouldn’t let her move until the tenant called them off.  The final straw is when the neighbor saw the tenant hit the dog with a shovel in the head when it was barking.  Now I have animal control calling and wanting to get a warrant to break down the apartment door to take the dogs.  Multiple trips to the apartment later, the dogs are mysteriously gone when animal control shows up.

Repeat after me: never, never, never take aggressive dogs.    No matter how sweet the owner says they are, these dogs were bread for their aggressiveness, it is tough to train this out.  I have nothing against the dogs, but they are by their nature aggressive.  This is no different than trying to teach a pet alligator not to bite.  By the way, if a tenant ever says they have a American Staffordshire Terrier, that is simply another name for a pit bull.