On a Tight Leash

Owning a Pet in a Crowded Building Can Mean Following a Maze of Restrictions

"Jackie" jumps to retrieve a ball while waiting for the elevator in the hall with Jessica Larsen at Clarendon Condominiums in Arlington, Va. (Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)

A woman spots a dog relieving itself in a planter outside the entrance of her downtown Washington condo building, in front of a sign that warns against such acts.

When the indignant woman points out the sign to the pet owner, who lives in the building, he replies, "My dog can't read."

It may sound like a vaudeville joke, but the woman who recounted the story insisted that it's no laughing matter.

"We've had some major issues," she said. "It's created a rift between the pet owners and non-pet owners." She spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern over stirring up more tension in her building, near 10th and L streets NW.

In urban and suburban Washington, which has experienced a spike in condo development in recent years, those with pets and those without are learning to share tight spaces, raising myriad issues. The conflicts and concerns have led to a variety of rules, including outright bans of certain pets at some condos and cooperatives, weight and height limits for dogs, and government restrictions at parks.

"I think in most cases, people tend to get along, but there may be these isolated buildings or hot spots," said Ron Sitrin, a real estate agent with Long & Foster in Friendship Heights.

Rules at condos and cooperatives vary greatly. Some have weight limits. Some don't. Some have height restrictions or impose fines for letting dogs run without a leash. Some won't allow a pet turtle or bird.

"I know certain kind of buildings, they'll say, 'cats, but no dogs,' " said real estate agent Andrea Evers of the Evers and Co. Real Estate office in Dupont Circle. "Some have a dog-size policy because the people who live in the building are frightened of sharing an elevator with a large dog."

At some places, the weight limit can go as low as 20 pounds.

Slava Pylyshenko, owner of a 35-pound Tibetan terrier named Tom, scoffs at weight limits, which she said her Bethesda condo association is talking about. "I think people are somewhat afraid of bigger dogs. They think they make bigger messes," she said. "People tend to think big dogs are more dangerous. It's usually the little dogs that do the yapping in the apartment."

Whatever the case, there are limits to the limits: Real estate agents say the weight limit at condo buildings is usually determined by a visual inspection. They say they can't recall seeing a pooch weigh in like a welterweight champ or, for that matter, get booted from a building for beefing up on table scraps.

In some residential buildings, though, restrictions go beyond weight. "Some uptight buildings will only allow the pets to come in and out of the rear entrance," said Knight Champion, a real estate agent with Long & Foster in Friendship Heights. "They don't want pets in the lobby, like they're servants."