Professional walker and sitter chiming in!

You're going to be looking at smaller breeds and you absolutely must be prepared to do some pretty extensive training to ensure your landlord and your neighbors don't hate you and you wind up getting your deposit back whenever you move.

You wouldn't think of but greyhounds are great apartment dogs.

Greyhound. They are perfectly fine in apartments. 100% couch potatoes.

I would go with an older (over 2-3 yrs old), small breed rescue. Puppies are a lot of work. Older dogs are more likely to be somewhat housebroken and trained. Big dogs can be harder to deal with in apartments.

Yeah I was surprised. I had a friend get one that was a retired racing dog and he slept all day. They would take him out for a a few minutes where he'd sprint around and then it was back to sleeping lol

Cat

Greyhound. They sleep all day, do a few circle zoomies, sniff and stroll on walks. I take mine to a dog park once a week so they can show off for a few seconds, then they just trot around and sniff butts. They don’t shed, they don’t bark much (at least none of mine have), and they don’t smell. And you get to put them in cute coats and jammies when it’s cold! Which is a bonus for me.

Size doesn't matter as much as fulfillment. If you have availability and are willing to spend time mentally and physically fulfilling your dog (which you should do regardless) you should be fine.

Imo there are more important factors to consider like age, energy level, your routine, working hours, time to play, train and/or exercise your dog daily (especially if it's a young dog), being able to hire a walker if you spend too much time away from home etc

It depends on how much time you’re spending in that apartment. I have 2 large breed active breed dogs in an apartment. That being said they get 2-3 hours of walks per day, 1 or more hours of running in a field per day, 3-4 “adventures” a week plus a bunch of mental stimulation daily. The adventures are things like dog park, sniff spot, swimming, pet friendly stores, hiking etc. Plus they also have eachother to play with.

The best are the low energy breeds such as whippets and Great Danes. But to be honest, any dog will work as long as you provide enough physical and mental stimulation.

My Malinois x Doberman is a complete snooze ball in the house, but that’s because I work my ass off ro make sure he’s physically and mentally tired every day.

If you are in the USA I would recommend a small-medium dogs as most have weight restrictions. Otherwise, you will face difficulty in finding dog friendly apartments.

Again with the greyhound. City wise they’re also great when it comes to walks, they’re happy to be walked on a lead and don’t require endless exercise. They’re very docile and affectionate too.

Rescue a greyhound or lurcher type dog. They’re sprinters so are chill indoors and appreciate a good throw of the ball in the park a couple times a day.

Just don't get any kind of Shepard, heeler, etc... Those dogs need to be active and working to be happy. People get them and keep them couped up and they are miserable, destroy stuff, and get anxiety.

The Yorkies I've had have all been great house dogs. Im partial to males. The ones I've had will bark at the door or if there's someone outside, they're cuddly, will sit on your lap, intelligent, easy to train, don't eat as much as medium to large dogs, and get along well with others animals.

Rescue a senior pup

Anything that works well with your personality. If you are an active person that likes to get outdoors, an active breed will happily join you. If you enjoy reading/watching tv in your free time a lap dog is great. Research how their bark sounds, watch videos of dogs to see if you wouldn’t mind their quirks. We’ve always lived in apartments and had larger active breeds, only one didn’t do well. He had lived out in the country the first five years of his life and was just better suited to that life. Puppies are a lot of work. Also consider if you want to crate or not. Limited space is a factor in creating or not.

Breed should be determined by your lifestyle and not just where you live. I have a Labrador in a studio apartment and he gets plenty of exercise outside, so he doesn’t need a yard.

Does your apartment strata have bylaws on pet ownership? They can have restrictions on breed, size, weight, or number of pets.

I wanted a big dog so I went with a greyhound. They were on all the top ten lists for small apartment dogs.

Greyhound! Adopt an off the track one if you are in a country that has greyhound racing still.

They are lovey couch potatoes, they do great in apartments.

Recommending a breed with the characteristics of “calm, less likely to bark, and doesn’t need to run around a lot” is really hard, especially because those things vary from dog to dog. Of course you have the Basenji, which is the only breed of dog that naturally cannot bark, but we have the heavy barking labs (for example) and the ones who rarely bark.

However, regardless of breed, I’d like to suggest a senior dog! Often times, they’re already housebroken and have gone through the teething phase that puppies do, and have low energy levels. Most of them are looking for a soft landing, a good meal, and lots of love. I know the idea of the heartbreak that is closer rather than further away tends to be off putting, but there truly is no rewarding experience than adopting (or even fostering!) a senior dog from a local shelter or rescue if age isn’t an issue for you!

whippets are great. not terribly vocal, super cuddly. they shed but their hair is short. they want like one burst of energy per day, then they’re couch potatoes. i grew up with several. :)

My recommendation is to get an adult dog as your first dog. You know what personality you are getting and you might even get one with some basic training. If you’ll are rescuing a dog, you are giving them a better life even if they are alone most of the time. Avoid terriers if you don’t want a dog that barks a lot. I recommend a Shih tzu, Maltese, or havanese if you don’t mind grooming. Greyhounds also make great laid-back apartment dogs if your apartment allows a larger dog.

Believe it or not greyhounds are the ultimate couch potatoes. They do need a bit of exercise but nothing like as much as you may think. Many small breeds are very cute but often yappy. My favourite are Bassett hounds but may be bigger than you want. Totally agree about the rescue dogs.

Go with a Shih Tzu. They tend to not bark much and they don’t shed. They also don’t require much exercise and are totally cool to just chill on the couch with you. Do require a lot of patience when training though and you will have to get a good groomer.

Chihuahua. Teach them not to bark. They're only "barky" because people don't train them.

Boston terrier! So smol and cute :)

This is going to sound weird .... a greyhound. We have a unit, and it is the best dog we could have gotten for our space.

Definitely a corgi. They're like tiny, cute potatoes that love snuggles and are great couch potatoes. Plus, their short legs help them navigate tight spaces like a small apartment. #CorgiGang

Get a hamster

Stuffed animal one

the maltese is easy to train and doesn't shed fur

Chihuahua lazy dogs

I hear a greyhound is good, needs a good run but spends the rest of the day lazing about.

I like my small mutt creature. She’s delightfully snuggly and lazy, so good for apartment life

I live in a 650 sq ft apartment and I have a two year old male silken. We lived in a house with a big yard his first year though. It is really important that you have somewhere to take them to run where they can fully extend their stride. It’s important for muscular and skeletal development. We go on walks a lot and the apartment complex has a long, fenced in, dog run. He’s weird for a sighthound and likes to play fetch so we do a lot of that. I’m not a huge fan of dog parks, but we have a really big one here that we go to a few times a week. I wouldn’t take a dog under a year to a dog park. At that age you should be working on things like socialization and recall and dog parks are horrible for that.

As long as you can meet exercise requirements for a growing sighthound, yes, they are excellent apartment dogs. I got my first SWH while living in an apartment. She did excellent. Now I have a house (and two more SWHs), but I'm confident they'd do just fine in apartment life if I ever needed to.

Just like any dog, you have to let them stretch their legs. If you can find a good SWH playmate of similar age, that's really the best way to do it. Free play is crucial when younger.

I have a 3 year old boy Silken in a 2 bedroom, 1000sq ft condo and it is perfect for us. He does have little bursts of energy but mostly is chilling and napping when at home. I do give him 2 good 20-30 minute walks a day and try to let him run a bit off leash if I can. I also fostered a 1 1/2 yr old girl and she was much higher maintenance and energy but still even with both of them we were fine. They love to lay around and nap!

From my understanding they are more energetic than greyhounds and whippets but I haven’t really interacted with them just seen them online.

I’ve interacted less with Windhounds, but do you not have Windsprite breeders in your area? They’re more similar to whippets and imo better-suited to apartments since they’re smaller than Windhounds. They tend to be more barky than whippets, but still less so than a lot of dogs. The good news is that they tend to have better recall, so you may be less limited in terms of play/exercise options if you don’t have your own fenced backyard.

Otherwise, I’d say general lifestyle is pretty similar to whippets and other sighthounds: very lazy at home, but love to go wild for a little while everyday outside. idk how much you can chalk it up to breed differences, but I’d say our windsprite girl is also a lot more friendly to strange dogs and people (and generally more self-assured) than the whippets or other “pure” sighthounds we know, which I think is a nice quality in a city dog