I’m going to go out on a limb and disagree with everyone that says your apartment is too small to be condusive to keeping a dog, especially a large one. The size of the dog doesn’t matter, it’s the activity level. My parents own a golden who’s spent most of his life imitating a bath rug. You DO have to be very careful to look for a mellow, bench-bred golden rather than a high-energy field-bred golden, but there are uber-mellow goldens around. Same story with springers.
I personally hate the statement “your house is too small, the dog needs a lot more excercise than that”. I have never, nor have I ever known anyone personally who owns a dog bigger than a toy and considers their dog as getting any of his excercise in the house. The house is for living and eating and sleeping, not for excercising. As long as your dog gets plenty of outdoor excercise, there’s no reason you and he (or she) can’t live happily in a small space. We have a small house and a very intense, high energy working dog. He would absolutely dismantle the house to scrap and nails if he didn’t get plenty of exercise, so he runs a couple miles a day and about fifteen or twenty miles on weekends.
I’d advise getting an adult dog or taking some time off work for initial puppy training if your heart is set on a puppy.
Look for a mellow breed, and in this large breeds are usually better. Greyhouse are famous for being couch potatoes, and they’re sleek and hip looking, cheap and readily available.
Think about your time commitment, working 9-5 is not a big deal once the dog is crate trained (and I’d say this is as close to an imperative as it’s possible to be), but do be aware that you will have to budget at least a couple hours a day to exercise and training. A dog isn’t an accessory pet the way a rodent, fish, or reptile is, it’s more like growing a child in the sense that you have to attend to their needs constantly, and teach them to be “good citizens”–to have people manners and house manners.
Good luck, and you’re always welcome to email me if you want to chat more about it 
The follow up statement to that should have been “…therefore, in the house he sleeps and eats and sits around, same as me and Mr. Armadillo”. He does not spend any of his time out in the yard unattended.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t think the size of your living space matters, so long as you’re committed to giving the dog plenty of outside time working and playing.
Also, please excuse all the extraneous c’s in my original post, somehow “exercise” is one of those words that my fingers refuse to spell correctly on their own :smack:
Damn. Greyhounds.
Never say never, m’dear, for some asshole like me will immediately come along to contradict you.
My pooches get the majority of their exercise in the house. (Bean is 65 lbs. Polaris is about 40 lbs and Sirius is about 12 lbs.) It’s their choice more than mine. Bean is old and walks aren’t much fun for her any more. Sirius and Polaris get the majority of their exercizing from wrestling on the floor. They go at it for hours, wrestling and chasing each other up and down the stairs. By the end of the day, they’ve worn each other out so much that they don’t even want to play in the yard.
But I’ve got a big house, so they’ve got plenty of room to run and chase indoors.
Me, too. I play lots and lots of fetch with my 5 month old Ridgeback puppy inside. We don’t have a fenced yard to run in (live in a large 3 bedroom low-rise condo).
Just a point to add to all the good advice here - when my dog got to be around 8+, he could not hold his bladder for long stretches anymore. I agree with the posts that celebrate the joys of older dogs, but just wanted to remind that ‘geriatric’ follows ‘older’ not very far behind!
9 hours - minimum - is a long time to be away. Your dog will sleep the whole time and be ready to ZOOM when you get home - he’s been saving all his energy for YOU! If you want to stop on the way home for groceries or a pizza or something it’s gonna be more like 10 hours. If you had a roommate whose schedule overlapped yours, maybe it’d be better. But if I were you, I’d wait, or get a different sort of beast.
The difference is, your dogs are smallish. 12 pounds is well within the range for “toy” and 40 lbs is approximately the size of a Brittany, right? Both of the breed standards for the breeds he mentioned call for bitches no less than 55 pounds and dogs at 65, to top out at 75 for a male golden and 80 for a male lab. Simon is 115, give or take. Our floors are wood, they’re scarred up enough with him just being on them, I shudder to think what they’d look like if he played on them.
I’m sure it happens, I’m just telling him that he shouldn’t be looking at a large dog with an expectation that it’ll be able to exercise itself in his house. I also think it’s tremendously irresponsible to own a large breed dog and expect it to exercise itself in a house… unless, of course, you’re my parents and own a golden retriever that heaves a deep sigh of disgust at the suggestion that he might want to go for a walk or–perish the thought–duck hunting*. So there are couch potato dogs who wouldn’t mind not getting out much, but the OP is going to have to put some effort into finding just the right dog. Otherwise he (or she) should expect to spend an hour or two every single day playing fetch, jogging, biking, swimming, dog parking, or in some way ensure that his (or her) large, active, gundog gets enough physical stimulation.
*He did, in fact, go duck hunting a couple times. He cowered in the blind the entire time, shivering and waiting to go home and get fed. That’s muh boy! 
I have wood floors and I can describe the results, if you like.
Another vote for “double-check your rental agreement.” Some leases specify an upper weight limit for dogs that would rule out a lab or a golden. You may have to pay a large and possibly non-refundable deposit if you have a pet. Don’t neglect this. Otherwise you might find yourself needing to find a new home for the dog or for yourself.
If you travel much, dogs are a PITA to care for. You can’t just leave them in the house with a litter box and plenty of food like you can a cat (at need.) Boarding or petsitting can get expensive. Factor all these things in.
That said, dogs are the best. I have 3 (I live in a house we own), and wish I had room for more. But they’re expensive, especially as they get old. 
Nice link for dog walkers
Last March, I got an almost 1 year old lab-greyhound mix. I’ve learned a lot about dogs since then. My daughter and I live in a 1300 sq. ft house with a smallish back yard.
I never really was a dog person, but I loved all the lab retrievers I met. So that’s what I wanted. I didn’t know how hyper the breed is when they are young. Daisy has to have a good walk, or better yet a run, or she gets restless and tries to find things to tear up. (Right now, she’s chewing on a toilet brush and, y’know, I’m good with that.)
That’s the bad part. The good part is that wherever I am, that’s where Daisy wants to be. She follows me down the hall with her wet nose on the back of my legs. She brings me a toy…presumably for me to throw it for her, but she just can’t bring herself to let go of it, so she puts her head on my lap, while enthusiastically chewing the toy. When she’s with me and she figures out I’m not going anywhere, she curls up and sleeps. And, did I mention those loving looks and the big brown puppy eyes?
So I guess you could say I’m a dog person now.
They stink, are noisy, will piss and shit everywhere you don’t want them to, are expensive to feed and destructive. Get an iPod instead.
Mr. Negative.
In most cases none of what you said is normal. They are not even very expensive to feed. Most are noisy however and thus could be tough in an apartment building.
Jim
Yeah, but an iPod isn’t happy to see you when you come home. 
Very small apartment, gone for nine hours at a stretch? In my opinion, don’t get a dog. Look into a more low-maintenance pet that isn’t a pack animal which wants social interaction. PLEASE don’t get a puppy.
Hit post to soon… if you are determined to have a dog, I recommend along with other Dopers to look into adopting an older animal. Even a medium to large dog might be manageable in a small apartment if they were mature, provided you were committed to giving the dog daily exercise, rain or shine.
I volunteer weekly at a rescue shelter working with the dogs and I love it… it’s one of the most fulfilling parts of my life. Yet although my husband and I have three cats and we both love dogs, we don’t have one. The reason for that is the amount of interaction (and chores!) they require. We both work full-time and are also on-call often (computer professionals). Dogs need a regular schedule of feeding and being let out. They need to be walked and played with and bathed and have their poop scooped. With cats, you sort of throw down some food and scoop the litter once a day. It doesn’t compare.
When my sister’s Labrador retriever was with us after Hurricane Katrina, my god… my canine niece *exhausted *me. She needed at least an hour or two of exercise a day, and that was interactive exercise, not just being let out in the yard. Of course, each animal has their own personality, but labs especially tend to be energy machines.
Also, I wouldn’t be a good shelter worker if I didn’t say, “Don’t breed or buy while shelter pets die!” Please, please, please check all the shelters in your area for a dog if you are considering getting one. There are so many looking for a good home.