I have just rented a house on the gold coast and have a border collie and had no problems finding a place. As other posters have mentioned unless it states no pets all you can apply and let them know you have pets. Landlords are more interested in letting their property and you can always offer 3 months in advance or sign for 12 months to sway them. Just a couple of suggestions but it was not as hard as I thought it was going to be.
I rented a short term fully furnished pet friendly house for my first 2 months while my container was in transit and again found no problems finding a rental.

Found the short term let on a website called stayz and found the long term rental on realestate.com.au

Good luck, Mick

Thanks to everyone for putting minds at rest over this. As the time draws closer I think it is going to be hard enough to find a rental (weeks before Christmas) so I'm hoping that they will all just be grateful for the extra cash.

Does anyone have any advise for walking dogs! I've heard that they are not allowed on the beach and in some parks. Is there any way of finding out where they are allowed to be walked? We are responsible pet owners anyway and always take a handful of nappy sacks with us to clean up but doing that does not always mean they are accepted everywhere.

Also - does anyone have any info on taking dogs indoors! Here in the UK we can walk Charlie in the park for example and then call into the local pub for a coffee in the bar - where they accept him (that's not to say he's accepted everywhere of course!). I was wondering if its the same in Aussie - do people make it known dogs are welcome or are they all just banned from everywhere anyway!

Also - I heard that we need a dog licence - does anyone have ANY info on that or will Eastern Creek sort that out for us while he is in quarantine etc

Many many thanks to everyone.

There are areas around here where dogs are not officially allowed on the beach, but to be honest an awful lot of folk don't take the blindest bit of notice. According to the law (in WA), dogs must also be on a leash when outside, but an awful lot of folk ignore that too. Nor is the leash supposed to be longer than 6', but again, it's mostly ignored.

On a lighter note, you should find dog poo bags provided in most public places where dogs are allowed. Here, they're free - not sure about elsewhere. Saves a bit!

I can't remember any public places where dogs are officially allowed inside, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. It's funny, because it seems like almost every family has a dog here, but by contrast, nothing is very "dog-friendly". I think most of the poor buggers spend their days locked up in back yards, barking (understandably) at the ones who are getting walked.

Yes, you do need a licence. You can pay for one year or three (here in WA) and you can sort that out while your dog is in quarantine.

HTH.

When we were looking for a rental, we only looked at those which didn't say "no pets" and when inspecting the house we're in, we told the realtor and she said no problem. We also put it on the application.

Last week, we had a problem with the house and had to arrange for the landlord to come around in our absence. I asked the realtor to be careful not to let the cats out while they were here and her chin nearly hit the floor. She'd forgotten we had cats and apparently never told the owner ...who hates pets!!!!!! She suggested we just hide them while the owner's around lol.

I think you'll be fine. The reference ideas a great one.

We are in Brisbane and the dog licence was $38 for a year which we got from the local council offices. They also gave us fact sheets on owning a dog and all of the local off leash excercise areas. There are poo bags supplied freely and fresh water taps with bowls for the dogs drinking water. Shaded areas and park benches, a few trees and a safe area.

Pretty good really just takes getting used to going to certain parks for your dog walking.

Loads of people own dogs here and you are taken care of well.

Mick