A reader asks: what to do when your RWA decides your dog is the problem.

A member wrote to us last week from a society in south Delhi. A child had fallen down in the lift. The dog — a quiet old Labrador named Gabbar — had not been in the lift. Had not been in the building, in fact. Was asleep upstairs. But a notice went up in the lobby the next day, anyway, asking all dogs to be muzzled in common areas, or else.

If you have lived in an Indian apartment with a dog, you know this story. Most of us have a version of it. It is almost never about the dog.

Here is what we have learned from the pack, over the years, about surviving an unhappy society:

Know the law. The 2023 AWBI guidelines are clear — you cannot be forced to evict your dog, and blanket bans are not enforceable. Print them. Keep them. Do not lead with them, but keep them close.

Do not fight in the WhatsApp group. Nothing useful has ever been said in an RWA WhatsApp group at 11pm. Respond once, kindly, publicly, and then go offline. The loudest voices are almost always not the decision-making ones.

Find your allies early. There is usually one other dog parent in the building. Find them. Walk together. Become a small, visible fact.

Win the staff. The watchman, the cleaner, the gardener, the lift mechanic — these people will determine how your dog is treated in your absence. Greet them. Learn their names. Ask about their families. None of this is strategy. It is just how buildings actually run.

Be a boring dog parent. Pick up everything. Keep the leash short. Do not let your dog bark at the neighbours. The best argument for your dog is a week of your dog being unremarkable.

And when none of this works — and sometimes it will not — find us. Our DMs are open. Our WhatsApp channel has members who have won their cases, and members who have lost them, and members who are somewhere in the middle still. You are not the first person this has happened to, and you will not be the last. We will sit with you.

Gabbar, for what it is worth, is still in the building. His family framed the AWBI guidelines and put them on their wall. They did not need them in the end.