Agreed. Move first, then acquire the dog.
It will only end badly if you try to sneak this dog into your home against the landlord’s wishes.
If you are afraid that someone else will adopt the dog out from under you, talk to the shelter people and see if you can come to an arrangement where they are essentially ‘holding’ the dog for you.
Perhaps contributing to his upkeep while he is in the shelter will intice them reserve the dog for the day when you can take him home legitimately.
If you are paying for his upkeep, then it will be harder for them to let him go to someone else, but get it in writing.
If the shelter is already essentially ‘holding’ the dog for you and you just can’t wait and want the dog NOW NOW NOW well you really need to suck it up and wait.
If you think the landlord won’t figure out that you have snuck in a dog, you are mistaken.
He has the right to enter your living area at his whim, since he is the owner, and once he suspects that Fido is living with you (and he will already be suspicious since you have brought it up to him and been shot down) he will go in while you are not home and find Fido.
That will be the end of Fido, as he will have the right to remove the dog from his premises and will quite honestly be under no obligation to tell you what he did with the dog.
You think you are ideal tenants but the fact that you are considering this means that you are NOT ideal.
You are only ideal when the rules suit you. When they don’t, you want to circumvent them and act like the landlord just doesn’t get it, that this dog is an angel and will never do wrong.
You cannot make that guarantee. No one can.
Even if the dog has exemplary potty habits now, sometimes a move can confuse them and they start soiling indoors again.
This can happen even when you are home.
And what are you going to do when he needs to potty and you have to take him outside?
Surely others will see you walking a dog and this could be reported to the landlord.
Are you planning on not walking him? Letting him potty on wee wee pads until you have escaped to your new home?
Do you think this is fair to him, to be imprisoned in your home with maybe only a clandestine night walk or two?
While you may see this as an improvement on the shelter, at least at the shelter he has opportunities to toilet appropriately and gets some outdoor playtime during the day, like a normal dog.
If he is trapped in your home hiding all the time, he may start to chew out of boredom, so while he isn’t a chewer now, this could develop and how will you explain the fresh teethmarks to the landlord?
Sorry, there just isn’t any way for this to work out and you could actually end up with the landlord confiscating the dog, never to be seen again, and homeless, when he tosses you out on your rumps for getting a dog against his orders.
I know that you really want this dog but you have to do it the right way.
Get to your new place first and then run right to the shelter and claim the dog, but MOVE FIRST.
You think you mean well but you are really just trying to justify doing wrong by saying it’s for your love of this dog.
Nothing justifies knowingly doing wrong.
One alternative is to get the dog and take him straight to a kennel and board him until you can take him home. This will be very expensive but will at least ensure your ownership.
However, I am not sure how the shelter people would feel about releasing a dog to your custody if they knew it was going from the shelter to a kennel, so they may think twice about letting you adopt him under those circumstances.
Option three: Is there no one you know who could take the dog temporarily until you move? I am assuming not since you would probably have done this already but maybe you could find someone who would be willing to board your dog for a fee.
The shelter people would probably feel better knowing that the dog was going to an actual home, albeit not yours, so this would give you a better chance of securing the dog prior to moving.