I would have never said anything to him.
How would he ever know that you had a guest w/pet for a week?
Sorry, but I think you opened the can o'worms by telling him.

I had to tell him because he comes to my house unannounced to cut the grass and do other repairs. He also owns the house beside me and could show up there at any time if that tenant should need anything.

Have the guest board the pet with a local vet.

If the dog is relatively well-behaved, tell him the dog is, or is in training, to be a therapy dog. They can't generally turn away service dogs - for either legal reasons or just for the sake of seeming evil. :-) (Quite honestly, I see no difference in a well-mannered pet and a service animal but humans will unfortunately be humans and try to make a distinction)

If the dog is out of control then if he drops by unannounced that could pose a bit of a problem.

The dog is well behaved, I've told him that. He said that she'd be a liability as far as his home owner's insurance was concerned. He pointed out the possibility of my kids having a friend over and the dog biting them, and the parents suing him.

The owner of the dog is my boyfriend who lives out of state and visits often, usually once a month.

He ended up putting her in a kennal for the visit, and my landlord did make up some lame excuse to come down here during the week to make sure he didn't bring the dog, as I knew he would.

Maybe it's time to start pointing out the other liabilities such as the broken basement doors that have been there for years. The same parents could sue him if one of their kids fell through those and ended up at the bottom of the outside basement steps because he didn't replace them six years ago as promised.

You might be able to politely remind him of those things. And to remind him that YOU have been a good tenant for HIM for 6 years. There's a benefit to a landlord, to have a reliable tenant for a long time.

I'm wondering, since this is an ongoing sort of thing, and not a once-in-a-blue-moon visit, whether you can head him off w/ the insurance thing by checking whether your renter's insurance (you do have it, right?) or personal liability insurance would cover the contingency he speaks of. (you might also call his home-owner's insurance company, if you know which it is, and ASK them whether he could be liable, and whether this would affect his rates)

You might also talk to a lawyer and see if there's some form you could sign that would indemnify your landlord by legally binding you to cover any such thing that comes up. And, to be sure he's right--it seems a logical stretch to assume that the landlord is responsible for the tenant's visiting dog. I know that the law often MAKES such logically convoluted leaps, but I think since this is an ongoing thing, I might investigate it.

This is their first rental property. They bought this house, and the one next door, a little over six years ago. Both properties were already rented to the other tenant (20 yrs) and myself (6 yrs) so they have never had to deal with any other tenants.

We both do out own painting when it needs to be done, we both do small repairs, and other things around both houses. The only times we really call the landlord is when something big needs to be dealt with such as a water heater, or an appliance. I can't vouch for how she pays her rent, but I know he has my rent every month, hand delivered to HIS post office where his PO box is located (as per HIS request).

I really don't think they even talked to anyone about the home owner's policy, as this is a small town, and I know many property owners, and most seem to use the same company, not one has been questioned about their tenants owning or having pets, and none ever needed a "special rider" to cover pets. My parents own 3 rentals here and have tenants with pets. I think he just doesn't want the dog here. Period.

For now, the dog will be put in a kennal for the visits, and eventually I will start looking for another place. But I know from seeing what my parents go through as property owners, some tenants aren't like me, they've had some call at all hours of the night because they've had a question, or heard something strange in the basement. It turned out to be a child's toy. So, it all goes back to choosing your battles, I guess.