Finding apartments and neighbourhoods in Ghent

Hello!

We are moving to Ghent after the summer to study and we are starting to look at apartments/houses.

1) Are there some streets/neighbourhoods in Ghent you would recommend? We would like it to be in walking distance to the city center and transportation.
2) Are there some rental agencies or websites I should be looking at?
3) We have a small dog, is it possible search through apartments/houses that do allow dogs? I have seen many apartments that would suit us, but I've heard that it's hard to find one that allow dogs, so instead of sending every owner an email, can I somewhere see only apartments that allow dogs?
4) Is it hard to rent apartments in Ghent? We are students on students loans and also have some savings (our budget for apartments would be up to 900euros) and we will be living in Ghent for at least 3 years while studying..
5) Is it possible to find apartment and sign the lease before we arrive in Belgium or do we need to be i Belgium to find an apartment?

Lots of questions hehe, thanks in advance!
All tips wanted