I keep my starter in the fridge. It remains dormant until I take it out and refeed it. But it takes a couple of days to fully rekindle the thing when I need it — using a custom-built proofing box to keep its temperature at a constant 85 degrees F.
If you elect to go this route, you can order starter cultures (dried) from Italy OR San Francisco from sources online. Make mine Italian — for a more refined taste. Just be prepared for VERY slow rise times. Takes me a day or more for each baking session, AFTER the culture has been restarted.
Looked and found this reference for starter including refrigerating:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/SourdoughStarter.htm
I do the same with my soughdough starter but since I have a Zojurushi bread machine that has the abilty for me to profram cycles I have a proofing cycle set.What I do is pull the starter out, feed it, let it get to room temp then measure out what I need for the bread I’m making,load it into the machine and let it go on a 13 hour rise cycle. I usually let it go overnight so in the morning I just add the rest of the ingredients and voila perfect bread. I made my own starter years ago and it is very tasty. Start to finish takes me about 15 hours.