I know a lot of these will have been said but it’s just easier for me to list all of them.
Cost: food (especially if they have allergies), insurance. Vet bills (flea treatment, worming, vaccinations, medications as they age and those emergency vet visits that aren’t worth claiming on your insurance but are still £300-400). Doggy day care/dog walker (trusting them to do their job). Toys, balls, chews, crates (home/car). Puppy proofing (fixing any holes in the fence/gate), cost of damaged goods (things chewed when puppy, stuff they knock off with their tails or charging round). Training (to get a well trained dog it costs a hell of a lot of money - our training is £80-100 per 6 weeks and realistically she needed to go to training for at least a year), plus any additional costs of activities (if you get into agility, flyball, rally, fun dog, sport, they all cost money). Parking when you want to take the dog somewhere and you’re bored of walking around your village (if you’re like us you can add in cake and drink too). Beds (puppies need small beds and then bigger beds but most dogs will chew at least one bed). Waterproof gear for you (night already have boots but these all get worn out quicker). Shampoo, grooming, brushes, nail clippers.
Time - training, lots of it, for at least a year. With practice at home and on walks. Taking them for a walk. Walking them in the snow, rain, wind, fog. Waking up at 4/5am to walk then when it’s cooler in the summer and too hot during the day When they are puppies, you can’t take them that far but they still need to burn off energy so you need to do obedience and play with them. Grooming, bathing, brushing. Cleaning up after them. Working out your schedules to make sure someone comes home for the dog. Planning logistics of what to do with the dog if you want to go out after work for leaving drinks or the Christmas do.
Getting up in the night to toilet train them.
If they don’t shed, they’ll need brushing more regularly. We have a cockapoo and she doesn’t shed but she’d like a bloody microfibre cloth. Everything gets stuck in her fur.
Dogs being dogs. Splashing in puddles. Swimming in the river. Swimming in the farmers ditch. Rolling in fox poo. Chasing you to eat the horse poo. Going outside, eating the neighbours cat’s poo and then breathing on your face. Disappearing under a hedge and coming out with twigs and mud everywhere. Finding the deepest, muddiest part of the field, running to it, looking back to you with a look that says “you can’t stop me” before lying down and rolling in it. Having their prey drive kick in on a walk and hunting (and potentially killing) something on a walk. Farting. Being sick then eating it. Being sick and not being able to move them outside because they’re dead weights.
Mud, dirt, dust on your walls, floors, sofas and beds if they’re allowed on there. Nose marks ok glass window panes if they can reach. It’s very hard to be house proud with a dog.
The smell of treats and chews 🤢
Dog-friendly places. I live in a dog friendly town yet there are still many shops where one of us is stood outside while the other pops into Boots or WHSmith. Making sure that 90% of the places you eat are dog friendly. Sometimes that means sitting outside even if it’s cold. Holidays - usually means taking them with you but otherwise someone needs to look after it/need to be happy putting in kennels (additional cost). You go to a dog friendly B&B or stay at relatives who don’t have dogs, you worry about your dog trashing the place with their mud/drool/tail.
My mum had a retriever, so for those specifically:
Fur - retrievers shed so much. There will be white dog hair on everything. Couch (even if they aren’t allowed up), all over the car, work clothes, clothes when you’re going to a wedding or funeral. If they have laminate/wood flooring, it’ll gather as tumbleweeds behind the door. If carpet, they need a strong hoover and realistically they will be running a damp cloth over carpet to pull up dog fur. My mum’s dog had visited our house about three times before she died last year - we’re still finding fur.
Hip and leg problems. Retrievers can huge issues with their hips and legs. Mum’s dog had 3 operations on her hips or tendons in her legs (thankfully insured). The dog had arthritis at the end of her life as a result of the issues with her legs. In hindsight, we probably got the dog from a puppy farm - so the husband needs to be looking into health checking of pups. As the dog’s legs got worse, it meant my mum having to lift the dog into the car. So realistically they need to be able to lift a 30-40kg dog in and out of the car/house when they are 10-15 years older.