Do I want a dog?? Do you regret having one?

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I love dogs so much! But I am very aware that they are a huge commitment that is years and years long and I don’t want to commit to having one unless I am absolutely certain I can be a good dog owner.

I can and do work from home most of the time, although there are days when I go in to my office - it’s very flexible.
I love getting out for long walks.
I have a 7 year old daughter who is very calm and loves animals
I have a small garden
I like to go for breaks away when I can fit them in
Weekends can be changed to fit around having a dog but I don’t always go to dog friendly places with my DD
The hair shedding and potentially being woken up early doors would bother me
I earn well and could afford to pay a dog walker if needs be - would get pet insurance obviously and vet bills wouldn’t be an issue
I wouldn’t get a puppy. I prefer medium to large breeds - would like to get a rescue if I can but don’t know if it would be better to get a dog whose background I am aware of if that makes sense?

Or should I just get a cat?!!

Talk me out of it please!!

I only regret that dogs have relatively short lives, and the grief when you lose them is very painful.

CONS as above, but add

dog hairs & mud in house
limited as to going out, holidays when you please
vet bills are enormous now, and insurance doesn't always cover

PROS

lots of love, both received and given
lots of fun
lots of exercise
house becomes a home
wonderful homecoming greetings

Cats are much easier, and almost as good as dogs.

I've only ever had rescue dogs - first one arrived when DD was in reception.

All different characters and sizes.

The current crew are 8 and 10, so not as energetic as they once were and love WFH days snoring next to me. I think we'll have a little break after these two, just to get in some guilt-free longer holidays when we've got no kids at home.

I will always rescue, as long as I'm able.

Not everyone has to get up at 5.30am with your dog. Depends on whether you work and how you have trained your dog. If you work and you have to be in at a certain time which necessitates getting up at 5.30am then of course. On days I travel into London I get up at 5.45 to work my pooches, but that doesn't bother me. On other days though my two can go until 10/11 without a walk. Some people will say a routine is very important but in my experience, unless you have working dogs (and the OP should chose the breed carefully) not having a routine creates chilled low maintenance dogs. If I was the OP I would consider a greyhound as they are the chillest dogs in the world mostly.

I know people who have a rescue greyhound and she is such a sweet girl, very lovely but doesn’t have much character for want of a better way to describe her.

Well I think you should get a dog.I am biased as I love all dogs ! You are at home during the day,can afford a dog walker its all good.Maybe a spaniel or beagle ? I think children benefit from dogs so much .They love you and there is a different RL entirely from any human ones

I love DDog and I wanted him for ages until circumstances were right BUT if I could turn back the clock I wouldn't have a dog.
He is messy, dirty, expensive, inconvenient and when he was ill and we faced losing him it was awful.
We have built our life around him now but it would have been nice not to have to

You don't necessarily have to get up at the crack of dawn to walk them, (and in some cases you really shouldn't - looking at you, neighbours who walk their barky arse spaniel at 5am)
My dog has a dog flap and access to a large secure garden, he comes and goes as he pleases so never needs "letting out".
He needs at least one walk a day, food, water, baths, regular de-fleaing treatments and lots of affection.
It really depends on your set up, what you have available, how much time you can give, and the dog you get.

I've owned dogs for 21 years, and when the current one is gone I am never getting another one. The hardest part is when they get old. It rips you apart when they die, and the slow decline as they age is very difficult. The early years are wonderful but I can't go through the end of life trauma with another dog after this one. It's too sad.

I love our dogs, but we got them before having kids when we had a lot more time to commit to them. Now we have two young kids, and honestly the dogs are so restrictive. The kids love them, but they hate the fact that on days out we're limited to 4-5 hours before we need to get back to let the dogs go out. I've always had pets, and will definitely have another dog in the future once the kids are independent, but in the interim we'll be having a cat when our current (old!) dogs are no longer with us.

In my experience re kittens if they are held and cuddled from an early age (no problem in our house with 3 young kids!) then they remain happy to be picked up, cuddled etc in the years after...

I agree that "rescue" does not automatically mean problems. We have had 8 rescue dogs over the years and only one had problems and that was because his previous owner beat him, kept him locked up in a shed, only gave him food and water a couple of times a week and never ever socialised him. When we got him at 8 months he was terrified of everything - grass, trees, birds, other dogs, vehicles, people - as I said, everything.

I have a lot of friends involved in dog rescue and they all have dogs almost all of which have not had problems.

Dogs end up in rescue because of stupid people who get one and then decide to have a baby so the dog must go without even seeing if it would be ok with a baby. Or it sheds too much, or it chews things, or messes on the floor etc etc etc. Pathetic reason after pathetic reason.

We have had cats most of our married life and, as lovely as they are, they moult, moult and moult some more. The hair on absolutely everything was awful.

Get an australian labradoodle. They dont shed and they sleep in 😉 Ours is the last to get him. If she is sleeping with one of us and we wake first, she will go find whoever is still sleeping and join them to sleep more. She never bugs us to go out early morning. She does not shed. But this does mean we need to get her groomed to get her fur trimmed.

I adored my rescue pug. We had her 5 years before she passed last summer. I miss her so much but I'll be honest,it's so nice going out for days out without having to book a sitter for her. We have no family close by and we always had to book a sitter,which restricted visits,due to costs. She was lovely company but I found myself stuck at home, while the rest of the family went out for days out. We got her for company but truth be told,if felt more lonely and isolated. I feel bad for saying it 🥺😔

Yes I agree but some strays also learn to be cuddly. Our current cat was feral until about 18 months but is now such a softy. I can pick him up and cuddle him whenever I want. Not always the case, I know.

You will lose so much freedom and flexibility. They are a massive responsibility.
You will have far more cleaning to do, and it will be non-stop.
Your home WILL smell. YOU will smell.
You will never get rid of the fur, and your clothing will look dirty.
You will spend an absolute fortune.
You will no doubt irritate the neighbours, be it with the whining, yapping or barking.
Picking up poo is gross.
They are relentless, and draining on one's energy.
Your DD may lose friends as some people don't want to go to houses where there are dogs.

Genuine question not wanting to sound goady.
Why were you not at stages of your life previously where you wanted a clean house?

Wow talk about worse case scenario. As someone with two dogs none of those things have happened. It's sad if this was your experience of dogs, although i question why your house and you smell and your clothes were dirty. Not sure that is the dogs fault. Sounds more like lack of care and cleaning on your part. OP, dogs are work and do mean your lifestyle may change slightly. They do cost money (as per my previous post) so you do need to ensure that you can afford it. My two have given back far more than they take. I love walking them, i dont care about the weather as I am an outdoorsey person. They were brilliant for me and my daughter when my marriage split up. They are furry, but hoovering works and once a month a do a full carpet clean using my Bissel. My house does not smell and neither do I. When i lived a flat after my break up it was more of a challenge as no garden and it was all carpeted . Now I have a garden and a boot room so it's easier. Even with that though. my pooches have given me so much and while its a bit more work, i would never be without them.

Yeah, not goady at all!
Maybe she now doesn't have young DC?

OP consider a rescue greyhound.

Dogs are so much work! We don't have one, but have several friends who do and here's some of their quirks.

Dogs that cant be left home alone. Ever. Grooming fee's are expensive. Some friends only meet us at dog friendly places now, so we don't see them often and dog friendly doesn't usually mean child friendly. I know we could see them without children or dogs, but go back to the first point. We aren't keen on visiting them as their gardens always have dog poo in them. Not poo everywhere, but one of our DC seems to find a small rogue piece to stand in. You can only holiday in dog friendly caravans or lodgers, they often smell of dogs, or you need to pay for kennels. Unless you have dogs that cant be left alone. Ever.

And even if you find a nice air bnb that allows dogs, you often cant leave them home alone in case they wreck it, so you are limited to only going to dog friendly places

One of our friends dogs is very reactive to fireworks, so much so that he goes and camps out on the moors instead of staying at home on nights when fireworks are likely

I’m a bit bemused by the suggestion that if people don’t want a dog then a cat is a more low maintenance option 😳 we have a cat that we absolutely adore but he’s very needy and demanding! Wakes us up every day at 6am on the dot meowing for food and standing on us in bed 😳🙈😂, climbs all over us all day long wanting cuddles, is up and down stairs and all over the house all day (whereas with a dog you can keep them downstairs if you wish), scratches all our furniture to bits (we don’t care but some might, we have loads of cat scratch things for him and he just ignores them!) and so on. They’re not less work than dogs, just different. I’ve had both.

OP said she felt greyhounds didnt have much personality. they are very placid TBF. Italian greyhounds or Whippets are a good shout. Whippets are known for being amazing with children. Sight hounds in general are god for first time owners although I recommend everyone does training classes (more for the owners than the pooches). Sighthounds also don't shed or small the same as other dogs. A lot of the problems people are citing are more to do with poor training than the dogs. You can sort separation anxiety etc out, but you have to be disciplined and train as early as possible, mistakes people make is allowing bad behaviour as puppies because it's 'cute' but is less cute when they are older and by then harder to sort out (ie taking them everywhere when they are puppies, or allowing them to chew your fingers when they are puppies). Poo never bothers me, its easy to pick you with a poo bag. If you keep on top of it its fine in your garden although my two wont go in the garden. I am more traumatised from poo from when my daughter was little to be honest! My daughter costs alot, is annoying form time to time, is a lot of responsibility, has change my lifestyle, has meant its more restrictive/expensive to go on holiday but has given me far more in return and my pooches are the same!

My cat's very quiet at night and respects our need to sleep! He doesn't scratch the furniture either. I've had lots of cats and none of them have scratched furniture. They've all sharpened their claws outside.