I need help from some dog lovers. We just bought a house and decided to put carpet in the family room which is 14 x 26. The rest of the house has hardwood floors, which we just had refinished, except the kitchen. I have always wanted to have a dog, but never lived where I could. A couple people have told me that I should not put carpet down if I'm planning to get a dog. Can you help me with the pros and cons of carpet + dog? I only have about 24 hrs to change my mind. (I'm thinking small lap dog.) Thanks for the help!

The current floor would make for easier clean up with accidents or I'm mad at you pee/poo.

I'm not sure why. Train the dog, shouldn't be a problem. Had a couple of dogs with carpet, never had an issue.

Carpet is only a problem if you get a dog that you have to house break. Consider adopting an adult dog that is already housebroken. My dog, Skye, shown in my avatar was a rescue and he has only had an accident in the house three times since I got him three years ago. Each time it was because of something that he had eaten and none of those times did he "go" on carpet. He was neutered at 6 months and so he does not hike his leg, he squats to pee and so he doesn't mark his territory. My flowers and I are both thankful, lol.

It is MUCH harder to maintain the hardwoods in our current home with such a large dog and his toenails than it was to maintain the carpet in our previous home. His toenails do mark up my hardwoods, but I will just get them refinished years from now when our dog is no longer with us.

I tore up all of my carpet and have never regreted it! I have always had dogs.

Oh, I neglected to mention the pee twice, poo once on the hardwoods within one hour the first day we moved into our new home. Once the movers bought his crate in he was back to his happy self. And that my friends was after we all spent 4 days driving from Minnesota to Virginia in the blizzard of January 2009. He was a nervous wreck, poor guy. My dog is awesome!

What a lovely room. From personal experience I would avoid wall to wall carpet if you intend keeping any furred pets or have children (we have 4 of the former and 5 of the latter!). Hard floors are much easier to keep clean, much better for people with allergies and in my opinion look a lot more elegant than fitted carpets. We have very little fitted carpet in our home, only in a dressing room and two of the bedrooms (one of which is now our studio space, so the carpet will be going from there in the near future).

We have polished wooden floorboards with pure wool rugs of various sizes. The rugs can be taken out for a beating/airing and when they get worn are much cheaper to replace than re-carpeting. It also makes re-decorating an easy thing....you can inject a splash of a new colour, just by choosing a new rug.

Hope you enjoy your new home and have many happy years there.

Love your pup. He/she is adorable. Such big, droopy eyes.

The current floor has to go because it's old and damaged and the room is very dark so it needs something to make it lighter. I'm even thinking of painting the paneling somewhere down the road.

Just thought I would put a pic of my Puggle here. she loves to go riding with me on the job. not in the winter tho. We had her brother also but they went for a run one day and only Daisy was found. We think someone saw them on the hiway and picked him up because he would get into a car with anyone who might have a treat.