Also, you have the problem that if your children are still crawlers or babies, soon, you are not going to want the dog to come in from outside and walk where your baby is crawling, because you’re the one who is going to have to clean the floors and carpets all the time for fear of hair, worms and/or disease transferred from the dog to the baby.

I believe a dog should be a companion, an addition to a family and so often I see families with multiple children where the dog gets abandoned to the backyard after it has lost its cuteness. And that is not good for the family and even less so for the animal who is left alone for long periods of time with no companionship. Many such cases borders or spills over into animal abuse.

I’m not saying “Don’t get a dog”, I guess what I’m saying is, that plan for a dog as you would for your next baby, make sure that you are at the right stage and have the capacilty to make it part of your family in the correct way so that neither you nor your dog suffers in the end.