I recently stumbled upon a thread on Reddit about dog ownership and its downsides. I have some thoughts to share.

Six months ago, my wife and I adopted Tess. She is a beautiful girl who is smart, adorable, and a giant ball of energy. But like all pets, there are considerations.

You Have to Plan Ahead

Having a pet means you have the responsibility for caring for them. It has meant that our ability to be spontaneous about day or weekend trips has for the moment been eliminated. It's not like we go on a lot of trips, but we no longer can even just decide to spend the day away from home. Tess has to be walked and fed. We have family living nearby so in an emergency we'd be okay, but we don't like having to ask them to help out. If we go for any extended period of time, we'd have to either have Tess boarded or have someone come over and dogsit.

Otto was older and much lower energy than Tess. With him, we could just have whoever was watching him let him out into the backyard to do his business and then come back in. Tess is still a (large) puppy, and is much higher energy. She needs to go for walks and to burn off that puppy energy. It's something we have to take into consideration whenever we choose to go away in that she will require more attention than Otto did. It goes to show that every pet is different, and even the same pet can be wildly different depending on how old they are.

They Can Be Expensive

Dogs need to see the doctor just like us humans. Hopefully it's far more wellness visits rather than medical issues, but animals can get sick and/or hurt themselves. This requires going to the vet which can get expensive.

But even ignoring vet visits, owning a pet isn't necessarily cheap. With dogs, that means buying a crate, toys, food, treats, poop bags, leashes, and countless other little things. Not all of them are expensive alone, but as a whole, they can add up, especially when your dog destroys 2 crate pads in a single day (I'm looking at you Tess).

Tess is a power chewer, which means that we have to be careful what toys we get her as she will go right through them if we're not careful. Tess destroyed the first toy we gave her in less than 5 minutes. We now know that we have to get more durable toys. She'll still eventually destroy them, but it will just take longer, and we have to be more observant to make sure the toys are still safe for her to have. Different dogs treat toys differently, so depending on the dog, you might be able to save some money on toys with a bigger selection available.

You can certainly shop around and find deals on this stuff, but it's something to consider.

Cleaning Up After Them

Dogs make messes. With toys around the house, Tess knows the bin we keep them in, and knows she can go pick them out of the bin to play with them. She hasn't mastered cleaning up after herself and putting the toys back when she's done. So we have to be cognizant of them walking around our own house as she'll get bored, leave them, and go get the next toy.

Cleaning also means cleaning up their poop and puke. Thankfully puking isn't common, though it still happens from time to time. Pooping on the other hand happens regularly. With Tess, she poops on her walks, which means that we have to make sure we have poop bags on the leash and don't forget to replace them if we use the last one on the spool. It's not at all a pleasant experience and the smell can be, well, awful. But you have to do it. Our previous dog, Otto, didn't do well on walks, so we would just let him run around our fenced in yard when he had to do his business. Even though this negated us having to pick up after him immediately as it was in our yard, we still regularly had to go through the fenced in area and bag it up for both sanitary reasons, and so that I could mow the lawn (you really don't want the blades to fling that shit everywhere).

Hair. Hair. Everywhere.

Most dogs are covered in fur. Most dogs shed. For short haired dogs, it might not be as noticeable. Tess is not a short haired dog. She might not be super floofy, but she's got plenty of fur. Her hair gets everywhere. It could be a full time job just to keep the dog hair in check. We have to vacuum regularly, but even with that, we still see her hair everywhere.

Saying Goodbye

Losing a pet is devastating. They're part of the family and you love them to death. I've had to say goodbye to three pets in my life and not one of them was easy. I still love all three of them and miss them. I always will. Compared to humans, their lifespans are short, but their ability to cause us to love them is overpowering. You never want to go to the vet's office and find out that the minor symptoms you observed was significantly more serious than you knew. It's absolutely heartbreaking and there's no way around it. You need to know this going into it.

Downsides are Outweighed by the Upsides

Obviously there are some serious things that need to be considered before getting a dog, and not all of them are plusses. But even with all the negatives, I'm glad we adopted Otto 8 years ago, and that we adopted Tess earlier this year. The love they give, the companionship, and the joy they bring us can't be quantified, but it tilts the scales so much into pet ownership's favor.