You need not ask about having a Dog for your Family. What you should be asking is, Would my Family be ready to have another member if it were a Dog. Let me give you my / Our background as Advice. I am, um.. ok I'm getting Old, Have been Married over 27 years, Have 3 kids and 3 grandchildren, and in the 27 years have also have 2 great dogs,(Family members) and 15 - 20 Hounds. The hounds were Great Hounds,well some were anyway. BUT they were tools for my younger years of Hunting. I did become attatched to some. but I just think of them fondly when i'm missing the old hunting days. I MISS the other 2, "Amigo" ( Brittany died in 1994) and "PAL" ( Chocolate Lab Died Nov. 18 2012) I am tearing up thinking about it. I have a son who was a State champ wrestler and does MMA, He cant talk about "His" Dog Pal, to this day without tearing up. We now have a new Family member named "Duke" he is a Black Lab. He is mostly, right now, a pain in my a$$, But he is young,. My kids were also pains in my a$$ when young. But they get trained up. I in no way mean offence in saying " If you are buying a Dog for your kids to play with, you shouldn't be a dog owner" Buy the kids a swing set or jungle gym. Having a Dog in the Family is not something to be taken lightly. We live in a very rural area and, sad to say, have to deal with allot of BS from people who get a Dog and then cant handle it. So they come to the country and its." Aw look at the country folk.... Spot will love it here in the country" . So the Jerks "dump" the dog off and its scared to death, Doesn't know anything or anyone and hides out in the sticks thirsty and hungry unti'll it finds my chicken coop and the water in it with the chickens, BUT then its dead, with a hole in its head. Take my advice go with the swing set