Okay, my husband won't allow a dog in the house, and he barely tolerates our two cats, HOWEVER, my oldest daughter does some pet sitting.....and I know that the crate thing is popular these days. I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of a dog being stuck in a crate, but people assure me they like it. (???) One of the families she petsits for keeps their dog mostly outside with an electric fence, inside at night, and then if they are going to be out of the house they use the crate so the dog is never running loose in the home with noone there to supervise (reducing damage I guess) As far as the smell goes, I don't care what anyone says, you CAN smell it when people have a pet. But I think that's just the price you pay for that addition to your family, and I just think it's so great for kids, so I guess you live with it. As much as you can keep them outdoors or in a crate, obviously the less vacumming you'd have to do, but I can see how people would feel like that takes away from the interaction with the family, so I guess you just have to figure out what your family can live with, and what your reasons are in the first place for having a dog. I wish we had a basement or something to make it more practical for us, because my hubby just can't handle a dog lounging all over our furniture. But ironically with 4 kids and 2 cats it's not like our furniture is anything special anyway-haha. I also love labs and agree they're great family pets! Good luck!

Thanks.  All great points.

We had our dog first, then baby. Our dog is a lab mix, 80 pounds. She is as much a member of our family as our daughter. She vacations with us and has our bed right next to ours. She is definitely an inside dog and doesn't like to be outside by herself unless we are with her. When she was a puppy, we used crate training to potty train and set boundaries. Slowly we opened up her 'range' until she now has access to the entire house. (She just turned 7.) She did great when our daughter came along last year and has handled the adjustment as well as can be expected. All too often we have seen 'first born dogs' get moved outside when the baby comes and we were just not going to let that happen to our dog. The baby and her get along well and when she gets tired of the baby's attention, she retreats to 'her' bedroom (which she lets us sleep in, lol!) We give her a bath once a month so doggie smell has never been an issue. And since she is primarily inside, she doesn't really have the opportunity to get that stinky. Dogs are such a great addition to your family! And such a great thing for a child to have in his/her life. It teaches him or her to care for another being and as he gets older, to have responsibility in the care of the dog. We do daily walks together and our daughter just loves watching our dog retrieve the football in our yard. She squeals with delight. I have never believed in having an outside dog. It just doesn't seem fair to them. Do you really think he enjoys being outside when his masters and 'pack' are inside? Think long and hard about the emotional/financial commitment that a dog requires and make sure you are getting one for the right reasons. They are such an unselfish, loyal, giving addition to your heart and lives and don't require a whole lot in return. Almost seems unfair when you think about it! Good Luck! Labs rock!