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[quote=Anonymous]Dogs are wonderful, but also a huge investment of time an energy. Particularly if you are compassionate responsible dog owner.

Do you work? Does your partner? If so you are leaving the dog all day, you need to get back let him out to use the bathroom, get a good long walk in. Makes it a lot harder to go anywhere after work. Most behavior problems come from lack of exercise and stimulation (food puzzles, training challenges, something to do).

It costs very little in some ways and an absolute ton in others. 
You can spend as much as you want on food, but if you go with something basic with meat as the main 2 or 3 ingredients you are good. 
Vets are expensive and not very good around here. Everyone has pet insurance which is practically a scam and that drives prices up dramatically. Vet offices are pretty and polished with designer interiors and email lists instead of the basic boxes with linoleum floors that keep costs down they should be IMO. I ended up going to to west virgina to get a very common orthopedic operation on my dog, 3000 instead of 6500-7000+ around here and vastly superior service. Vet gave options run down, his opinion on best path, cause, recovery and PT. Vets (plural) refused to give any real info around here, wanted 800 for just an xray, some would not quote price for procedure without a 300 dollar office visit. Ridiculous.
Boarding is very expensive and quality can be very poor depending on your dogs needs. At around 45-80 dollars a night be prepared with a couple hundred dollars extra for any weekend trips or vacations you take from now on. My dog being very active could not take being stuck in a cage for weeks at a time with little more than a walk a day like many places around here do.[/quote]

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