Need Advice on Hardwood Floors and doodles

[Steve Drury]

I'm considering replacing the carpeting in the major living areas with tile or engineered hardwood flooring. I have done a search on this site and most of the remarks I found were coincidental on not the main topic.
My two concerns are dog safety---do they slip, slide and fall? and wear and tear on the floors. How do they hold up? I noted some of the folks who had positive feedback noted that they are diligent about trimming the dogs nails; those with negative feedback sometimes confessed being lax in trimming.
We are also considering tile. Same questions.
If you have had positive experience with your dogs living happily with wood, please provide information about the type of floors: old fashion hardwood strips, engineered wood; brand names would be great, type of finish if you know; smooth or "rustic" texture or distressed finish?
Anything you can offer will be appreciated. Thanks

[Nugget's Family]

Nugget slips a lot on the ceramic tile in the kitchen/breakfast area. She does much better on the prefinished maple floors we have in some rooms and even better on the wall to wall carpeting in the family room. She loves to run on the carpeting because she can get traction. She has not damaged any of our floors. We do get her nails trimmed and ground about every 6 weeks.

[Carole (*Koda*Monty*Bindi)]

We have hardwoods throughout. Absolutely love them! We have (4) dogs of all ages and sizes. Slipping has never been an issue and I've never had a scratch or a mark due to toenails. The only scratches I've ever had are from moving furniture and the pads on the legs having fallen off. Now mind you, none of the dogs are into the "zoomies" and at best we'll have Gaston-Cramer chasing Kyle in play but that's it.

I will make the suggestion though, as others have, that color is important. My SIL just put in dark woods and when we visited at Thanksgiving she spent every minute sweeping dust up! Especially when the sun shown through the windows. I would have gone crazy! Our house is primarily done in honey colored oak but we do have a bonus room upstairs that is brazilian mahogany. I will admit I have throw rugs protecting that but so far it hasn't been an issue because of the dogs! LOL

In our previous home we did have laminate and I have to say that between the two, in our experience, the hardwoods have been kinder to us as a family with four with fur.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I have tile in much of our downstairs and even in our bedroom. We have two kinds of tiles. In one area the tile is ceramic and highly polished (kind if like marble) and slick - It cleans like a dream but can be slippery. The other kind of tile is not shiny or slick, less slippery, and gets dirty easier - although it doesn't show because I chose a "dirt looking" tile. I chose tile over wood or laminate because, although I love wood and wood looks, I was warned that they would scratch, dent, and if water got on them - problems. At the time, I had swimmer/water polo players living at home - and wet towels on floors were a distinct possibility. Tile is cold in the winter and cool in the summer.

[Karen & Lucy]

I am soooo glad you asked this question. We just put wood laminate in one room and I would LOVE to do the whole house. My DH is worried that Lucy is going to scratch it, but the Purga floorinig says it wears well with dogs. I do not, at this time, have the time to read all of the discussions here as I have to work tomorrow and it is11:40 PM already and I MUST go to bed, but will be reading all and watching for more. Thanks

[Margaret Erwin]

We have engineered cherry floors and it was a mistake. Lots of dings and scratches