I think what matters most is your overall availability and your understanding of what could lie ahead. I was super excited about getting our puppy and didn't think about how many different ways having a dog would impact our lives. I didn't expect the pup to bite as much as he does (we're working on it) and I didn't expect so much of an I-don't-give-a-sh*t attitude lol. At the beginning I would get frustrated A LOT but now I've learned to laugh off most of it. Stuff's going to get destroyed, no matter how careful you think you are being about Huksy-proofing the house. We have a cat too, and at the very beginning when the pup was smaller than her it wasn't a big deal. But now at almost 6 months, he's obviously much bigger than her and bullies her almost constantly. I'll be standing right in front of him saying "NO" because he's locked his gaze on her, and not even 5 seconds later he's bolting off his dog bed to chase her out of the room. That's the kind of stuff that gets to me the most, the fact that he does not care one bit what I'm telling him or that he gets his butt swatted after charging the cat, and he's gonna do what he's gonna do.

We crate our pup, but like other posters have said, its cruel to leave him in there all during an 8-hour work day and then make him stay in there longer because we want to go out. Some days we have no choice but to put him back in after we get off work because of errand-running. Our schedules are staggered slightly, meaning that my bf goes to work 3 hours before I do and gets home before I do too. Our pup goes in the crate on weeknights at 9pm, gets let out at 4:30am when my bf wakes up, then gets let out again at 6:30am when I wake up, then I come home to let him out for lunch, usually around 11:30am, and then out again when my bf gets home from work. He's in and out all day, and so far its working out.