Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Wood flooring and dogs

I really want real wood flooring. I have a dog. Okay, I'll get scratches. I hear about people refinishing wood floors. Does that get all the scratches out? Is it a pain to do? I thought we'd put in the wood, and in 15 years when we want to sell, we can refinish it. Is there one type of real wood better than others for homes with a dog? Thanks, Mary

A lot will depend on your dog - is it 5lbs or 100 lbs and how active is the dog.
I can't offer much for specifics but my parents have hardwood floors in their house and in their cabin. There are harder and softer woods and there are harder coatings you can apply to protect the wood. Their house has a softer coating on it and gets scratched just from people traffic - they refinished them once and it looked like new for a few months. At their cabin they had a different installer and different finish - that floor takes more abuse but hardly shows any scratches after 3 years.
We went went with one of the newer laminate wood floors in our house (2 - 50lb dogs that are very energetic). Most people can't tell it's not real wood and so far it looks as good as the day we installed it.

One thing your dog will want is a couple non-slip rugs to sit/lay on it's tough for them to sit on the wood without sliding.

I have a 85 LB golden retriever and am trying to decide what type of wood flooring to go with (couple of posts down) - Which type of laminate did you go with? Someone suggested pergo select? Just want to be sure that whichever laminate I get almost looks like the real thing. thanks in advance for suggestions!

I wouldn't necessarily assume that you will get scratches. It all depends on what type of finish you put on your floor. I would think that a good hard and durable polyurathane (sp?) will hold up against a dogs nails. I also wouldn't think the kind of wood would matter as much as the coating you finish it with. On the other hand, if you leave it natural and just wax it, you will get scratches, not just from dogs, but from people, furniture etc.

Just a guess, but I would think that after 15-20 years, you may want to reapply some finish to the floors regardless.... but not necessarily completely refinish them.

By the way I am not an expert, but I had a dog and wood floors growing up. I am also in the process of sanding and refinishing my original wood floors. I think I will use an oil based polyurathane. Not so much because I am worried about my 92lb chocolate lab or my 65lb shepard mix scratching them though ;) One other note... wood floors are very easy to clean up after any doggie accidents.

I don't remember the brand name we have, I'll look tonight and get back to you.