After trying cats (and failing to make it work out, see Well, I started feeling guilty), my wife and I are considering getting a dog for kids (6 1/2 year old twins, boy and girl). We would get one in the summer for the kids birthday (in July).

But, before I do this, I want to know what to expect. We had dogs (mostly beagles) when I was growing up, but I haven't had a dog around in over 20 years. It will be an outside dog. We want something good with kids, and we both like golden retrievers so we're leaning heavily toward one of them.

I'm assuming a dog can be trained to poop in a certain area and not all over the yard, garage floor, flower beds, gravel, etc. If this is not true, please tell me about it now!

My other concern is barking. When I've lived in the city in the past there were always dogs barking. The neighbors dog barked at me when I went out into my own back yard. They barked at night and kept me awake. Either the owners weren't there, were deaf, or they just didn't care. Now that I'm in the country, it's not so bad because the neighbors are farther away. But, I still hear dogs barking a lot and wonder why the owners don't do something about it. I think it's mostly when the owners are not home or when they're asleep and they must be heavy sleepers and/or hard of hearing so it doesn't bother them. Is it possible to train a dog not to bark all the time? I understand they are going to bark sometimes and they can warn of intruders, but it doesn't do any good if they are always "crying wolf". Can a dog be trained to only bark at certain things (car pulled in the driveway) and not others (squirrel in the woods)? I don't want to be an annoying neighbor because my dog barks too much!

The beagles we had when I was growing up usually ended up dead in the road. They would get on a rabbit track and didn't pay attention. Can dogs be trained to stay out of the road?