Floor color and day to day dog dirt and grime
 

We will be building a home soon with hardwood throughout. We currently have light colored laminate wood flooring and it seems to hide things like dried drops of water from dogs running through the house after drinking. Dog hair also seems to be hidden pretty well except in places where it tends to collect and form tumbleweeds. We love the look of dark wood but I'm concerned about all the dog grime suddenly being very obvious. The last thing I want is to feel like I have to polish floors every day. So I'd love to hear about your experience with dark hard surface floors and day to day dog living.

I have Mirage hardwood in my kitchen and foyer (its not real dark). The biggest problem to me isn't dog hair or grime. It's the dogs nails. For the most part it happened when Kaos was younger. But he made a bunch of fine gouge marks with his nails near the front door and patio door. A few in other places. It wasn't enough to go through the woods layers of protective coating. But if you look close you can see the fine imprint of nail indent in the wood. Visitors won't really notice but being the homeowner you do...

Hair is more noticeable to me then grime. The noticeable water spots come from if he isn't completely dry after being in rain and of course he shakes the right at the point the hardwood starts. I try and dry him as best I can. I have Kaos water bowl in my family room (carpet). He is a terror dripping water......

I have light wood laminate and dark wood laminate. The dark hides stuff better. We are also building a house, and while I love hard wood, I opted to get laminate again because of the scratching. My neighbors have Hickory floors and they are more scratch resistant than a lot of other woods. They are also beautiful!