It's a bit sad that everyone is telling you to "do it" without any consequence or knowledge of your situation.

Do you want a kid? If not, dogs are basically kids lite®. They rely on you, they learn all their behavioral patterns from you, depending on their size they can be dangerous to society.

The fact is, a dog is no easy task. Any whackoff can go get a cat and enjoy responsibility free adorableness (before you start hating, I own a hyperactive dog and two cats). Cats are like a 2 on the responsibility scale. Dogs are an 8. Kids are 10.

Especially if you get one as a puppy, it's basically like having a toddler. It will howl if you leave it alone for any period of time. You have to be constantly on your guard. You can't leave it alone for any period of time unless you want to cage it up. Basically we got our puppy, and we had to take shifts of unscheduled time off between us both for a month until it was comfortable enough for us to leave it alone.

The nice things about dogs is that you can leave them by themselves (in a controlled environment) relatively young in their development. You can also expect them to develop on their own reasonably well from about age 1 or so (with reasonable attention). They're like kids on a shortened time frame.

But they are also easy to F*** up, emotionally and mentally. That shortened time frame means that everything you do or say or act gets imprinted on them when they're young. Treat them well and, more importantly, be their drill sergeant, and they will grow up to be obedient happy soulmates. Don't do that, and you get a throwaway california chihuahua, due for lethal injection next week.

Don't take reddit's "Just do it" attitude like a responsibility free prize.