Are you serious? Bathing a dog in your kitchen sink? Sure wouldn't want to eat any food prepared in your kitchen. Don't get me wrong, i/we love animals, but we never allow any animal in the kitchen.

The difference of seven thousandths of an inch (+/- two human hairs) isn't going to have appreciable affect unless the sink is very large in plane dimension, say for commercial duty.
Both gauges are susceptible to denting.

Thanks, Alfonse. I thought it couldn't be that different, but I wanted to run it by the experts.

Mirabelle makes a 16 gauge sink that is very similar in style and price. Maybe that would be a better way to go. Any thoughts?

Any of the thicknesses mentioned are sufficient for the purpose and with average care will outlive the purchaser, though I make the claim with American alloy only.

16 ga. has much greater dent resistance and resists deformation in surface mount configuration.

You also have to keep in ,mind the thickness is the metal BEFORE it is drawn (punched) into its final shape.

Sinks start as a flat piece, and are formed in large dies.
This stretches the metal making it thinner on the sides and near the changes in plane around bends.

undermounted, Elkay Aqua Divide sink is only 30" by 16.5" after you put the countertop over it. That is Not a space hog. And, remember that you can have the countertop overhang also.

yes, if you drop a large sharp point into the sink, a little ding mark will show. No big deal. So what. Good to know, and also practically useless to know. the more you think this through, the worse it gets. Overthinking leads to inaction.

you want a big sink. The bigger it is, in the flat part, the more the flex there is (in a steel sheet). There are large sinks made by Blanco ("silgranite") which may be better for you because of the size. Elkay makes E-Granite too.

Thanks for feedback.

OK, so the difference in these gauges is somewhat negligible. I can look at the relative prices and see which provides the best value for me.

My current overmount double bowl SS sink is from 1961. It has lots of little scratches - um, patina - but I think it looks just fine. No dents. So you're right,alfonse, a decent ss sink will outlive the buyer. This sink did outlive the PO who chose it.

davidro - I'll go look at the silgranite-type sinks again. There might be one that would be a little wider with the smart divide. My DD (dear dog?) fits OK in my current sink, but a little bigger would be nice.

i would not go look at them.
To find a size larger than 30", i would web search.
elkay, swanstone, blanco, franke.
These are the companies that i can remember that have an e-granite or silgranite.
Also, Home Depot and Lowe's have copycat versions.

look inside all their web sites, and email them a simple query that they can respond to.
E.g. -- width larger than 30"; do you have a model larger than 30"? --
Yes, it's a lot of work.
But it takes less time than a single store visit.
You choose whether to use your time in one activity or another.

Consumer reports issue on kitchens said that there was not a significant difference between these grades.