Thanks all for these helpful commments. I followed the link about padding for hardwood floors and was pleased to see that rebond polyurethane is recommended since it is cheap. Someone gave us some nice free carpet remnants and some nice-looking polyurethane padding with one coated side, but for some reason that padding has a strong chemical smell, so I guess we will have to bite the bullet and actually put out some cash for new padding. I'm intrigued by the idea of using another area rug as padding for this carpet, but it sounds expensive and too thick! In answer to the question of whether we couldn't have rented a place without hardwood, what a sensible question :-) But actually, we were really lucky to rent a place at all with three large dogs! And our rental happens to be right across the street from the house we're remodeling! So no, we didn't have another option anywhere near this attractive. I wouldn't risk just clipping the dogs' nails in this situation to protect the wood, so a pad under our temporary carpet it shall be. The advice to roll up the carpet periodically to remove carried-in dirt is obviously from a fellow experienced dog owner :-) and is very well-taken. Fortunately, our dogs are all very reliable in terms of housebreaking so we don't expect any problems in that area. Thank you all so much for your kind input!

I can speak from experience here: I share my house with a DH, toddler and a 100lb dog with paws the size of a Yeti's. In our old house we tore out all of the carpet and vinyl from the first floor and installed red oak strip flooring (I believe it was Shaw brand). It looked great for about a month and then all I could do is notice the huge gouges my dog put into the floor. He doesn't even have sharp nails, but he's 100lbs and there's only so much you can do. In the current house, we tore out all of the 22yr old carpet and put in a much harder wood species, amendoim, and I have to admit it looks fantastic and it's held up a lot better than the oak ever did. The dog put some superficial scratches in the floor but since the wood only has a clear coat and no stain, you can only notice the scratches if you're glancing at the floor at the right angle, under the right light. We had laminate in the basement of our old house and it used to drive me bonkers whenever the dog would claw to get traction on the floor and I also hated the echo the floor created, even with good padding underneath. I vowed never to put laminate flooring anywhere again, even if the dog couldn't do anything to it. Also, no matter how good technology gets, laminate always looks fake to me and I'd rather not go there. It's just never going to look as good as real wood. In the new house I wanted to put ceramic tile in the kitchen this time around but DH wouldn't hear of it. He swears he doesn't hate tile, but he just can't fine a tile in the whole wide world that he likes :) I let him win that war but I got to pretty much make every other decision with the kitchen since then. I figure we can always refinish the floors once they get to be too bad. As a previous poster said, site finished floors don't have anywhere near the same durability as factory prefinished floors so that's something to keep in mind. My DH always says that people like wood floors and never notice the scratches anyway. I guess he was right because the condition of the floors was never brought up once when we were selling the house even though I lived in fear that that was the first and only thing people would notice as they came through the house. I apologize for the stream-of-consciousness reply but I can't say my brain has been firing on all cylinders today so I hope I helped even a little :)

I think you're right about the height difference. When our tile floor was put down in the Kitchen, PR, and Foyer (b/c of our dogs, btw), the tile installer put down a layer of hardi-backer b/f laying the tile. When my DH removed the carpet and installed an engineered Brazilian Cherry floor in the DR, he had to lay down a layer of plywood to raise the floor so the DR's finished floor height would match the kitchen's finished floor height. We have two standard poodles (40 & 55 pounds). They are very active (especially the female) and are always scrabbling around corners, etc. In less than a year, they had badly scratched our vinyl kitchen & foyer floors. The vinyl was installed in 1995 and was the "top of the line" for wear & tear at the time (but, that was almost 15 years ago!) When we remodeled, we discussed many flooring types but decided on tile for the area the dogs seemed to use/scratch up the most. We were also considering putting hardwood in the rest of the first floor...but that was eliminated due to budget. However, since our DR is now are main eating area, we knew the carpet could not stay...so we installed the engineered wood for the DR until such time as we could afford the 10K or more it would cost for the entire first floor (minus the Kitchen, Foyer, & PR). Results? The tile floor has held up very well...no scratches whatsoever! Yes, I'm starting to find that it is hard to stand on for hours at a time, but it's wonderfully cool in the summer! The engineered wood floor, OTOH, is already pretty badly scratched b/c of the dogs careening around the corner from the LR or Library/Office into the DR & then kitchen. But, as others have mentioned, the scratches aren't that noticeable unless there's bright sunlight and you're looking at the floor from the right angle. One thing...it seems to me that I read somewhere that often scratches in hardwood floors are actually scratches in the finish, not the wood. So, maybe you should be asking what hardwood finishes seem to hold up the best...

Keep us posted. I fear in a couple years I will need to replace my flooring. It is Bruce laminated hardwood. It has been finished twice now and it looks meh. I have 6 different flooring types if you stand at my front door. It used to be the fashion to have different floors for different rooms. Apparently, not any more. Now it is all the same flooring thruout. So, when we get to the point of thinking about selling, I am sure I will have to bite the bullet. We have an 85 pound German Shepherd. She is a sweetie, but her nails are black and the people that Dremel them are very good with her. But, it only lasts for about 2-3 days, and then she is clicking again. Drives me crazy!! So, I am following your post in hopes to learn something. Thank you for sharing!