dogs' claws definitely will scratch leather (experienced with a hyper active pug that hasn't had a claw trim in 3 yrs) and own a leather match sofa. His claws scratched both the leather part and the synthetic part. My solution, is the magic fabric microfiber or any other thicker foam/synthetic microfiber type of upholstery. Microfiber is easily cleaned with a whip of a damped cloth with water and is resistant to odors. Check out my selections at my store. Here is a link that might be useful: Sectional Sofas (Fabric)

So far I like our recently purchased Miele Marin. We had a Kenmore Progressive canister vac. Still have it, but it's now DH's "shop vac" of sorts--he kept using it to vacuum up Sheetrock dust and sawdust while working on house projects anyway. The Kenmore is heavy, the canister as well as the hose and power head. DH is supposed to do the vacuuming, but I ended up doing it more often than not, and I always ended up with an aching back. The Miele is soooo much lighter and easier to maneuver, too. It came with a hardwood floor brush, and you can choose one of three power heads (at different price options). We chose the one that is recommended for low pile carpet. It has a button to turn the roller brush on/off. The other two power heads would have been more aggressive on the carpeting (and more $). Only two rooms in our house are carpeted, with Berber carpeting, so we chose based on that. We considered a model with a suction-only, multi-surface head, but it seemed to require much more "elbow grease" on the part of the user (me!) in order to move it across the carpet (in-store try-out, and another brand's loaner vacuum on our carpet at home). Also, multiple passes over the carpet still left behind what needed vacuuming up, including grains of cat litter tracked into the room.

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who directed me to soumak/polypropylene rugs. I don't know why I didn't even look at recycled polyester and the like. Years ago, these rugs use to look and feel very cheap and so I only purchased silk, wool, or cotton rugs to date. However, I just purchased 4 rugs off the esale rug site, of which I'll keep 1 or 2 (thanks to their seemingly generous return policy - has anyone returned a rug? Is it as easy as they say?) after trying them out with the furniture and seeing which rug colors work the best. And Carol, sorry, I forgot to write that out. GSD is a german shepherd dog. Mine's a 1 year old and absolutely hilarious. Her name is Shadow but she's also an escape artist so we sometimes call her El Chapo (after the escaped drug lord). Here she is:

Dogs and kids mean either slipcovers, leather or Sunbrella upholstery for me. My doberman loves one of my red velvet chairs (that was holding up well pre-dog) but after only 3 years, it is stained from his coat oils against the back so I would't recommend velvet either. I am not sure of your price point but Pottery Barn and Ballard Design both carry Sunbrella now in their upholstery lines. Pottery Barn doesn't have a basic collection (more textured) but Ballard Design even has the ability to customize fronts, backs and piping with different fabrics and let you see it on the screen. However, these are probably 7-10 year sofas at most in terms of quality. Also there are so many designers with their own line of Sunbrella fabrics that it is hard to choose. I think I googled designer fabric and Sunbrella to start finding them. Some sofa companies allow you to send in your fabric (Ballard again is one).