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Morning All, Looking for some advice and insight (not vitriol and abuse); I'm seriously looking into getting my first dog, partly companion and house pet but also for shooting, I wildfowl and try and get some pigeons in the summer. My current position is to get a part trained (house trained/basic whistle/obedience) Lab at about 12 months from good lines (have some in mind already). Situation: My position is: Bad - I live and work in London full time. Good - I'm moving to a bigger house with a 50 foot garden and plenty of space for a kennel & run, I have the time and passion to train morning and evening for an hour if needs be, or roughly 30 and 60 mins preferably, I'm a highly active 30 year old and I'm able to get a walker/mate in at lunch times for an hour or so as well, plus I shoot and would be training & working it oh and I can work at home 1 or 2 days a week most weeks. I've spoken to a number of people, owners, breeders, shooters who have said as long as I train and exercise well, preferably kennel whilst I'm out and am prepared to put the time in then working full time and having a good dog is totally fine - on the other hand I've seen pages and pages of rants about it not being ok... Complication: It's my first dog, so just looking for all the downsides of being a full time worker and owning a dog. My wife is keen but on the premise "she doesn't have to do anything that changes her routine" - no comments on that please (I can do that myself!), I just say it to make it clear that this will be my dog and I'll be the one needing to flex to accomodate, She'll come round but sets the baseline that I need to do everything. Recommendation: Over to you guys really - basically what are your views on the above, tell me your experiences, tell me if it's viable, tell me the downsides, the pain in the **** bits, the hidden costs etc etc.. Really looking for some advice please Thanks and as I said at the top, hoping for some guidance rather thant he typical rant of "it's cruel you stupid selfish man... etc etc"