Good morning all. New to the forum. I have 4 show dogs (Vizslas) that are very active. I am looking at putting down hardwood throughout our home that was built in 1978. I have concerns about wear of any hardwood over time due to dogs nails. Should I be more concerned with the hardness of the wood or the finish that is on it, or both? Am I making a mistake by going hardwood alltogether? Thanks for everyone's help in advance. Almost forgot some of the species that I am looking at are hickory, teak, tigerwood.

One of the best pieces of advice I received (from THIS very board) was to stay away from glossy finishes. We put down a floor with a flat (sometimes called satin) finish and we are very happy with it. Yes, it will get scratched over time...that's just goes along with having a wood floor. but it will certainly be far less noticeable. Also we got a floor with a generous wear layer so years from now we can buff and/or sand it if necessary. I don't know about the hardness of the different woods. I'm sure one of the experts will give your guidance about that. Good luck to you and your pups!

Peter - I agree with what Fleajosh said about staying away from glossy finishes.

I have a ~90 pound dog and two kids. Even though I keep the dogs nails trimmed, the gloss of the factory finish really highlighted the scratches. Plus the gloss really shows off everything else on the floor that comes with having two relatively young kids.

I've been removing the factory finish one room at a time and putting down OSMO hardwax oil. The can says it is a satin matt, but it looks matt to me. The finish has been great so far. It is very difficult to see the scratches from the dog and kids. And the floors aren't as slippery as they once were, so the dog doesn't slide around as much and therefore doesn't dig his nails in as much just to get traction.

The flat finish isn't for everyone, but in our active house, it is definitely the way to go.

Dogs nails will scratch about any specie out there but the harder ones will resist the indentation more. One thing to consider outside of sheen is the texturue or grain patterns of certain species tend to "hide " wear much more than some that have real smooth grain like maple for example with its smooth lines shows scratxches like a mofo.