I am a huge fan of cork. Natural product, very easy to keep clean, virtually impossible to damage, soft underfoot (as opposed to hard wood) and is naturally noise reducing. Best of all it is much easier for your four legged family members to walk on than hard wood floors. Lumber Liquidators is the best resourse I have found.

Thank you I will definitely take a look at this as a solution .

make sure you seal your cork very well. it is destructable with your own fingernail unless it is properly sealed. then, it is indestructable. also, consider bamboo. 8 times (?) harder than oak, etc. if you go with a hand-woven finish scratches (if you get any) are harder to see. Floor and Decor is a great place to look. Cork can look more like a tile finish or marble or even stained concrete. Bamboo will look more like traditional planks.

Check out engineered wood. It's pre-finished and easy to install

1st do your dogs shed and what color is the hair? Adjust your floor coloring to show the least amount of hair. I also like handscraped so if the dog hurts the floor it doesn't really show. Also, be careful of super dark woods they show everything even the oil off your feet. Also, know what type of maintanece you want to do, cork I am sure is great, but you have to be ready to reseal if you live in the house a long time. At our old house we had hadscrapped hickory and it was beautiful, but at the new house it is a floating hardwood and we absolutely hate it so if you can I would glue the wood down as well.

Hello , Getting some great suggestions here. The dogs are 2 standard schnauzers so very little hair loss . I love the look of some of the dark woods but had already been warned about some of the downfalls [didn't know that one about the oil from the feet though]. This site is great for all the help and insite -only wish I discovered it earlier . Thanks again to everyone who is responding . I'm certainly going to take all of this into consideration.

"I am a huge fan of cork ... virtually impossible to damage..."

Incorrect.

Dragging heavy furniture across a cork floor will tear it - and since cork is porous, even if it's sealed, animal urine will be impossible to get out.

If you want hardwood - Solid Oak is your best bet...
...otherwise, Faux-Bois ceramic tile is a great compromise since you have animals in the house.

Actually cork is not porous and is resistant to all liquids even without a finish. Cork has a waxy substance in it that helps it resist liquids and it even floats. Cork is of course used in wine bottles to keep the wine from leaking out. Red wine which is highly acidic only manages to stain the surface of the cork after the cork has been in contact with the wine for several years. Break open a red wine cork next time and check out the inside of it.

Cork for flooring is always finished with multiple coats of finish just like a hardwood which makes it easier to clean. Cork is much more resistant to liquids than hardwood. Damp mop to clean and it you need to get rid of a urine smell, use a diluted vinegar mix or even some hydrogen peroxide on the spot. No worries

Porcelain tile is also a great durable choice, resists staining, requires no maintenance. Look here for some great choices that look like wood - http://tiledaily.com/category/porcelain/wood-porcelain/

White oak, ideally quarter sawn, is apparently the most durable of the hardwoods for floors. And if you can do a finish that is fairly close to the natural color, it won't show scratches (or dust or dog hair) as much as darker stains. Our white oak floors (throughout the house) have lasted 90 years and were last refinished sometime before we bought the house 15 years ago. We have two young, rambunctious australian shepherds who run around like crazy, and the floors are holding up beautifully.