This has really not been my experience at all. If anything, having a dog is an excuse to get out of the house. Hell, my best friend found his wife because they both loved dogs.
I'm happy to hear you like your dog, but if you spent any time caring for your dog then that's time you can't spend doing other things. It's less of a subjective qualitative analysis and more of a quantitative one
I guess I just don't understand what point you're trying to make. I'm mean, time I spend on HN is time I can't spend doing other things as well. Or commuting, or watching movies, or playing piano, literally anything we do in life that isn't directly related to survival.
In fact, things like taking my dog for a walk is a pure positive. I get exercise and sometimes my family comes along for the walk too. That's a boost to my family's health and relationships enabled by the context of caring for the dog. So trying to portray dog ownership as a pure energy drain is just not true.
