I'm relieved that we have agreed that possibly acquiring a dog should be
a joint enterprise, and that neither of us will take any action in this
matter without the others participation.

My preliminary questions to you:

Would the dog have the run of the house, or would he be confined to
one or more spaces, and if so, which spaces would they be and how
would they be secured?

Would the dog defecate and urinate in the house? At random? In a litter box?
or would the dog be "housebroken" and trained to defecate and urinate only
outside the house? Would his defecating and urinating be predictable and
occur on a schedule? If so, how would this schedule be set? Would the dog
be trained to indicate by barking or by some other perceptible behavior
his need to be taken out? Would you ALWAYS be here take the dog out when
he needed to go, and would you ALWAYS take the dog with you wherever you
went. If not, who would take the dog out in your absence??