I see a lot of people dissing hardwood. When you use natural products, then you need to accommodate natural properties. If you're not willing to do that, then don't use natural products. Properly cared for, hardwood floors can last decades or even centuries, is a renewable resource, and doesn't require the manufacturing processes of other options.
Hardwood does not tolerate water well. Depending on the type of wood and how its finished, its resilience will vary, but still. Water should not be allowed to sit on the wood. This isn't new. If you can't keep water off the floor, then don't have that floor.
Wood, as a natural material, expands and contracts depending on the conditions. It moves. Which means, sometimes there's gaps between boards, sometimes there aren't. It's not, how do you avoid having gaps, its how do you accommodate the natural movement of the wood. Historically, cording was pounded into the floor between boards to close gaps, but still accommodate the movement. This cording would of course have to be removed and replaced periodically. Again, this isn't new. If you can't handle having gaps part of the year, then don't have that floor.
Wood will accumulate dings and dents if you don't treat it right. Good news is when that happens, you can hide them (to an extent), or sand it down and refinish it. There's nothing I can do about the chipped LVP in my kitchen, it's just chipped. But the wood floor? Yep, I could. However, there's a limit to how many times you can sand and refinish hardwood. And the process is incredibly messy and disruptive to the household. It's not something you want to plan to do regularly.
The modern styles really do not work for hardwood floors, and as a result you have a lot of problems with hardwood purely because people are breaking all the rules of how to have hardwood floors. You are not supposed to leave the entire floor uncovered. Historically, hard wood floors had carpets, rugs, mats, rushes, or other protective coverings. You only pulled them up for specific reasons. Day to day use the floors were covered up. Little kids were not supposed to be running around on uncovered floors. Same with dogs. If you choose to be unpractical with how you use hardwood floors, then you also get to deal with the consequences. However, don't complain about the problems you're having with hardwood because you aren't treating it properly.
OP, if you want hardwood, then with dogs and kids then you also need to commit to rugs covering the majority of the floor. However, since you don't seem set on hardwood, then just get LVP. It'll handle the abuse of kids and dogs much better.
