Getting a dog is a big thought process for Muslims. They are regularly maligned in Muslim culture as unclean, unpleasant and yucky animals. People generally lump dogs and pigs together but they shouldn't. The rulings on pigs do indeed forbid Muslims from having anything to do with pigs, their flesh or areas where they have been as they are essentially filthy. The rulings on dogs however are quite different. I'm no fiqh expert and I won't go into the details here but basically as long as they have a job - hunting, sheparding or guarding and they live outside, it is perfectly acceptable to keep dogs. There are differences between the Sunni madhabs about whether their saliva and hair is pure or not, as I am a Hanafi the saliva is considered impure but not the skin or hair. To remove the impurity the contacted skin or clothing must be washed with water a number of times.
As we feel the need for a guard dog and are not at home during the day so don't want them to get upset by being alone, we got two! They are sister staffordshire terrier crosses and they are really nice dogs. They are still learning commands but don't do anything nasty things like biting.
As they are still quite slobbery and like to lick everything, hands, clothes, hijab, face I wear 'dog clothes'. These live near the back door and I put them on before I go to feed, walk or clean up after them. This way I don't need to wash them every minute, I just take them off when I go inside. This is what I'm wearing as my 'dog clothes' at the moment:
