Pooches: Dogs, Romance, & Practicality

Several months ago, I read this article in the New York Times describing how outrageous rents, housing costs, and expired leases often force people in the city to move more quickly into relationships. It was only recently that I realized that having dogs can also force people to make drastic decisions about relationships.
See, when E and I first started dating, Miss M and I lived in a 1-bedroom apartment up in the Lincoln Square neighborhood. I had to take a 45 minute bus ride--between waiting for the bus and morning traffic--each morning to get to the school where we both taught. At the same time, E owned his place and lived a mere 1 1/2 miles from school. Before we could do anything together, I always had to make sure Miss M was accounted for. It became this huge ordeal where we would either have to go all the way up to my apartment to feed and walk her, stay there, and make the huge trek back to school in the morning; or, we would pick her up and she would stay over at E's place, and I'd have to figure out how to get her back home. Many of our early dates were actually spent transporting Miss M around town.

Since Chicago transportation is unforgiving, we thought it was easier to just let Miss M. move into E's place. And I followed shortly after. Here is Miss M in the early days making herself right at home:

I justify it with the fact that E and I are practical people and we knew we were going to get married, but Miss M definitely accelerated our relationship.
How does this compare with everyone else's experiences?