Let me just say- I've never met a kid that grew up with a dog that wished they hadn't. I have a twin brother- our parents got our first puppy when we were nine. She wasn't a very difficult dog but my brother was slightly afraid of dogs and has terrible instincts as to how to interact with them- it was a weekly occurrence that she would chase him through the house biting his feet and ankles and no amount of yelling "stop running and she'll stop chasing" would make him stop. If we hadn't had that dog I think he would be afraid of dogs now- instead he's comfortable around them. I have a few friends who never had dogs growing up and none are actually afraid of dogs but they're all a little off with them. They don't understand how to pet them, they always seem to think the dog is going to bite them without warning (like cats do), etc.
In terms of difficult dog stories- my parents considered giving our second dog back to the shelter for some time after we got her. She was an impulsive adoption- we had to get a puppy because our first dog was super dog aggressive to adult dogs, and we first got a 12 week old Beagle/Retriever mix who died of parvo a week after getting him. Parvo can stick around for awhile, so we had to get a dog that was already fully vaccinated/ over 4 months. The shelter only had one that was the age we needed, and we couldn't find any other puppies that age in other shelters in the area. She had been at the rescue for something like 6 months and all that time spent like 90% of the day locked in a small crate. She was a plain black mutt, super overexcited, very little focus, and wasn't that friendly or interested in new adopters, so she wasn't exactly the kind of dog people got super attached to right away. None of the family bonded with her that much when we visited, but we all felt like she needed a home and we wanted a dog. She was probably the worst fit for our house we ever could have gotten.
We had a small, low energy dog at home, were not a very active family, and live in an apartment with a very small yard. The new pup had no social skills with people or dogs, 0 bite inhibition, was wildly destructive (dug a hole through our couch and we had to get a new one), had a wild amount of energy and did not calm down inside any, was a very vocal, barky dog with a LOUD bark, was crazy overstimulated by living in a busy NYC neighborhood (both in terms of lunging around excitedly on walks and standing at the window barking all day). She started fights with our older dog because she wouldn't listen if the older dog growled or barked to go away. She even knocked the small dog out once by running full speed into her while they were chasing a ball. Worst off all, she had a tendency to grab arms and hands with her mouth and pull us down to the ground when she was playing with us- my arms and legs were covered by bruises and scratches for weeks.
I made sure to work with her every day, we sent her to a great doggy daycare we knew of in the hope that she'd burn off some energy and learn some dog social skills, I started walking her twice a day, and I enrolled her in both beginner and intermediate obedience classes and made sure the entire family went to at least one.
She is now the most treasured member of the family. She got us out more and we started going on long nature hikes as a family near our house on long island, which we never would have without her. She's my father's favorite dog he's ever had, over like half a dozen dogs he had as a kid. She definitely brought our family together more and got us out and moving. Living through the nightmare of her youth was a great bonding experience, and we ended up with a dream dog at the end of it- she has a human-like intelligence (I'm betting she has some Border Collie in her mix), she's intuitive and loving and has a spectacular protective side- she has a big scary bark and being all black makes people wary of her, and she does this herding-like thing where on walks she'll run ahead and then loop back and circle us before running off again. I recently got a dog while I'm living at home for a year and she's taken the new puppy under her wing. When we bring them to off-leash hours at the city park, she'll patrol around the little dog and sort of circle the pup, making sure she doesn't wander, and then will actually put herself between the puppy and larger dogs that play too rough or don't look to have the best intentions (for example, there's a pair of greyhounds that keyed in on her in a prey drive kind of way that the big dog chased off).
My biggest advice on making it work with the kids, from my own experience of growing up with a dog is to 1) enroll in obedience classes (a good way to burn off mental energy, good socialization and an all around good learning experience/set of skills to have and develop) and 2) get the girls involved in those classes. With both the dogs we had growing up (the first we got at 9, the second at 15) my brother and I went to training classes every week. It helped tremendously. If the girls are mature for their age, you could try bringing them to group classes together or one at a time, or you might think about a handful of private lessons with a trainer. I've noticed a big difference in the bonds between children who attended training class with their dogs and those who didn't, and it helps to instill a sense of the dog being a shared responsibility as well as helping them learn about dogs a little bit.
