I don't find them that bad. I usually will have at least one sim in the household interact with the pet each day, giving it pets, hugs and some play time and then they are usually fine for the rest of the day.
I think dogs are a little more needy until you teach the bad behaviors out of them, they play in stuff that makes them dirty quite often but once they have learned not to do it they become more fun to deal with. Usually I only have my sims take a dog for a walk when the dog asks for it and it's always the short walk option cause even that option takes like four sim hours.