After years of drug addiction and career trials, Lindsay Lohan is hoping adopting a child with girlfriend Samantha Ronson will keep LiLez on the road to sobriety. Nonetheless, the 22-year-old actress is taking the road towards baby slowly–she’ll start with a dog.

“They’re getting a dog as practice. She saw how Harlow changed Nicole Richie,” a friend tells Star, “She hopes a baby could do the same for her.”

Sam likes “tough dogs.” The DJ already has a bulldog named Cadillac and would like her new dog with Lindsay to be from a similar breed. Linds, on the other hand, “would prefer something smaller.”

(Bulldogs really aren’t that “tough.” I used to work in a kennel, so I’ve encountered quite a few. Each was incredibly docile and sweet. In my experience, toy dogs tend to be the biggest pains.)

According to the insider, Sam and Lindsay believe “the shared responsibility of a dog will prepare them to be mothers.”

(They haven’t created a dog that could prepare a person for the perils of parenthood.)