Hello, Jordan! :)))
I'd like to add something.
There is a free order of sentences structure (we, Russian, are not too strict about this thing). Probably - thanks to the fact that endings play an important role in genders, numbers etc. definition (however hard foreigners learning Russian may criticize our difficult endings, they make foreigners' life also easier! :))). The key is the purpose of an expression in the sentence. For example, they asked you:
"У вас есть собака?" -
And you can answer:
"У меня есть собака!"
But if they ask you:
"У тебя есть животное?" (Do you have any pet? - you should pay your attention to the last word - "животное"),
you can answer:
"Собака есть". ("Собака" is the first word in your sentence as the chief one).Or just: "Собака" :)
But we provided another version. Let them just ask you:
"Есть у тебя собака?" (they accentuate their attention to "есть")
You should answer fast:
"Есть у меня собака" (you accentuate the presence of a dog). Or: "Есть".
But your answer:
"У меня есть собака" - is all-purpose amd the most used one :). Russian are not interested in such shades, so anyway - they'll understand that you have a dog after all! :)))