Disheartened

Colleen and I have doubted ourselves and Ranger since day 1. Basically as soon as we got him home, he went crazy. He was super excited and had lots of energy and he still does every day. Last night was hard for both of us as Colleen had a hard day at work and got off before I did so she had to deal with Ranger. On top of all of his energy, Feisty (our cat) threw up and she had to clean that. Then she had to feed that animals and take Ranger for a walk. By the time I got home, tensions were high and she was probably at her wits end of dealing with everything. We became upset with each other and again, talked about the struggle of pet ownership. We said we'd talk about it later, as we always do when it comes to talking about Ranger.

Today, I decided to try our hand at the dog park. The staff at the shelter told us that Ranger was great with other dogs, but they didn't know how he would react with cats. Ranger and Feisty have actually laid on the same bed together. He just sniffed her and wagged his tail and she, of course, hissed and ran away after a minute or so.

I'm not sure if the shelter staff lied about Rangers ability to get along with other dogs or if he didn't want to be on the leash today inside the dog park or what, but it did not go well. There was one other dog in the dog park. He was off leash. I kept Ranger on leash to see how he would do. When the dog slowly approached to say hi, Ranger acted as if he wanted to fight the dog. It's hard to tell what's going on from behind the leash, but Ranger made a couple of lunges and barked at the slightly bigger dog. He did stop for a moment and let the other dog sniff his butt, then he went back to crazy mode and tried jumping around again. As we attempted to leave the dog park, another small dog was waiting to enter. We left and they came in. We started walking along the outside of the fence back to the car and Ranger lunged at the fence, barking and biting at the fence, aimed at the little dog.

Needless to say, I am thoroughly disappointed with what just happened. I want a dog that can play well with others, not one that tries to attack other dogs. I honestly don't know what to do here. I'm going to call the shelter to see what they say and Colleen and I need to have a serious talk.

Without a fenced yard for him to play, and taking away the option of a dog park, Ranger is restricted to walks.