Decisions

Colleen and I were recently away for a week in Maine to attend my grandfather's funeral. He would always say to "do what is right."

During this time, Colleen and I were finally able to sit down and talk and make some decisions. We have decided that Ranger needs a home with more room to run and play. He needs a fenced in back yard and maybe another dog to play with, although that would take time-he doesn't appear to be socially accepting of other dogs, which is also quite contrary to what BARCS told us.

BARCS was so good when we got Ranger, and yet, so horrible now that we are trying to get assistance in fostering/re-homing. They e-mailed a very generic response, asking questions which I already answered and told us to try re-homing ourselves. I am very disappointed in BARCS. We love Ranger with all of our hearts and want him to go to the absolute right home, which just need a little bit of help going through the process. BARCS has completely taken their hands off the wheel and told us their shelters are full and they wouldn't be able to take him back and they didn't even entertain our idea to foster.

Colleen and I feel absolutely horrible that we have to give Ranger up, but it's not about us. He has to be able to live his best life, and so does Feisty. Right now Feisty is not happy in her own home and she's been around for ten years. We are both working 50+ hours this week so we aren't sure when or how this will all take place, but we'll figure something out.

Shake

Ranger is such a smart boy! Every night before bed he sits and we work on shake and he gets a treat (very small Trader Joe's Beef Liver treats). Then he gets one more thrown in his kennel so he will go in and go to sleep. We've been having to use the kennel less and less as 'timeout,' which is obviously a good thing.

Anyway, tonight Ranger did his actual first shake where he basically pawed at me with one paw, then with the next. He did such a good job! I tired to replicate for Colleen, but it wasn't going to happen.