Discussions with Zharphyn

My wife and I are avid pet lovers.  During our marriage, we have had 2 cats, 3 bunnies, 2 dogs, 6 mice, 2 turtles, regular hamsters, dwarf hamsters, teddy bear hamsters, and two 55 gallon aquariums containing goldfish and tropical fish.  Our pets have given us a great deal of joy over the years.  Many fish have received a “burial at sea”, and the pet graveyard in the corner of my yard is getting full (hamsters and mice only have a 2-3 year lifespan).  It is rarely dull at my house.

Three years ago, my wife gave birth to our first child; my “precious angel” Sydney, and last year my “little buddy” Spencer joined us.  Needless to say it is getting crowded in my house.  My two dogs have taken the hardest hit since my children were born.  Going for a walk becomes a family event as my wife and I try to marshal two dogs and a double stroller.  Unfortunately with me now working twelve hour days 5 and 6 days a week, these kind of family events are becoming rarer and rarer.  My Staffordshire Terrier “Jake” needs a great deal of attention and affection.  In six years, he has stubbornly refused to learn how to walk on a leash.  He still strains against the leash, putting maximum tension on his neck.  I have tried traditional collars, “choker” collars, a head harness, and a body harness, and nothing works.  With the head harness, he does not pull, instead he struggles with the harness until he has finally worked it off of his nose, or he just sullenly trails behind me, clearly miserable.  At home, he is always underfoot because he wants attention.  Whenever we have any company, he goes berserk trying to get to the newcomer to say hello.  This would not be so bad, except that Jake’s method for hello is to climb all over you and lick your face until you drown.  Whenever we have company, we have to lock the dogs in our bedroom for the duration of the visit.  My wife has completely lost patience with Jake.  My three year old daughter, when asked, says that she does not like Jake.  Jake wants to run, but my yard is too small for him.  I feel horrible because I feel that I am not being fair to him, but when I stop to look at my options, I am uncertain what to do.  I do not have the time available to give him the attention that he needs.  If I try to find him a new home, am I being fair separating Jake from his buddy Simon (my other dog), or do I need to try and find a new home for both dogs together?  How does one even go about finding a good home for a dog?  Does it make me a bad owner to try and find a new home for Jake?  He was abandoned when he was about 9 months old.  My mother-in-law was sitting on her front porch at about 11pm one night when she noticed a van stop just up the road, a door opened and shut quickly and the van drove away.  Within a couple of minutes, there was a dog running along her front fence.  Jake spent one night at my MiL’s where he howled all night long, and then came to live with my wife and I.  For the first week or two he howled a lot, but now, after six years, he is an extremely happy dog.  I know in my heart that I cannot provide him the life that he deserves.  I know that he would find happiness with a new family.  But do I have the right to uproot him from his home and abandon him to a stranger?  I wish that I knew the right thing to do.