commitment's responsibility

This afternoon, I came home and I let Dean out for a quick potty time before I got ready for our afternoon walk. When he re-entered, I noticed that his hind-quarters were wet. If he cleans his bottom, he usually gets the area under his tail wet. This time, the area above and around his tail were drenched. I looked around the house for what he could have gotten into. It was then that I noticed all 19 pairs of my shoes (yes, that's a lot of shoes) and three pairs of my socks were sitting outside my closet. He had taken each and every shoe out of the closet and made a relatively neat pile on my bedroom floor. I looked at each of them while I put them back and didn't find a single tooth mark on them, even my dress shoes.

That still didn't explain why his backside was wet though. I went into the bathroom and saw that the tub was covered in dog fur. Sophia had just cleaned it over the weekend so I knew this was a recent development. In the ten years that I've lived with Dean, he has never once picked up one of my shoes and moved it. He has also never played in the bathtub. After seeing this, I was awe-struck and couldn't do anything but sit there and stare at him, pondering what could be going on in his mind.

So now I'm left with the question of what to do with him. While I was at the fair, our neighbor had agreed to walk him. She met him the day before I left and he seemed cool with her. She also has four dogs of her own so I figured it would be okay. However, he barked at her the first day and wouldn't let her put him on a leash so she couldn't take him. After Sophia got home, they managed to work it out but then he continued to act out. Between the time she walked him on Friday and when Sophia got home in the evening, he tore a gash in my new/used luvseat and threw the stuffing around the room. He also took all of the bedding off of my bed and off of Sophia bed, pushed all of our rugs out of the bathroom and drug his doggie bed into the kitchen.  What the hell?

I understand that this move has been a drastic change for him. It's a new house with less people and a slightly different schedule but, damn, how do I adapt? Am I supposed to completely adjust my living situation around my dog? He is my one and only true responsibility in this world. If armageddon comes, he's the only being that will be relying on me and me alone. However, am I suppose to sacrifice my freedom, my job, my friends or my social life so I can stay home with him? Am I supposed to buy him a new home with a new yard? He didn't even like our yard at the Long House unless one of us was out there with him. This is why I can't have kids. I can't handle commitment or the responsibility that comes with it.

So, I stopped panicking and I looked at my options which are: dog therapist, doggie daycare, quitting my job, moving or getting another job. I can't afford any of those options though so I'm going to go with Sophia's approach. After he waged war on the house's linen and furnishings on Friday, Sophia took him for a six mile walk on Saturday which wore him out to the point where he didn't have the energy to take anything apart. Starting tomorrow, we're going to go on long walks in the morning.