I owned a Ranger Otter for about 5 years. Mike builds a nice canoe at a reasonable price. I will probably get some push back on this but IMO the Otter is comparable in quality and performance to a Bell Northstar at about half the price (at the time) in a similar layup. Haven't seen a Northstar Polaris so can't make that comparison today. Never paddled an Adirondack. Also haven't seen an Otter recently. One recommendation I would suggest is to add a thwart behind the bow seat and another about 2 feet ahead of the stern seat. At the time they only came with a carry thwart and there was some oil canning of the hull. The additional thwarts stiffen the hull considerably and eliminated the problem. Mine was an S glass with kevlar reinforcements layup. Probably similar to a Bell white gold layup at the time.
It handles rivers fine and is quite capable of more than calm lakes. Takes rough water in stride. Stability is good. It's obviously not a Grumman or Alumacraft type boat. Dogs and kids should be fine.
The attached pic shows the front thwart. I replaced the rear thwart with a 3rd seat when I started going solo more. I only sold it to purchase a dedicated solo (Magic).