Puppy Blues or Genuine Behavioral Issues/Mistake?
Sorry for the really long post:
Two months ago my husband and I got a pembroke corgi puppy from (what we thought was) a reputable breeder in our area. He is 4 months old now. The first two weeks were actually really good and he seemed very sweet and even caught on to potty training fairly quickly, ringing the bell at our back door to go out. I thought wow this isn’t so bad! Then it all went to hell.
He constantly will snarl and snap at us randomly. He has already bitten our child pretty bad (he’s an older kid so past the really crazy toddler phase). We were all sitting together watching a movie and our son was petting him and the puppy was totally fine, then just chomped his hand really hard and growled. He draws blood several times with his bites when we aren’t expecting it. We’ve since kept our son and puppy separated.
Potty training…. I’ve had quite a few puppies before and have had great success with training them. It wasn’t easy and of course there were accidents but it worked slowly but surely. With this one it’s just a freaking mess. He constantly pees all over himself, even after having just gone outside. Same with pooping. Goes in the crate, goes anywhere and everywhere inside, goes outside, goes in his sleep…. He sometimes will show signs he has to go in which case we take him out and reward him when he goes, but other times he literally shows no signs whatsoever. We do the usual things we’ve done with other puppies: tethered to us with a leash, playpen, crating, taking him out frequently, no punishment just positive reinforcement, high value treats, etc etc. We use enzymatic cleaners and even tried just confining him to a playpen at night so he wouldn’t just lay in his poop all night, but he STILL DOES IT. He smears it everywhere and has gotten conjunctivitis a few times because of it.
I’m so over this dog. I loved him at first but honestly I just really can’t stand him anymore. Every single day I spend hours having to clean and do laundry and wash him, just for him to immediately do this all over again. Not to mention the attitude problem he has. I’ve reached out to the breeder many times about returning him to her as I just don’t think he’s a good fit for us, and she doesn’t want to take him back. Problem is nobody we know wants him and I just don’t know what to do with him. I don’t want to take him to a shelter, rescues in my area aren’t accepting any dogs right now, and I genuinely hate the thought of paying so much for him to just give him away for practically nothing (this might sound harsh but it’s the truth). At this point though I’d be willing to do so just to get rid of him, but anyone mildly interested changes their mind after seeing him for a bit and how he acts.
Vets have ruled out any health or medical issues for the pottying constantly and the aggression; they said he might just legitimately have some behavioral issues that were not disclosed to us by the breeder, which would also explain why the breeder doesn’t have any interest in him nor want him back.
We paid a good amount of money for him and I feel like such an idiot for doing so. I’ve had other corgis from other breeders and they were wonderful, but this one is just the bane of my existence right now. I’m not even sure what advice I’m looking for with this post; I just feel so angry and tired of dealing with this 😪
TLDR: bought puppy from a breeder and he has shown some behavioral issues and is making life a living hell, but breeder doesn’t want him and won’t help so I’m at a loss of what to do. Is it behavioral issues, or me, or…? I don’t even know.