Ever made a mistake in getting a new pet?

This has me very upset and I need to get it off my chest.
We got a second dog in early December. He was 10 months old at the time and had never been to a vet, had no training, was under weight, and was not house broken. We have had him fully vaccinated, chipped, neutered and worked very hard on the house training. He is nominally potty pad trained, i.e. if he is in his room he will use it. He will stil walk into the room where I am on the computer and pee on the carpet and on occasions has looked right at me and peed. He hasn't learned a single command.

One concern when we got him is that he is much bigger than our other Italian greyhound. If she ducks her head a little Luna can walk right under him. Bean is very good natured but demands so much attention that he jumps and steps on her trying to get to us. There are other instances where we have been concerned about Luna's safety when they are playing rough. Luna is becoming agressive just to keep herself safe and she is backsliding on her own house training habits.

Last night I flipped out when we found that Bean had jumped up on our bed and peed, despite having access to his room where the potty pads are located. I have never felt so angry and frustrated with a dog before. I know I shouldn't be angry but I can't help it.

We are going to contact the local IG rescue group this weekend and see if they can place him. He is a handsome boy and could make someone a nice pet. I hope we are doing the right thing.

If the dog is not right for your home then you have an unhappy animal as well as unhappy people. (And it sounds like you have given it time, plenty of time, to see if you could resolve the issues) There's a home out there for Bean that IS the right one and you are doing the very best thing you can for him by allowing it to be found.

Yes, you are absolutely doing the right thing.

Glad to hear that someone in rescue thinks this is the right thing to do.

though. You ARE doing the right thing imho.

:hug:

aA

And especially if you have safety concerns for your other dog, you're making the right decision. The housebreaking problems and peeing on the bed sound like anxiety - he might feel like he's in competition with Luna for your attention, and he's deliberately trying to let you know that. (And Luna is seeing that it gets him attention, even though it's negative attention, and so she's starting to copy him. Makes sense.) I'm sure you've given him lots of love; his sense of insecurity likely comes from issues in his past, having no reflection on you. If he can find a home where he's the only pet, he'll probably feel more at ease, and those problems might resolve themselves in time.

You've given him a good start with nutrition and vet care - now if you can find a matching home for him, you've done a wonderful thing for him.

Even trying to do some basic training with him he acts like he is being scolded.
We don't take lightly the responsiblity of owning a pet and it really pains me to make this decision. You're probably right about him needing to be an only child.

Eskimos from a rescue group Aug. 2004. I was looking to replace an Eskie that had recently passed away. I found one that I definitely wanted and was approved for. Then I found out that his best pal had been in rescue for months and nobody wanted him. His ears don't stand up and there maybe some doubt if he's a pure Eskie. But I decided to take Hank as well.

The first few months went well. The boys rough house and really seem to adore each other (My son says they're gay.). About a year ago, Hank started peeing and pooping in the hallway when I pulled into the driveway. He doesn't wait for me to get into the house and I mean it's 'fresh' when I come in the door. I've been forced to cover the hall with newspapers, but since there's no one home to correct him, I haven't an idea to break him of this behavior.

Hank is also very vocal and attention seeking.

I believe that he was so deprived of attention/love during his early life in a pound and then rescue, that he has developed an obsessive attachment to me. I think he believes he is 'giving' me a present when I come home.

I have tried leaving the car at the street and walking to the door and there's nothing in the hallway then. So the car is the trigger of his behavior.

He's a pain. I've told him that if someone else hadn't written a book about living with 'the world's worst dog', I'd have to write one.

I've bonded with both of the boys and would never be able to separate them.

and it's difficult to hold it in for the time between hearing the car and you letting him out.
Does he do this at a regular time each day? If so, maybe you could feed him later so his pooping time would be delayed.

When I'm home on the weekends, we have no problem and he's able to contain himself for up to 8 hours. He does this a noontime, when I go home to give medicine to my older dog and let them all outside for 30 minutes or so and when I get home from work. It's not a submissive type of thing. He just seems to think it's something I want done!

He's just loco Hank!

When we got her one side of her body was a giant burn from having been thrown from a moving vehicle. She was found tied to the railroad tracks on a short leash.

For the first five or six months we had her I could not approach her in any way without her urinating on herself. She was exteremly submissive and had obvioulsy been abused by a man. She was scared to death of me.

We almost gave up in those first few months. It seemed a hopeless task; she had been so badly treated that we wondered if she could ever fit into our family. My youngest son would not give up hope, so I agreed to keep working with her.

Over time her confidence increased. As she began to undertsand that we were not going to beat her every time she saw us and she was not going to be berated for doing dog things, she started to respond to us. She now does not urinate every time a person approaches her. Over the past few months we have started some basic training with her to teach her the rules of living in our house, but it took almost a year to get to that point. I cleaned up a lot of messes in the interim. We would make progress and then she would slip back to old behaviour for no reason we could identify.

Sometimes you really have to hold back your own frustration as you work with an abused animal. If they sense your frustration, they will get scared and stop paying attention to what you are doing other than to go into self-protection mode.

Now she is the sweetest and most loving dog I have ever had. I think she does understand and truly appreciate what we did for her.

She has a 2x3" bald scar under her fur on her shoulder and smaller bald patches on one side of her neck , and my husband thinks she was dragged. The SPCA told us she had been hit with a shovel. She had already been rescued from the abuser at some point by a kind older father and son who lived nearby and saw what was happening, but the father died and the son was very ill so he turned her over to the SPCA.Their care must have been very therapeutic, because Sally has never been afraid of people.

Lately I started doing the "sit, stay, come" training again, like making her sit before she goes out the back door, and she really seems to enjoy knowing what I expect her to do!
Our old girl dog used to escape and sniff all around the neighborhood, but Sally has gone out the gate from the back yard once or twice and turns around and comes right back. I think she doesn't want to lose us.
Does your dog have scars on her side? Thank you for redeeming humans in her eyes.

Zulu, my girl's name, has most of her hair back on the side where she had her burn.

In the begining we just tried to create situations where she had structure and could be a good dog without having to try. She couldn't go in a crate, so we created a safe room for her when we were not a home. There was nothng in it that she could destroy. We just got used to cleaning up messes in there. When we were home, there was someone with her constantly if she was out of the safe room.

As she built her confidence, we started slowly teaching her some rules by praising her when she did good, but never raising our voice or moving too fast towards her if she did something bad. It took months for her to develop any trust, but slowly she did.

After having been through this, helping an abused dog is not something to be taken on unless you have lot sof time and patience for dealing with the animal. It is not like bringing a little puppy into the home. The extent of the damage may not be apparent at first. Treating an animal badly can have a long lasting effect.

For people who take adopting an animal seriously, as you obviously do. But I agree with the previous posters that it may be the best thing for everyone - you, Luna and Bean - to find another home for him. Because it does sound like he may need to be an only dog.

For what it's worth, I've found that sometimes young male dogs, especially if they have insecurity issues, can take longer than females to come around. I don't know if they perhaps mature a bit slower or what it is but I had similar issues with my male Boxer who was traumatized as a pup of maybe 5 or 6 months. Same type of behavior - peeing in the house (sometimes while looking right at me), no seeming comprehension of the simplest commands.

He eventually smartened up - I think what did it is that he kind of took the plunge and bonded to me, very strongly, and I was able to work with him then. But it was really frustrating and I nearly gave up on him. I'm glad I didn't but then he wasn't causing any problems with the other dogs.

Whatever you decide to do, it sounds like you've worked hard with this dog and done a lot for him. I don't think you have anything to feel guilty about (though you probably will). :hug: