To rehome my puppy or stick it out

[Boujisboo]

I got a second puppy (already have a 2 year old)
I absolutely adore him to pieces but he’s very hard and different to my first. He isn’t taking to toilet training well, he’s eating his own poo, plus I’m working And have recently broken my hand which makes it harder. He’s 16 weeks and lovely but I’m finding myself getting angry with him for doing puppy things because it’s so hard with my hand.
mow my 2 year old is starting to just puss in then house too!
my ds will be distraught and probably never forgive me but I just don’t know if I can do it anymore even though I know I’ll miss him terribly

I don't think there's any need for the pile on. Anyone who's had a difficult puppy will recognise the Puppy Blues. There are hopefully constructive things OP can do to improve this, but ultimately if this has been a mistake rehoming back to the breeder might be the kindest thing for all involved.

Would you have your baby adopted if he cried all night, had awful colic, wouldn’t potty train or had tantrums? Didn’t think so. Your puppy is a baby animal who needs patience and love, and isn’t something to be discarded if he doesn’t grow up as fast as you want him to.

I feel your pain. I could have quite happily given our pup back at 16 weeks! She was getting confident and learning everyday but with that confidence comes behaviours that we don’t appreciate. 16 weeks is young to have cracked toilet training so keep at it. It must be hard if your other dog is regressing as well but it won’t be for ever. It is difficult but it will get easier. A little training goes a long way - just 10 mins a day. Treat every time they toilet outside and they will soon understand. The pup will also learn from your older one which will make life easier. Have you done any puppy training at all? We did and it did make us understand our pup a lot better. She is now 16 months and wouldn’t change her. What breed is the pup? Read up and learn as much as you can about the breed and what works best for them x

Puppy blues are really common as having a puppy is really hard work. A lot of us dog owners have had "OMG what have I taken on?" moments and thoughts of rehoming aren't unusual. What I will say is that unlike having babies and children, the puppy part will pass much, much quicker and you will get through it. Go back to basics with toilet training, take your puppy out every hour or so through the day and give it loads of encouragement when it does it's business outside. With the poo eating, if you can predict it then you can prevent it. Be absolutely on the ball with cleaning up poo asap and make sure someone is outside with your puppy at all times, have a handful of treats on standby to distract and reward not doing a behaviour, we found a bit of chicken or chopped up hot dog worked amazing!
There's a great group on Facebook called Dog Training Advice and support which is run by dog behaviourists using positive menthods. They have a number of guides that may help you 😊

Calm down dear

P.s with regards to eating 💩.

If you watch your pup as advised before, you can pick up the poo before it actually gets a chance to eat it.

Your job is to set your pup up for success. This means preventing problems, rather than trying to cure them after they've been conditioned.

It will get better.

The puppy we got when I was a child took an age to housetrain - friends would come over and say 'Oh, MY puppy was housetrained at 9 weeks!' and ours still wasn't safe at 6 months... I clearly remember that, any time someone came to the door, someone else used to have to put the dog out of the back door because otherwise she'd pee in the hall because she was so excited! She turned into such an easy dog though, and an ideal dog to grow up with.

Our current dog was 2.5 when we got her - but she'd not been in a house before - but had effectively learned that 'inside' was where you did things. She had amazing control, and a large bladder - the result was complete floods inside regularly for the first few weeks. We discovered that we needed to move EVERY time that she got up and put her in the garden, just in case. She did eventually work things out and has been very good since then.

In terms of his eating habits - make sure you're feeding something that gives enough vitamins and minerals etc. If things still continue, I have heard that pineapple or even canned pumpkin (unsalted, unsweetened) help to make it less palatable.

Puppies are like children , they all develop at different times and the hard work you put in now will pay dividends later
Take a deep breath , set an alarm and let them into the garden every half an hour or so , praise and pick up poo as soon as they've been , even if it means just putting it in a bucket high up until someone can deal with it
Start lead traing to avoid them getting bored . Don't worry about house work at all . Concentrate your energy

Puppies are hard work at the best of times, having broken your hand I imagine that has really impacted on your ability to interact and train and manage him. I would recommend persevering and outside training help, trainers don’t only train, they give you hints and tips to manage your dog. Your hand will heal and you may then regret moving the puppy on.

I speak from experience I got a puppy and 8 months later I was diagnosed with cancer… fortunately from day 1 I had piled on the training, crate management, frozen kongs and toilet training, so I was left dealing with a very active, very bouncy but well trained dog. I also considered giving him up as I was no longer able to drive and felt he was suffering from lack of different activities; but a wise MacMillan counsellor suggested to wait a few months. I still have him and am very grateful as it’s him that gets me out of bed every day and out for a walk.

Erm puppies are hard work...personally I'd regime via a rescue centre as you don't sound cut out for looking after a dog long term.

A dog is a lifetime (their lifetime) commitment, sounds like you can't be arsed to be honest. Poor puppy deserves a better home.

Perhaps you could take her out to the toilet on a lead so that you can stop her from eating the poo. And when she obviously doesn’t eat it tell her good dog and give her a treat?

I think persevere - it will very likely get a lot better.

Is it a Chihuahua? I have two and the female youngest one is so hard to house train but you just have to stick with it.

@TheHumanExperience gives some very sound advice, to which I would add:

puppies need watching like hawks to enable housetraining;

you stop them eating their own shit by cleaning it up the minute they take a dump;

you need to learn the body language that shows it needs to go (eg sniffing, circling) and get it out into the garden immediately; and most of all

go in the garden with it every time and when it pees or poos, praise it to the heavens, make a big fuss of it and give it a treat as a reward (ideally, have a favourite type of treat that you only use for this purpose).

With each of the 3 dogs I've had from puppies, I think the praise and reward for using the garden was the most crucial.

Having said all that, puppies do seem to go through a tricky phase at around 4 months. All mine seemed to "unlearn" a few things at that stage, and find new ways of being naughty. I think of it as the canine equivalent of the terrible twos.

They also all had a phase of doing their own thing when they were coming up to a year old, I reckon that's their teenager phase.

Cat food seems to help with the poo eating. Can't remember why, but it does!

I had to rehome a puppy, first & last time, my dogs were with me for their lives. But DH was in hospital long term, I had a new baby & other children, my milk dried up because I was so exhausted, baby lost weight, puppy was an escapologist & lovely well behaved older dog would follow.. they would come back & puppy would have rolled in God-knows-what.. it was DIRE. He would have been a lovely dog, but I just couldn't do it any more. :-(

Dogs aren’t toilet trained at 16 weeks. And both of mine ate poo when they were little. They grow out of it, thankfully.

Thank you will try those chews it’s not that he eats it he drags it across everything including the sofa and at the moment I’m in such pain with my hand. I’m on the verge of years every day right now.

to those who are criticising me for thinking of this I never in a million years thought I’d be in the position I am in now when I got him.

Thansk to all those with constructive advice iv made a note of all the tips and tricks

sadly don’t have anyone else to help that’s a whole other post.
been in contact with a trainer and brought one of those posts for the garden hoping that helps
just had a fry as he did a poo and dragged it all through the house while I was on a work call. Going to really go at this over the weekend and hope that helps

Fab advice thank you so much.
i definitely have the puppy blues

OP I really feel for you and the puppy blues are so so common - check out reddit puppy101 puppy blues posts if you want some solidarity.

Depending on the breed, I don’t think it would be too hard to rehome a 16 week puppy so I don’t think you should be demonised for this thought or option, as long as you do it responsibly. A broken hand sounds really tricky, and raising a puppy and a child alone while working is a lot for anyone!

One thing stood out to me in your post however is the dragging the poo around combined with the bad toilet training - the fact that he has access to his poo in this way suggests you are just leaving the door to garden open and he is pooing unsupervised?

One thing I learnt when toilet training is you need to keep door to outside CLOSED - and teach dog to ask to go out, by actually opening the door and taking them out every hour/two hours, and giving praise and treats every time they wee outside. Take them back in with you and close door again, and take a poo bag with you so any poos are picked up straight away.

It’s more labour intensive but if you just leave the door open for them to go in and out, it’s hard for the puppy to realise that the outside where they are allowed to wee is any different from the inside where they can’t wee.

The added benefit of supervising all the toileting is that you will pick up poos as they happen and no longer have them dragged through the house.

If you don’t have the time to do the above then I would rehome him ASAP to someone who has the time to train a puppy, while he is young and cute.

What type of dog is it OP? Because some breeds are notoriously stubborn and hard to train or need higher levels of activity. My King Charles spaniel was a rampant poop eater. His own, the cats', it didn't matter. My other breeds never touched it. I've heard French Bulldogs are a nightmare to toilet train. Some never learn. People might be able to give you more specific advice.

Stick it out because that’s the commitment you made. Or don’t and make it someone else’s problem, hopefully back to the breeder and not on the shoulders of the rescues who are full.

What breed of dog is he? (show us a pic OP!)

It's bloody hard OP. I've got a 6 month old pup and he is hard work at the best of times but is unwell with a cone (that he hates) on at the moment with a urine infection and needs constant supervision. I have a chronic illness which of course is particularly bad at the moment as luck would have it. Obviously I adore him and will do what needs to be done but that absolutely doesn't mean it isn't ok to be at the end of your tether or cry in frustration. When you are struggling to cope with the situation I think its very normal to imagine 'giving up' the dog. That doesn't mean you will or that you really want to, it just means you can't cope with the situation as it is.

How old is your DS? can he occupy the puppy with appropriate playtime until it's sleepy while you sit down, have a tea and take some painkillers. Pup should be sleeping the majority of the day at that age and if it isn't then I'd really recommend enforcing naps (much easier if you crate train), or restricting the areas of the house the pup is allowed in - stair gates, a pen, whatever works in your home. When ours was little I found the worst of his behaviour stemmed from him being overtired. It would also prevent him from being able to mess all over the home.

In terms of eating his poo, I would ensure he is getting enough protein in his diet. Puppies need high protein diets to effectively grow and some dog foods are full of rubbish, which can lead to puppies 'looking' for other sources of protein, eg their poo. Pick it up straight away in the house.

Take him outside any time he has had a drink, and immediately after eating or playing as well as as soon as he wakes up from any nap and start to introduce a toilet command, lots of praise with a high value reward (chicken, or something he loves) when he goes. They can't hold their bowel or bladder for long until they're much older which isn't within their control. Absolutely vital to get an enzyme based cleaner specifically for pet urine for the cleaning. The Dr Beckmanns one is brilliant and only a few pounds. If this isn't done the dogs will return to the same spots to toilet time and time again.

Don't forget yourself here OP, if the pain relief you have for your hand isn't working then get on to the GP for something that does. It will all pass eventually. Try to find time to enjoy him and appreciate how cute he is in an intentional way. If it all feels negative the cumulative effect is much worse.

I have an 18mnth old and a 5 month old and I won't lie the 18mnth old does still like to grab a blob of poop and charge off around the garden with it as he believes I will chase him for it (NOT GOING TO HAPPEN) but he ate every kind of poop going when he was a puppy. my 5mnth old will scarf a blob of horse poop if she thinks I won't notice. They do grow out of it a bit. As for the house training I leave the door open as much as I can for the little one and she follows the older one out when he goes. Stick with it your puppy is a tiny baby and needs your patience ask for help if you need to you don't have to handle everything yourself. Much love

Feed a little pineapple, it will stop the poo eating

Your puppy is 16 weeks old, it's no time at all, it's still a baby. Stick at it, they grow out of these stages very quickly. Eating poo is common, toilet training with click soon. You've only had the dog for 8 weeks. Rehome it now and you'll set it up to be anxious and have separation issues