Aggressive dog and breeder won’t refund, HELP!

[bayleighfenton]

Recently purchased a German Shepherd from a breeder and when I got the puppy home, he attacked me and my husband, before we got inside the house. I had to go to the hospital and have 4 stitches in my hand, and have other parts glued. We can not get the puppy out of the kennel. He is fine with me, but growls at my husband everyday. He will not go outside. We called the breeder on the way to the hospital and he made it seem like it was our fault, but he is only male aggressive. We want to take him back, but the breeder will only refund half of our purchase. The puppy is still at our house because he has to be on a 10 day hold in our county and we did not want him to go to a shelter. Any advice for what to do would greatly help!

The rest of the litter was very hyper, but I chose his specifically because of his calm nature. I chose my boxer the same way. The mother wasn’t in there, but the dad was and he was fine.

They owned both parents?
The pup was “timid” with a new person? That’s not the same as calm.
Why did you not simply walk away? So many red flags.

Did you just visit once at 16 wks? Most breeders allow a first visit at 5-6 weeks, then again at 8-9 weeks if you are not picking up the puppy at that point. Why did they have the whole litter at 16 wks? Decent GSD breeders have waiting lists, I waited two years for my last boy. Where was the mother? Why did they own both parents? In breeding in a serious issue, decent breeders have choose parents carefully to reduce increase the genetic pool.

It will help the rescue if you can give them as much information as you have on what may have happened to the puppy before you got him.

Nothing you have said has helped. The situation is done and we can not go back in time. Please stop replying to this if you are just going to bring up things to not help the situation. I’m sure if you were in my shoes you wouldn’t appreciate this.

That last reply was to wolfiefan. I appreciate the other helpful comments.

Wolfiefan's comment is useful. As is every time someone points out that the situation is one of the pitfalls of choosing a breeder poorly. It helps other people see why the tips about how to choose properly are so important.

Any half decent breeder would have WANTED this dog returned to them. A new owner would not then be in the painful situation of trying to decide what to do for the best. One of the many reasons choosing a breeder is important is because of the support the good ones provide when things go wrong.

It's also helpful because her point about the breeder owning both parents and about how this personality trait was being shown before you got the dog links to this issue was there before you got the dog and is either genetic (owning both parents means they were unlikely to be the best match) and/or related to how the puppy was brought up 1-16weeks. If this is true, then this is not simply a training issue. This dog has real issues and needs expert help. Preferably via a breed specific charity who can asses it properly.

No decent breeder would let a puppy go without meeting all the members of the family either.
It is helpful if it stops people making crappy decisions and helps to stop puppy farmers making money.

Have you found a rescue willing to take him?

To be fair Wolfiefan's questions are quite reasonable. The story of how you got the puppy is quite shocking and it is worth pointing this out for other people reading this thread.

Don't attack Wolfiefan - everything she has said is correct. People really need to put more time and thought into getting dogs - they're living beings and they're not easy. They need a lot of time, patience and training. They're not something people should buy on a whim because they're cute.

A decent breeder would have had homes lined up before the litter was even born, or within the first week or so of their life. They wouldn't let the pup go without meeting all the members of the family, either. And if there was an issue with the pup they would take it back. They also would have the mum around to meet - you should never take a pup from a litter where you haven't met the mum.

There are so many red flags with your situation and it's really concerning that you thought getting a dog from that breeder was the right thing to do, tbh.

Erm, the problem is with you, not Wolfiefan who is spot on.

Just out of interest? Why can't a reputable breeder own both parents? It happens alll the time in the cat world. As long as they're not related. I'm not sure why that's a problem.

It's not impossible laxyface but a good breeder would be matching parents carefully to increase the health of the breed. Finding mates that complimented each other to bring about something more in the offspring. The chances of the breeder owning two dogs that were each other's best match is not likely. It would be more likely they were just matching them for convenience - to produce puppies without the stud fee.

Also, breeder's dogs tend to be related to each other.

As I say, that might not apply to every breeder who owed both parents. For sure, some great ones made get occasionally match two distantly related individuals they own because they believe the match would work. It would be the exception rather than the rule, though. I would expect to see that the vast majority of their litters were not bred like this plus hear their explanation of why the match was chosen.

I am not totally up with cats but my - rather shoddy - understanding is that cat breeding is seeing some of the issues dog breeding has been seeing for a while. Inbreeding, poor form, highly excessive features etc. Ditto some horse breeding.

I wonder if the practice of breeding from the same owner might be encouraging this? Again, by limiting choice to only the animals you own you are limiting gene pool and your ability to balance out extremes just because choice is limited. I don't know that for sure. More just pondering...

Lazyface (not laxy). Sorry!