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Connor's going...

Marvel_ous

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It pains me so much to say this, but we are rehoming Connor. He peed on my parents bed while we were out carving pumpkins, and that was the last straw. Everyone in this house has known that the past months were leading up to this. He has escaped every crate we have put him in. He can't be out in the yard alone. Nobody can control him, physically or mentally. I've tried almost every trick in the book, short of the insanely expensive ones, and he is just too hyper, too mischievous, too high-maintenance for our family to handle. We're going to try to find a home for him with people who have experience with difficult dogs. I'm tearing up as I write, but I know it's for the best. Once he hit puberty, no one was happy or contented. Every reason for why I got a dog has been invalidated. He has literally peed in every room of our house and torn up countless things. All in all, this 90$ shelter puppy has cost us over 500$ in damages and supplies in the 8 months we've had him, and It's just not worth it, for anybody. Tomorrow we are spending the day together, enjoying the things we like to do, then saying goodbye, probably forever. I'll miss him to the ends of the earth, but he deserves better than what we can give him. Best regards, Trinity.
 

hrafn

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Sometimes the best thing we can do for the pets we love is find them a new and more suitable life.

You're not doing wrong by Connor. You're demonstrating that you are, without a doubt, a loving, caring, generous, amazing person. You're looking out for him, even though it hurts to say goodbye.

I'm so sorry that it didn't work out, but you love him and you're doing what is best for him, and for your family.
:bluhug:
 

Shezbug

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I really hope you manage to find Connor a perfect home that fits his needs so you can take some comfort in the knowledge that his next adventure in life will be one he will love and grow from. You have taught him some great things and skills that will hopefully stay with him for his life and give him a brilliant chance at fitting in with another family. If this is what is best for him and also your family then I hope you do not hurt for too long with his absence and I really hope you get at least one positive update to make you feel and know that you made the right choice for him. :sadhug2:
 

Sarahmoluccan

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My friend recently went through something similar. Her dog have extreme anxiety and she try everything but nothing work. :( Thankfully she found a home with a trainer that was what her dog really needed. I wish you the same luck with finding the right home. I know it's a really difficult and painful decision to make :sadhug2:
 

WallyLoopey

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Have you tried (you probably have) seriously exercising him?

I found that most trouble maker dogs will calm down after about 20-30 minutes of exercise. Running with your dog or fetch is ideal, walking isn’t enough to wear them out. If he is really high strung you might want to get into agility or frisbee.

After that we crate ours with peanut butter filled kongs and they sleep for hours.. then right when I hear stirring I put them out to pee.


I’m sorry it hasn’t worked out.
 

SandraK

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I'm sorry you're giving up Connor, he looks like he's part Lab and sometimes they can be too smart for their own good. I had a Lab/pit mix in my former life and we were warned that Labs are extremely smart and were capable of climbing fences.

If your family got him from a shelter aren't you supposed to take him back if you don't want to keep him? Years ago we'd adopted a lab/pit puppy and I thought they'd said if it didn't work out. I remember there was a family in line behind us was returning a cat; it's original owner had died, they adopted it but the mom said the cat was heartbroken and wasn't eating.
 

camelotshadow

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:sadhug2:

:omg:Not smart enough not to pee on beds. Well you tried. Some of them are at the shelter for those pee all over issues. Some learn it in the shelter being caged they have to soil there bed.

Bad habits can be hard to break. Had german shephered puppies. they housebreak easy & never would go in the house.


 

SandraK

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:sadhug2:

:omg:Not smart enough not to pee on beds. Well you tried. Some of them are at the shelter for those pee all over issues. Some learn it in the shelter being caged they have to soil there bed.

Bad habits can be hard to break. Had german shephered puppies. they housebreak easy & never would go in the house.

We had the opposite problem of peeing everywhere. In the 60's we got an English cocker spaniel pup, David, but it was winter in Uruguay so he spent the first couple of months inside using newspaper to go on. Come summer, Mum started letting Davy out during the day and would bring him in at night. She couldn't figure out why Davy would come flying in and immediately relieve himself on the newspaper. Then she realized that Davy had been so well trained that he wasn't going outside in the garden because there was no newspaper down for him to go on. Mum ended up putting paper down on the lawn so Davy could learn to go outside ...
 

hrafn

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I've had my share of lunatics pups. My aussie Anita was an athlete enrolled in multiple sports, who I had to keep constantly busy with challenging mental and physical activities, and she still destroyed my stuff. :rolleyes:

Some dogs are just off-the-walls bonkers, and it takes a lot of patience and willpower to deal with their shenanigans. They're definitely not for everybody.
 

Ankou

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I'm sorry, it's hard when everyone isn't 100% on board with making it work. If the pup is that challenging he needs consistency and supervision from the whole family, tons of exercise and enrichment, and it's really not fair to dump all that onto your shoulders. From reading your posts, your family gave up long before you did, thank you for trying to do your best for him and I hope you can find him an active home.

Like parrots, I'm convinced high energy dogs aren't great pets for the majority of people and unfortunately it's easy to underestimate how much work they are if you've only ever owned 'normal' dogs. Especially if you adopt a mutt and didn't even intend to get such a crazy dog like Connor; that's what my family did with our first dogs, sled dog mixes. Learning to swim in the deep end. I honestly have no idea how someone could have a normal job or school and crazy active dog at the same time. I cherish Axel and love having him here 3 days a week still but raising him was a 2nd job. No way I could have done it without my work schedule that has me home part-time.
They just need SO MUCH all the time and it's so physically tiring.

It's hard, even harder to learn you're family isn't suited to it and to have to say goodbye. You shouldn't have had to do so much alone. Since it sounds like your family expected a well trained, calm dog without being willing to put more work into him, this is the best thing. Seems they wanted to treat him like a normal easygoing dog... but that's not the dog they had.
I'm so sorry, I can tell you love him and only want the best.
Good luck!

:hug8:
 

SquawksNibbles

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Oh, Trinity. :sadhug2:

I'm sorry you're having to do this. :( Sometimes some animals just aren't the right fit for some families. You have given Connor tons of love even when he was driving the rest of your family crazy. You took him in and worked hard to make it work out, but sometimes it just doesn't, and I know it sucks. :hug8: I know you will only let Connor go to the best home. Good luck on finding him a new home. We're here for you. :bighug:
 
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