Puppy home for several days and looking for encouraging words!
Bella arrived on Friday evening and everyone was so excited, however, I will preface the next paragraph (or ten) by saying no judgement please and just need sage words and/or advice.
Were I to do this again (getting another dog, of any kind) I would not get one from so far away. A few things that have me miffed about the breeder first of all...is lack of communication. I had questions that were not answered and when they were I think they were done so in a snippy fashion. Although through e-mail things like this can be misunderstood. I had the dog flown to me across country. Was charged $45 bucks for the crate and $50 for a "health certificate". The dog did not come with second shots and the ones that were given were given by breeder. Puppy was "never to a vet" other than for the "health certificate". I was also told the dog weighed 5 lbs, and with the crate, the shipping weight would be aprox 20 lbs.
Well Bella gets here and everyone is happy. Sadly I note the $45 dollar crate was old and used. (rusty hardware, nicks, scuffed up.) The $50 bucks for the health certificate was merely a paper stating the dog was healthy enough to fly on a plane along with a signature from the vet. A quick trip to the scale with myself and dog quickly determined what I already knew without even weighing her...she was certainly not 5 lbs! She was more like 12! Supposedly she is 13 weeks, if that is even true. The first evening we also noted red eyes and discharge. Next morning they were less red but some green discharge. *sigh* Used common sense and have been wiping with saline...all is well now. What upsets me the most is I contacted the breeder with my concerns...even sent pics of the puppy at home...and no response. Email was sent out Saturday. We are now at Tuesday. I'm just hoping at this point that we actually get her "papers". Obviously despite all this...we are moving on. Money paid...water under the bridge.
Now we are trying to get through routines. The pup was living in a kennel, so came with absolutely no knowledge of house training and has probably never even been in a house. Bella also came from a different time zone. 3 hours doesn't seem like much, but it is. :) I also haven't seen my cats in days. LOL They have completely vacated the area for the exception of a couple mad dashes to the litter box and food bowl. :(
I'm just going to come out and say it. I'm frazzled. I'm stressed. I'm feeling the "buyers remorse". Its terrible but its true. I've read articles online and talked to many family and friends and they say it will get better. Everyone goes through it. I'm just far from feeling like "It will be okay!" I can say that today has been better than the last 4...but then the "accidents" start occurring again. haha I just feel like one step forward and then another one back.
Despite my own Post-Puppum-Depression....dog is/seems healthy. Family is happy. I need to move on, just having trouble.
Can anyone sympathize? Have you been here yourself? :/
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by ANGELA C LEE on
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i agree with getting to the vet right away. my breeder provided me with everything book of photos, shot register, papers everything.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Our breeder said we needed to get pup to the vet within 72 hours, I believe.
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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48-72 hours should be the norm. My vet found a hernia with Livvy and so even though I already had decided I would keep Livvy I did notify my breeder.
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Jack tested positive for coccidia (not uncommon in pups stressed by the move) and we were able to treat him BEFORE the diarrhea started. We also notified the breeder since the whole litter may have had it. Again, this is common due to the persistent nature in adults, but it was still good to know. The breeder also wanted to reimburse me for the medication despite the fact that I kept insisting it was $4 and we were really fine paying that ourselves. :-)
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According to my vet many breeders are just treating pups for Coccidea now. I did have 1 litter that did have Coccidea...you are right about the whole litter might have it. It's not a one time treatment but several days.
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Permalink Reply by Wind Dial on
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Although I agree the rusty crate and miscommunication wasn't perfect I wouldn't jump to the puppy mill or BYB conclusion on this one. The breeder knows very well what she is doing and is far from a typical puppy mill and most certainly far from being a backyard breeder. Neither will have produced as many Champions as this breeder has in addition to health screenings I know the dogs have been through. That kind of record does not come from ill kept dogs. Her worst will be better than any BYB or PM's best any day of the week.
Most of the stuff is typical and varied from breeder to breeder and it's not always a honeymoon.
I also looked up the dog show results form last weekend, some of her dogs are listed as being entered and shown and as far as I know doesn't usually use a handler so thats probably where she was headed when she dropped the pup off at the airport. This is also just a guess but I'm assuming she is also keeping a potential show pup from the same litter which she will be getting papers on the litter if she ever plans to do anything with it.
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When I got Maya she was seven months and had lived in a crate. She was afraid of shadow trees cars if it moved but now she is my happy bossy girl. My alarm clock adjustment took a bit but I am happy with her. If your Bella is as sweet as her photo the pot puppy remorse will be a memory.
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Permalink Reply by Jen Giammona on
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Linus came to us from a breeder in Ohio. They were really great throughout the whole process and Linus was adorable, but I remember it taking a while to really bond with him. I hated the first few nights, because it really is similar to having a baby. I'd have to get up to take him out in the middle of the night or he'd knock something over and make a mess or chew up something and i was worried that having a dog wasn't for me. But the vet said he was extremely healthy and now I can't imagine my life without him. He turns 1 year old today and we just had him neutered yesterday (poor guy). He really is my furry baby. I talk about him the way my friends discuss their human children.
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Permalink Reply by Natalie, Fiona, & Django on
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Hang in there, Amanda. Like others have said...it will get better. The first few weeks are ROUGH. I brought home Fiona home about 2 months ago when she was 10 weeks old. I had researched and prepared for a corgi puppy many months, had chosen a very reputable breeder, and was as ready as one could be. Yet I still questioned the soundness of my decision for couple weeks and was very frazzled. I fretted with the magnitude of the decision I made, being very well aware this was a 12-15 year commitment. Fiona had coccidia as well, despite being preemptively treated for it by the breeder (as Beth mentioned, very common for a new pup under the stress of going to their new home), and had some GI issues before the medicine for it took hold. She's curious and fearless, so there have also been trips to the vet as well for a bee/spider bite, and she got something in her eye and had to be on drops for a number of days. It was a lot in a short period of time. The breeder was great and has gone above and beyond...and it still was still hard.
I can tell you that two months in now, it is much easier. :) Fiona has some basic commands down, I am socializing her like crazy, she is beginning to actually look forward to car rides, and our bonding continues to progress. Potty training is going well, and we only occasionally have accidents now. Under the best of circumstances it is stressful, and I'm so sorry to hear that you have had a less-than-ideal start. But I can tell you it gets better, and this period won't last. Just put in the work bonding with and training little Bella, and try not to let whatever residual anger you have towards this experience affect your relationship and bonding with your beautiful new puppy. (She is adorable, btw! :) Hopefully this bumpy patch will soon just be a minor blip in your long, happy life together.
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Permalink Reply by Lola and Paige on
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Hi Amanda,
First off it sounds like your pup may have a RTI or respiratory tract infection so you may want to get it checked out. Secondly I can personally say that I have been down a very similar path as you. The path is very rocky, full of unexpected turns, but with a strong determined owner still has a bright sunny end to it. Several years ago my parents and I were looking to get a Pomeranian. Sounds easy enough...it wasn't. Fortunately we were able to find a "breeder" that was within an hour or two of our home. In total there was only one visit to this "kennel", we went to see the dog and ended up taking one home the same day.
The woman that we dealt with was somewhat curt, she was very straight to the point and mainly concerned as to whether or not we would be giving her our money that day. (Meanwhile her two guard dog great danes followed us and growled at our every move.) She brought us to the "kennels" which turned out to be nothing more than 4x4' chainlink fenced in areas containing the mother dogs and numerous litters at a time. All of the dogs were panting (it was the middle of summer), the "kennels" were actually just a large abandoned garage, the puppies were barely moving, and all of the dogs had to make there beds in moldy sawdust.
When we got to where our puppy was he was with the rest of his litter in a dirty, old, kiddy pool (one of those blue plastic ones). He wasn't very lively at all, was rather small for his age, and one of his siblings was unable to walk altogether. All of the pups were 10 weeks old. We picked him out and had him ready to go.
The woman spoke to my parents about filling out the paperwork, basically a receipt saying that we did pay $500 for the dog. The house that the woman lived in herself was a single wide trailer filled with more dogs and a lot of feces. While the paperwork was being filled out we were given the opportunity to walk around and look at the dogs (hopefully without getting mauled by the previously mentioned great danes). Earlier the "proprietor" had informed us that she kept the male dogs away from the females to prevent from excess breeding, also the only plus of her operation. However, we found that the males' kennel was a 6x6' chainlink fenced area outside with no covering or protection from the elements.
Now fast forward a couple days: we were successful in purchasing our new puppy and he was adjusting well in our two story home, although he only stayed on the bottom floor because we were too worried that he'd fall down the stairs. But the thing was something seemed a little off with our new puppy. There were a few things; first off, when he went to the bathroom he seemed to have some difficulty going and his poo was a little stringy, he did have to get taken out about every half hour or else he'd have an accident (mainly diarrhea), he had a ravenous appetite and when he would try to eat from his food dish that was almost the same height as him he would start to do a handstand to the point where he would flip over into his dish. In all honesty we did get the first opinion of "What the heck?!" and thought that it was kind of cute...none of us knew or had any idea of what was going on.
Side note: our pom was a toy Pomeranian so he only weighed about 3.5 lbs. full grown. Due to his size we figured maybe his food dish was the wrong size for him which may have been contributing to his handstands.
One day as I took him out to go to the bathroom...again...he sneezed (which he also tended to do a lot but we thought he sniffed something up) and when he looked at me I saw what was wrong. Out of his nose was a worm hanging out by about an inch. Quickly I grabbed the end of it before it crawled back in and called for my mom. Within an hour and a half we were at the vet handing out $300 for treatment. Our poor pup was so filled with worms that there wasn't enough food for them and they were trying any way possible to vacate his body.
Another week went by and he was finally worm free...but we weren't worry free...
One day we woke to go downstairs and realized that the Big Red (our pup) wasn't in his bed like normally. We called my mother at work to ask what was going on. Big Red was at the vet. That morning my father came upon him in his bed not moving, eyes open, and barely breathing. Test results showed that due to poor breeding Big Red had an underdeveloped liver and was dying...this accounted for his handstands during feeding time. The only thing we could do was give him pure corn syrup everyday around 3-4 times a day.
I don't mean to type so much but I do want you to know that with our troubling pup, after a few months he was able to play somewhat and eat normally as well as have a regular bathroom routine. Another month or two and he was like a normal puppy and you couldn't even tell he was so sick just a short while ago. It is going to be hard and long but the results are so much more rewarding as you will get a dog with unbreakable loyalty, and who knows that you would and have done anything/ everything for it and will give you the most unsurmountable amount of love.
Hang in there!
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Permalink Reply by Jim & Sandi on
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Hi Amanda,
Hang in there - - - I'm thankful that Bella has found a good home and people that are going to take good care of her.
Our dogs deserve that because they give us so much in return.
All the best,
Sandi Selwood and the A-Dog Gang
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