I'm here to tell you that I FELT THE EXACT SAME WAY! If you go back and look at my posts from a little over a year ago, you'll see. When Wrigley was a pup, I had a nervous breakdown from his puppiness (nipping, whizzing, general bad behavior), my kids abandoned me because of the puppiness and my husband works all day ... I went into my doctors office and completely lost it and he put me on valium because I couldn't sleep and my stomach was in knots so bad, I dropped almost 20 pounds because I couldn't eat. Now, dog owners, don't judge ... seriously ... I've never had a dog in my life. I'm a cat person. I'm also not a type A at all. It would have been easy for me to send Wrigley back, but I was determined and now he's still a goofy dog, but thanks for THE MOST WONDERFUL TRAINER and a dog daycare, he is still with us a year and a half later. My trainer was a constant support for me and dog daycare GAVE ME DAYS OFF when I needed them. I would put him in about one day a month and now I only use it if I have school activities for the day. If it weren't for those 2 things, we wouldn't have a dog.
My advice ... get a trainer, use the crate and if you have a dog daycare in your area, use it. Dog daycare made Wrigley so tired that when we got home, I could give him the loving affection that he needed without the stupid puppy behavior. The only way Wrigley figured out he liked to be petted and loved on was when he was exhausted.
He still acts stupid sometimes, but now, I can take him to a big field and let him run loose and he won't bolt off into the great unknown. He always looks for me and now, I have to admit ... I kinda like him now.
He does tricks, he comes when he's called. I figured out he is food motivated. He sleeps like a trooper and loves his crate. This took MONTHS!
My only issue I have at this point is our cats. It's not working out with one of them at all. Our young, almost 3 year old cat, male, sprays ... it's sad. We tried to socialize them and when Wrigley was a puppy, Teddy would bat his nose and it would be done. But now Wrigley is an 80+ pound dog and Teddy is still about 10 pounds and scared to death of him. Wrigley doesn't even try to slowly approach. He sees Teddy, he goes into a frenzy to chase him. I don't know if it's playing, but I think Wrigley remembers getting boxed and now he's doing a "HA, I'M BIGGER THAN YOU, BOX ME NOW!" thing. In fact, this morning, Wrigley had him cornered and Teddy sprayed all over the place ... when that happened, Wrigley backed off and Teddy was able to escape into the basement ... where he sprayed some more. We are at our wits end on that one. Advice?