This is going to be a bit of a long one, I’m sorry.

Hey. I’m new here, just joined the community. I’ve been looking into getting a service dog for so long. I have severe depression, anxiety, and I need a medical alert dog for my chronic fainting & low blood pressure. I’m young, living in an apartment, and can’t afford to spend 15-30k on a service dog or their many training classes.

That being said, when I was at my absolute lowest point and came across a post about somebody retiring their service dog and giving him up, I was ecstatic. This woman has mobility issues, and needed a larger service animal (She ended up with a Bernese Mountain Dog). She had stopped training with her retired service dog, Merlin, and he got a bit rusty. She was completely open and honest about all of this, nothing was hidden or deceitful. She’s quite kind, actually!

So, I paid 1500 dollars for a rusty, retired service dog named Merlin. A 65 pound labrador retriever & belgian malinois mix.

The weeks leading up to his arrival were so nerve wrecking. I was anxious, nervous, excited. All at the same time. And eventually, yesterday, he came home with me. I drove from Connecticut to New Hampshire to pick him up and the first thing he did when he saw me was bark for about a minute or two straight. He even barked and jumped at other dogs in the area.

Understandable, but I was hoping for him to be a bit more well behaved around others. I would love to start working with him and training but I want him to settle and be comfortable first.

He’s a very, very distracted dog. He knows commands and eventually listens but he will easily be distracted by anything or anyone around him and will completely lose focus.

He whines, cries, seems extremely anxious and I feel awful to have separated him from his handler that he’s been with for the last 4 years.

Since bringing him home he’s peed and pooped in the house about 5 times. He has severe anxiety, and I’m nervous that this won’t ever go away.

This might be MY anxiety talking but I don’t know if he’s actually able to become the service dog that I need him to be. I just hope I didn’t spend 1500 dollars for a house pooper. He’s a bad leash puller too, which doesn’t help as I’m 5 feet tall and he’s 70 pounds and flings me around all over the place.

Is there hope? Am i dramatic. I’ve been having awful anxiety since I separated him from his handler and I don’t want him to feel abandoned

I think I just needed to rant. I don’t know. Hopefully in 6 months time he’ll be able to focus and concentrate better? I hope she wasn’t rehoming him because he was too distracted etc.

UPDATE He really is a good boy, he just needs training and reinforcement. He’s traumatized because of the separation and I feel awful for him. We’ll get through this together, and he’s going to stay with me. We’re renaming him Marley because we don’t want him to keep the name that the ugly stinky smelly woman gave to him. Everything will be okay ♥️