Dog Training Advice

Help! My dog ate a bobby pin! I am a mom with 8 kids who never really wanted a dog. One afternoon, after several years of requests and pleas, I discovered a shrine dedicated to dogs sitting on my bed. On a large poster, surrounded by beanie baby dogs, my children had created various pictures and convincing arguements as to why we should have a dog. After much discussion with my husband and various chore charts made by the children, we set off for the animal shelter to "just look" at dogs. Grandma was no help as she discovered "the perfect dog" for us. In fact, I think I remember she said that "God sent us this dog" and it was "meant for our family."
At this point you may be wondering why I sound a little disturbed. I will get to that in a minute. So, the perfect dog, a pure bred yellow lab, was adopted into our family. "Do you want pet insurance" I was asked? "Pet insurance...Hah who needs to pay for that," I replied.
Well, we got our four month old friend home and named him Biscuit. He currently sits next to me as I write this. We saw the vet, arranged the date for his "special surgery" and thought..."this isn't too bad." Something very strange happened after that surgery. My little cute fury friend became a teenager. Suddenly, he was mouthy, barking, nipping and very naughty!! He ripped his stitches and needed to be put on tranquilizers to keep him quiet in order to heal. Then when he was not healing, we discovered he was allergic to the stitches and needed them re-done. Four weeks of tranquilizers (and I could have used them too)and several weeks of wearing a lampshade on his head, he finally recovered. Okay, I thought, now we are in the "good stage". He is all better, that lampshade is off his head, and the bruises on my legs from that lampshade hitting them can finally heal. It is time to enroll this dog in obedience school. But NO, this would not be so easy. My furry canine had started with diarreah and then vomiting. Well, $400 later, we determined he needed "special" dog food. Then, just as he seems somewhat normal for a few weeks, he began to throw up again. I assumed it was because I switched his dog food, but after 4 days, I decided to take him back to the vet.

"HE needs an X-ray," she said. "Do you think this is serious," I asked? "We will know more soon," replied the vet. Soon, he was whisked away. Within 5 minutes the vet appeared, looking serious, yet amused. She had her laptop and showed me the picture. "It looks like a bobby pin in his intestinal track," she said. Now you can't imagine my thoughts at this point, as I had heard about dogs having surgeries and the price being extraordinary. My dog just smiled at me and tried to lick my hands. Well, as I write this $1700 later, I just have two pieces of advice....train your dog, and get pet insurance!