depressed pup will not eat or poop
My boyfriend and I bought a 3 month old german shepherd female pup. She's incredibly smart, friendly and energetic to the point of doggie madness; which is really fun, but sometimes she gets a bit over the top. This morning he took her out for her walk, and when they came upstair she peed in the middle of the living room. He scolded her mildly and cleaned it up; and when he came back out to brush her, she had pooped right where she had peed just minutes ago. He scolded her harder, grounded her (since she hadn't done anything outside her lining in a week, so he told her to stay on the lining -which was clean, obviously- until he came again), went for a shower, came out, and she was still sitting there.
He called her to eat, asked her to eat, and talked to her for a while on behaving and being a good dog and stuff (somehow pep talks work on our rabbit, so we guess it may work on the puppy, too), petted her, and left for work. We both still haven't come home yet, so we haven't seen her, but my mother-in-law called about half an hour ago, telling us that the pup won't eat, poop, pee or even play, and just lays in front of BF's bedroom door, looking gloomy and whining.
I'd never seen that before in a puppy, so self conscious behavior (or fear to be abandoned or whatever it may be that she feels?? ), so I have no idea what this is or how to fix it? She's really madly in love with my boyfriend, but she's been fine before about being left home alone most of the day, since we all work.
I was talking to my friend today about some other odd behavior she has, that we can't fix, like eating her poo and biting people as fun. We tried giving her toys when she starts biting on us, but she kind of plays a second with them, then jumps on your lap attempting to bite on your nose like it's the most fun ever.
I told them to be harder on her because a pup doesn't get it when they bite and you say in a sweet voice "no biting, no biting!" and continue to play with them and cuddle and show them how much you love them. In my experience that just encourages the bad behavior. Was I wrong to advice my BF to be harder on her? Is there anything we can do to fix this behavior, and most importantly; what happened with the situation first described above and how can we address it? BF already left for home to see to her and make sure she eats and does her business, but I'm afraid she might do that all the time, and that can't be healthy; he can't stop working to babysit her all day long, and she can't just stop pooping because her daddy isn't home =/. Please help!
(PS: sorry for the length!! =$$$)