So we're exploring the hideout and I go up some precariously steep stairs, loot a chest, and continue. In the midst of the next fight I notice my honorable and everpresent new companion is nowhere to be found. I search everywhere, no corpse, no paw prints, nothing. So I figure maybe he got stuck on some geometry somewhere, so I continue through a loading door, still no dog. I think to myself "Poor soul must've met a foul end at the hands of one of these bandits!" So I commence pillaging and [censored] said bandit hideout until nothing remains (pulses or loot).
After several hours I get a system message that says 'Stray dog has returned home" or something to that extent. Note at this point I have no place to call my own because I haven't raised the funds to buy a home yet. So I assume he went back from whence he came. Several more hours later I am finishing Whiterun and Lydia tells me "Looks like you already have a companion." and will not follow me. Tried to get Sven to follow me and he refuses also, stating the same as Lydia. So I go back to where I found the dog and low and behold, hes no where to be found. So I then bought a home and waited there for two days thinking he might show up at some point. My other companions are now enjoying my house, but still no dog. So at this point hes just like the ghost of a bad ex-wife. He wont let me see anyone else, I never see him, but I know he's out there somewhere.
Is there anyway to just cut ties with this evil canine ruining my social life!? It is much to far back to reload the save and I honestly can't think of anything else to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
TL;DR: I got a dog, he disappared (not dead) and now I cant get any other companions.

