[Nikki+2]

No advice, just sympathy. Honestly I'm not the greatest dog trainer. Sugar is fine left alone (no people in the house) but if I leave for very long and my daughter or husband is home, they tell me he starts this pitiful howl. I can not even imagine Sugar howling- he's never done anything remotely like that when I'm home. It does break your heart. I know he is fine as long as he doesn't have a human witness because I come and go all day when my husband is at work and my daughter is at school and when I come home he is lazily getting out of his bed to greet me and I can tell he has just been sleeping. I know the right things to do- not pay him attention when I get home right away, etc. but I just can't do it. Luckily it doesn't come up too often.

I have 2 other dogs and I really don't think they comfort each other or make anything easier on each other. If anything I think they feed off of each others weak points. Gracie was my first dog and she used to drive me crazy when I vacuumed. She'd chase it and bite at it and I was always afraid I'd accidentally hurt her. Then we got my daughter's dog, Spike. Sweetest baby ever, but afraid of everything. Now, Gracie is scared of the vacuum. Our last addition is Sugar, my baby. I got him as an adult and he didn't have any weird fears. Now after watching Spike, he gets scared when it rains. So, in my experience adding more dogs just escalates the neuroses.