[nana911]

I just noticed this thread, and I don't know if you've resolved this issue or not. When my dh and I got Bear from the shelter he had been living there for 6mths. He was 2-3yrs old and I have no idea what his history was. We brought him home. Everytime we'd leave, and at the time we only had cats in the house. We'd come home to scratched interior doors, torn curtains etc... He is a large breed and was obviously having some serious separation anxiety issues. He was glued to my dh in the house and since we needed to spend alot of time at the VA hospital we needed a solution, fast. Looking at normal house habits...my dh would go in the bathroom and close the door, for showers..reading time (lol) etc.. and Bear would lay in front of the door and wait patiently for however long it would take for dh to come out. Do you have a room that you go into alone that your dog waits for you? Anyway, I had dh read a long long long time into a digital recorder, boring book. I distracted Bear while dh snuck out the back door. I went into the bathroom and shut the door. Opened the bathroom window, dh went to the window where I had a conversation with him, as if he were inside the bathroom, hit play on the recorder, slipped out of the bathroom, told dh I'd see him later, told Bear to be a good boy and watch daddy while I was gone and left. When we returned a couple of hours later. Bear was shocked to see us return thru the back door, he came from the direction of the bathroom. We did that 5-6 times longer, next time not doing the window converstion, next time just the recorder, etc...and eventually he realized that daddy always returned. That was 4 years ago. We've never had to do it since. But it was a stressless, painless way to alleviate his anxiety. Just a thought.

I agree with the can solution when they are barking inappropriately, like at strangers at the front door, or something, but perhaps, if they are already stressed this could be an alternative.