[Lindzorz]

*EDIT* Should have read all of the posts before writing that. Silly me!
I got lucky when I got Nilla. We lived right beside the train tracks, so she grew up in a sort of chaos zone, thus loud sounds and such do not bother her. She seldom barks or anything! In that sense, I do not have a lot of firsthand experience with this problem.

Some people have had luck with thundershirts. I've tried to use a couple of homeopathic products for stress relief on Nilla for when I took her to the groomer when she was a puppy (because she was so jumpy), but the ones I tried did not have much effect on her in particular. All dogs are different though! My in law's took in a Yorkiepoo that had come from a home with many small boys and she was skittish and afraid of men as well. They frequently babysit a little boy in their family who is seriously a wild child (I cannot be around him without covering my eyes because he almost ALWAYS gets hurt), and when he first saw Dixie he went charging at her, sliding through the floor, etc. They basically had to train the boy to work with Dixie and be very gentle with her, and now she absolutely loves him. If they want you to keep her, I think that they should be more than happy to work on how they interact with her, and should be understanding. :-) They have had Dixie for almost a year, and with lots of patience and love, she's made a lot of progress and is pretty much a little daddy's girl now!