[Heymisskim]

Hello everyone! I wrote asking for help with Ginger and potty training, a 9 month old female we just got 3 weeks ago. Now I am really hoping you can advise on seperation anxiety.

It is CRAZY how quickly Ginger became attached to me and my twin 10 year old daughers! Literally, on the ride home from the breeders house she layer her head on one girl and her body on the other. She wants to be with us ALL THE TIME. In our arms is where she is happiest. I have to tell me girls all the time to "put the dog down." I encourage them to lay beside her bed while she chews on Himalayan yak bones, to put her in her crate occassionaly, to play with her, to not make a big deal about coming and going, etc.

We have a very busy schedule with lots of activities, but she is able to come with us much of the time. She rides in her crate in the car and seems pretty content being carried around in a dog purse. However, there are times she has to be left...usually two hours is the most, but sometimes it is as long as 3-4 hours.

I am afraid she barks the whole time she is in her crate while we are gone. And because she is pretty much confined to the kitchen and dining room for potty training purposes, she also barks whenever my girls and I leave those rooms. (She does not seem as bonded to my husband.). She sleeps in her crate next to our bed (for the first week the crate was IN our bed) but if I get up to go to the bathroom or help a little girl having a bad dream, she barks and barks until I return.

We have tried to make her crate a nice thing....even fed her in it at first, so I don't think it is the crate that she minds as much as she minds being alone.

We are really hoping she will become a well adjusted dog that we can take to other people's house and travel with. Any help you can offer me would be much appreciated!

Kim