Separation anxiety

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What is your procedure when you leave her? Have you tried both crating and not crating her to see if she does better with one or the other?

Do you leave her with some kind of yummy treat?

Does she behave the same way when you leave her at home?

How much exercise does she get (physical and mental)?

For some SA dogs lots of exercise (both physical and mental), a special treat and some white noise when you leave is all that's needed. Others will need some pharmaceutical help and conditioning training to overcome their SA.

Mental exercise = Teaching obedience commands or tricks, playing hide-and-seek (using toys or food), etc. Physical exercise is great, but absolutely nothing tires a dog out like a good session of mental exercise. Clicker training is fabulous since it really gets a dog thinking.

How old is she? Has she always had some SA?

For a dog who has destroyed a crate, and especially if the SA behavior has been going on awhile, I really think getting some medication from the vet to take the edge off and then working on retraining is the way to go. You have to lower the stress level (with the medication) so the dog can be relaxed enough to relearn good behavior.

ETA: If she's food motivated then even with food allergies I'd always leave her with a food treat. You can take some of her regular food (moisten it if it's kibble) and stuff it into a Kong and freeze it. A frozen stuffed Kong will keep most food motivated dogs busy for quite awhile. And most experts believe the worst time for a SA dog is the first 10 or 15 minutes after their person/people leave. So if a treat can keep her busy and distracted for that time period it can really help.

Separation Anxiety

Pay particular attention to the pharmacological and treatment sections as they give very good advice on how to deal with this problem.

Doug, DVM

Try a Thunder Jacket. Helps with my dog.

Wow, great advice here.

It sounds like a tough situation for you because the dog is fearful, but also now might be conditioned to getting "good" results (not being left alone) from negative actions like whining.

I have an assistance dog trained by Dogs for the Deaf, and because of the strong bonding created with the human partner, was taught by her trainers to also be sure I left her home alone from time to time to lessen the chance of such anxiety developing. I sprinkle some yummy treats (there are anti-allergenic versions) on her bed and leave a TV on. Now I think she looks forward to it.

I think the Kong advice was definitely worth trying. Our trainer suggested using yoghurt, treats, dabs of peanut butter at one end, and various healthy foods the dog likes. The Kong website probably has lots of suggestions. Stuff the Kongs and freeze.

Our Ollie is terrified of thunder so at the recommendation of his trainer, we have been using a CD series to de-sensitize him. The Kennel Calm CD is just classical music with a sort of "heartbeat" rhythm. It puts him right to sleep. We plan to put that on our CD player if we need to leave him alone in the camper. Something like that, played multiple times at home before you go so that he is familiar with the calming effect, might help your pup.

I'll let you all know how the thunder shyness goes. We are only about a third of the way through the series, but so far Ollie still just goes to sleep when we play it.

Thunder Jacket did not work for our dog. Even our vet said it might not work on all dogs. I think it made him worse! BUT! It works great on our cat! 180 degree turn around for the cat!

We never leave the dog alone. He is always with us. We've adjusted our activities and if the dog can't be there, we don't do it. That means one of us stays in the car or truck when the other goes in the store. Or one stays home while the other runs the errand. If the dog cannot go in, then we don't either. Drive-throughs, camping activities, all take into consideration of the dog. We don't have kids with us any more, and the days of running, running, running to do it all are now ever. So not being as active ourselves affords the time for relaxed activities.

However our dog is not without experience. He's attended a Fort Wayne (Indiana) Philharmonic Orchestra presentation, and even climbed up forest fire towers with us. He's traveled everywhere with us, and when we can't take him inside, then only one of us goes.

Nothing worse than leaving the dog behind locked up in the trailer. What fun is that for the dog. He's part of the family, the needs to be included in everything we do as a family too.

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We tried a thunder shirt with no success at all. It is not the noise of the thunder but I think the difference in pressure in addition to separation anxiety. She reacts the same when we leave sometimes as she does when there is a front approaching. But her panting and pacing starts a while before the rain even starts and long before the thunder most of the time.