Boxer Behavior - Seperation / Stranger Anxiety

Question
I have a 2.5 year old male AKC boxer - who from the day we brought him home at 10 weeks has showed signs of separation anxiety - it started with urinating in his kennel, destroying the bedding in his kennel, then when we moved him out of the kennel, fearing that he would hurt himself trying to escape, and into a bedroom with our other male boxer, now 5.5, he has torn up the carpet in the bedroom, destroyed mattresses/box springs and wooden dressers.  One time when we took the other boxer to the vet for an check up he scratched at the door and metal door handle trying to escape.  We have gone as far as to leave nothing in the room besides toys which causes him to dig holes outside in the dog run he has access to through a dog door.  He even eats his own poop.  I wanted to know of anything that may have worked with other boxers to calm them during the hours we are at work which is approximate. 7 - 8 hours.

Also, he has started being afraid of adult strangers on our walks.  He gets so afraid to be around new people on our daily walks (which are about 30 minutes) that he sits down and will not move anywhere near them - male or female, he even just last week urinated when we tried to get close to a new neighbor to let our other dog get some attention.  Kids are okay - he gets very excited and pulls me towards kids - which causes me to not feel safe to have him around kids for fear he may knock them over when he gets so excited.  I have a feeling this may be due to his medication for Valley Fever (which he most likely got from all that digging in the backyard - which did I mention has a concrete sidewalk with 2 inches of rock on top of the dirt:-)).  I am going to check with his vet, but again wanted to check with some other boxer owners.

Answer
Separation anxiety is a difficult thing, especially to this degree!  When you see the vet, have a full thyroid panel (OFA thyroid) run - often thyroid imbalances will affect behavior.  It may not be related to the SA, but might explain the increasing fear of strangers.  Or it may not, of course - that may be part of the SA complex - but it's better to know, because hypothyroidism (the most common thyroid disorder in dogs) is easily and inexpensively treated.

There's a good article on separation anxiety, along with some further resources, here:
http://www.wagntrain.com/SeparationAnx.htm

Two things that are mentioned in this article, that I think deserve a second mention, are Patricia McConnell's booklet, "I'll Be Home Soon", and the Comfort Zone DAP Plug-Ins.  (I've used the plug-in for thunderstorm phobia and it worked quite well; you might shop around online, as the brick and mortar pet stores often charge almost double the price you can find at online retailers.)

You might also want to visit some Boxer forums to talk with other Boxer owners who have 'been there, done that'.  I administrate one, www.boxercrazy.org, but there are numerous others as well.

As a last resort, there is a drug called Clomicalm (and in fact I think Prozac has been used in dogs as well) that is used short-term and in conjunction with behavior modification.  You are best off working with a veterinary behaviorist if you end up going this route.

Good luck!!