Nursing Dog with separation anxiety

Question
I have a Jack Russel/Beagle mix who give birth to her first litter a week ago.  We have always had problems with separation anxiety when my husband and I leave the house without her.  We usually crate her at night and when we leave to keep her safe and out of mischief.  (We have tried leaving her out at night when we are home to sleep in bed with us, but she always gets up in the middle of the night and pees in the floor.)

Now that she has a litter to take care of and keep her company her anxiety has appeared to lessen.  We have been leaving her crate open so she can freely get to her food and water since she is nursing. (Even when we are gone)  Now the puppies are a week old and our dog is coming out of the crate a little bit at a time.  Her anxiety is now showing again while we are gone.  She escaped from her crate while we were gone and peed and pooped down our hallway following into our bedroom where she also soiled our bed and the floor.  She has escaped before (pre litter) and completely destroyed the house and soiled in the same areas mentioned before.  Is there anything that can be done training wise?  I know there is doggy prozack for anxiety in dogs, but I don't want to drug up my pup.  She's usually a good dog, stubborn and willful at times.  But, her behavior is only a problem when she finds a way to escape when we are away from the house.

Answer
Hi Christy,

When you're not home, your dog should not have the run of your home. Since she needs to have access to her litter, contain your dog with the help of a child gate or two, to the room that the whelping box is in. At least this way, her messes will be limited to one area, rather than being all over your home. If her containment area is small enough, you could lay down newspapers, which would help with the clean ups as well.

You can read about desensitizing your dog to being alone here:

http://www.ygrr.org/doginfo/behavior-anxiety.html

http://www.dogcetera.com/dog-encyclopedia/16/separation-anxiety-in-dogs

It's going to time and patience on your part to help your dog get over her separation anxiety. Talking to your vet about using an anti-anxiety medication is a good idea once the pups are weaned, but keep in mind medication works best when it's paired with training. Another option that you can use now, while the puppies are still nursing are Dog Appeasing Pheromones (or, D.A.P.). You can read about using pheromones to calm dogs with separation anxiety here:

http://vetmedicine.about.com/cs/behavior/a/dogbehaviorprob.htm

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4923-pheromones-soothe-stressed-out-dogs.h...

Best of luck,

Patti