Seperation Anxiety??

Question
My dog Dixie is roughly 2-3 years old. We're not 100% sure because we adopted her in December of 2006 from the Humane Society. When she came home with us she was unable to be left alone at all, not even for us to go to the mailbox!  Dixie is 65 pounds so when shes destructive it's not an easy thing to clean up. We always keep her in a crate when we are at work and used to keep her in one at night. For the last 2 months or so she has been allowed in our bedroom over night, she is kept in with us by a baby gate and makes no attempt to break out. We tried several times to leave her uncaged while out for short periods of time. Each time resulted in a HUGE disaster...Poop and pee on the carpet, baseboards chewed, houseplants destroyed and pillows torn to shreds. Recently (the past few months) her fear of thunderstorms has escalated to the point her vet put her on a sedative for the storms. The highest dose (of Ace Prom) does little to calm her and then leaves her dope-y for hours after the storm ends. If it starts storming while we are out she breaks free from her cage, destroying it, the carpet beneath, and her paws in each escape. Oddly enough she is not otherwise destructive once freed, she must be too scared to!  What can we do?!?!  Ultimalty we would like her to be able to be left out in the house during the day (about 4 hours, then my lunch break, then another 3-4 hours) and calm during storms.   What can we do?  She is either going to destroy our home (with over $2000 in new flooring) or kill herself trying to escape her cage.

Answer
Hi Laura,

Have contacted the Humane Society about this? They may have a training and behavior department to help and or give you some insight as to her past that might help get a handle on this.

What you describe is severe. I would have her evaluated by a certified applied animal behaviorist to see if she could go onto a course of psycho-tropic drugs. That would be fruitless without a program of modification. Ace works only if the dog is not already agitated and your dog sounds like she is always agitated. She also is a danger to herself when left alone.

If there is no one qualified in your area. Tufts University has a pet fax service (there is a fee), but they also have Dr. Dodman on staff, who pioneered the use of anti anxiety medications in dogs.

Get her the help she needs, it will not get better with time. It will worsen. You will become virtual prisoners in your home.