Puggle Separation Anxiety

Question
My puggle is 10 months old, and has a serious case of seperation anxiety. When I leave the house, I always put him into a crate. He will continuously BARK and BARK and BARK! I live in a small apartment with pretty thin walls, so I am sure you can imagine how my neighbors feel. Sometimes my puggle will even pee in his cage. Someone recommended a bark collar, so I tried that and it worked for a little while, but now he barks right through the shock and doesn't even care.

My puggle gets tons of excercise and obedience. He is controlling my life, I don't know what else to do? Please help me! My puggle has done this since the very first day we brought him home from the pet store at 3 months old. I want to be able to leave the house with out worrying if I am going to get evicted!

Answer
Unfortunately, your story is not uncommon among people who make the mistake of buying puppies from pet stores.  These dogs come from large volume "breeders" (I use the term with reservation, and consider them "puppy mills", despite what you may have been told by the store.)  They are often confined in cages, in less than enriched conditions, and not exposed to their mothers being able to adequately clean the "den".  Thus, they learn that peeing where you sleep is fine.  They are hard to house train, and they learn barking at an early age, because they are so frustrated.
Most dogs, even pet shop dogs, are house trained by 5-6 months of age, or less, so something went awry with your training.  There's a very good book by Patricia McConnell called "Way to Go" that can give you some very good ideas about how to go back and try again.  She also has a book on separation anxiety (the good news is that what you describe is not full blown separation anxiety, but you do not want it to get worse).  That book is called "I'll Be Home Soon".  They are inexpensive, so I advise you to get both.  They are quite inexpensive, and worth the read.  I'm sorry you resorted to shocking your dog - there are humane collars that only squirt citronella, but even those (which have been scientifically proven more effective than shock collars) don't always work.
Probably your best bet is to contact a behaviorist from IAABC or the Animal Behavior Society to work with you in the home to try to modify the dog's behavior.  House training will help a lot, though, because then you may be able to leave him loose in the house.  In the event that he is barking because of the crate (some dogs really are claustrophobic) or because it has become such a habit, that may help.
Good luck.