[Dailydrool] Separation anxiety

[Nicole Haase]

I need some help with my newer girl Betsy. She's been with us for about two
months and over the past few weeks she's become increasingly more
destructive. She is fine all morning, laying on the couch and comfortable.
But as soon as the first person leaves the house, she goes a little nuts.
There is usually less than 15 minutes between when the first person leaves
and the second person gets out of bed. In that time, she will mess in the
house, steal things off the counter and chew them, destroy closets and
generally make messes that you wouldn't believe could happen in such a quick
time.

This didn't happen when we first got her. She was not fully house trained,
so we had baby-gated her into the kitchen, but she eventually got pretty
destructive in there and became better trained, so we gave her the run of
the house, hoping having our other two dogs to play with would keep her
occupied. This seemed to work for about four weeks and now we've been coming
home to multiple puddles and piles and she's clearly acting out and telling
us how unhappy she is.

Today we muzzled her and she was ok, but I feel like the most awful mama
ever. We were also told to try benedryl, but we're also wary of drugging her
on a daily basis.
We are planning to look into doggie day care, but that's not something I can
afford to do on a daily basis, so she'd only be going once or twice a week
at best.

Does anyone have any other suggestions or can you allay my fears about
drugging/muzzling?

Thanks

-- 
Nicole Haase
nicole.haase at gmail.com
414-708-3542
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