Dog separation anxiety help needed!

[MNHuntress]

If you want to go the natural pill method (without going to the vet), try melatonin. It's a something our bodies naturally produce to induce sleep. However, some ppl lack this. So read an article on using it for dogs as a calming agent for dogs (storms, firecrackers, etc). A friend has a lab like yours, and they used melatonin and it works like a charm. At his weight I would try 2 pills on a treat with peanut butter. Try it when you're home sometime. It can be purchased at Target or Walmart.

Also I know there are foster dog groups in town so if you didn't want to fully adopt a dog.

[Leaddog]

Start with very brief periods away, seconds building to minutes to hours. Leave often but come right back and reward proper behavior. Guilt can be a strong punishment and if the dogs knows what it did was wrong you can not say or do a thing and still get your point across. Also, after any punishment you need to make up with the dog after a proper time elapses (that time depends on severity of the infraction.) If you don't it can build up and manifest in multiple ways - digging, chewing, etc.

One last suggestion. Likely the dog makes alot of nervous noise in his distructive ways. Try a bark collar, supervised at first. These tend to calm dogs down.

Here's another: Control comes in basic forms and extends boyond a current situation. I use that theory on an especially fiesty female Sib. She's told to sit/stay when I feed. Her dish goes in front of her but she leaves it until I say its OK. That little bit of extra exercised control gives me more over her the rest of the time.

Good luck and kudos for not taking the easy out!

[T.O.W]

Looks like I turned to the right place to get some ideas on how to work the issue. We will try a couple of these methods and hopefully will get some results.