The Glade 4.0

My 2-year old boxer has serious separation anxiety problems. She starts howling the second we leave her alone and keeps going on and off until we get back; she sometimes pees or destroys things; etc. Heck, even when we're home, she tends to follow us from room to room to keep us in sight. There's no particular reason for it; she's never experienced any trauma that I'm aware of.

We've tried all the standard techniques of getting her past it - crating, calming music, leaving the TV on, giving her toys and treats, gradual desensitization (i.e. starting with short absences and gradually increasing the duration), ignoring her when we get back, etc. Nothing seems to work. At this point, I'm thinking the only option is anti-anxiety meds, but I'd rather avoid that if possible. Hoping maybe someone here can suggest an approach we haven't tried.

What about getting another dog to keep her company while you are away? Or perhaps doggie-daycare?

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I'd hate to resort to meds for my dog as well.
The only things I'd suggest are:
Continue with the calm entering (not quite ignoring, but close) and leaving. Act and believe that everything is going to be calm and normal while you're gone; the anxiety you feel when you leave (because you know your dog is anxious) is being transferred to your dog, be calm and it'll help your dog.

Don't allow your dog to follow you from room to room. Your dog is unhealthily "addicted" to you. Make your dog spend time alone without you in the room (a dog bed or crate helps as it becomes a "calm spot"). Send the dog to the spot and tell it to stay until you release it. Start short and gradually increase.

Keep the amount of attention you give the dog regular throughout the week. If you devote a lot more time to the dog on weekends than weekdays, that'll exacerbate the problem come Monday.

Exercise, exercise, exercise! Physical and mental. This can't be stressed enough.

Good luck, patience and consistency are required - and it helps to be more stubborn than a Boxer

Hop: Doggy day care is a good band aid, but I don't believe it'll cure the underlying issue. Another dog definitely won't, as the dog is addicted to RD; it's not bored.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Yeah, we do the doggie-daycare thing now, actually, but it's crazy expensive. We're hoping we can get to the point where she's ok with just a walker while we're at work. At this point, though, I'd settle for being able to catch a movie or go to dinner on the weekend without her flipping out!

Good points about the transfer of anxiety from us to her and the extra attention on weekends. Definitely guilty of both. I'll try to be better about that, and I'll give the "calm spot" training a go as well. As for being more stubborn than a Boxer, though...I don't know if that's even possible!

How do you "store" your dog when you're not home?

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

How often and how long do you take her for walks?

We crated her up to about 6 months, but since then she's basically had the run of the apartment. Since we were in a studio until recently, though, that meant she had one room. Now that we have a much larger apartment, we close off the living room and second bedroom, so she has three rooms - kitchen, bedroom, and office - to wander in.

During the week, I take her for a 10-15 minute business walk when I get up at like 7:30 and drop her at daycare from 9:00am - 7:30pm, where she gets a ton of playtime. After daycare, I walk her home and let her play at the dog-run for a bit, for a total of say 30 minutes. Then I take her out for another quick business walk before bed around midnight. On the weekend, the timing is a bit random, but generally involves a 15-20 minute trip to the dog run when I wake up in the morning, a 10-15 minute business walk before bed at night, and three or four 20-40 minute walks/dog-run visits in between.

Any advice I had is negated by the free reign you give her.... I was assuming she was more confined.

Sorry I can't help.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

If a more confined space would be helpful, we could certainly try that.

I think Crating helps

In my experience with dogs who had this problem, discipline, confinement, exercise, consistency & routine were what worked.
First, go back to the basics of kennel training...dog does not come out unless she has to go to the bathroom, eat, or is going for a walk. No ifs, ands, or buts on this one....doggie has got to learn her place and the daily routine and believe it or not she will feel safer with this kind of structure.
I've always been rather firm with my dogs, as in, I will spank a dog just like I spank a child. When she keeps howling in her kennel, I would give a firm NO! and a swat on the behind and then make eye contact with another NO!
(My dogs caught on very quickly and learned that when I made eye contact and said NO!, I meant it, so rarely ever had to spank them after that point. Just said NO! and they got the message.)
This takes lots of time and patience and you have absolutely got to be firm and consistent.
Also, when you come home, don't go rushing straight to the dog. Put your keys up, put your mail up, do whatever else you have to do and THEN let the dog out of the kennel for a walk.
I had a very, very, very difficult dog that this worked with. You just have to stick with it, be consistent, and have the threat of a beating behind your voice.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Actually I meant the inverse. My dog went nutso when we left, so we crated him for until he was older, then weaned him off the crate when we left. He's now quite docile in our absence.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Ah, gotcha.

Unfortunately, I know myself (and my girlfriend) too well - there's no way we'd be able to maintain that kind of firmness long enough for it to work. I can do training sessions, and I can almost manage to be cool towards her for a few minutes when we first get home, but that's about it. I'm just too much of a pushover for the firm hand approach!

Then it seems you are not ready for ownership, RD, as much as I dislike saying that.

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Oh don't get me wrong - we do set and enforce behavioral boundaries, and there's no question my girlfriend and I are the bosses. Any kind of aggressive/dominant behavior is totally off-limits, for instance, and we don't allow begging at the table or any of that nonsense. But training away those kinds of things, at least in my experience (this isn't the first dog I've helped raise), generally just involves in-the-moment correction. LK's suggestion, however, seemed like it involved a shift in the overall dynamic between us and the dog to one that I don't think I'd be happy with. Not saying there's anything wrong with LK's approach, mind you; just that I prefer a different one, and I've never had problems with previous dogs, nor with any aspects of this dog's training other than the separation anxiety thing.

I know its hard RD, it just seems (from the info that you've given) that this dog needs to feel a little more secure and a firm hand will definitely take care of that.
At the very least, do try to go back to square one with the kennel training and try to stick to as strict a routine as you can. Perhaps you can make up for the lack of firmness with structure, schedule, and kennel training?

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

By the way, this is a noted personality trait of the breed you have.

Just in case you weren't aware of that.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

I think you should just crate the dog when you leave, if it can't handle being alone.

That is too short of a walk. Make it 45 minutes if possible.

How do you walk your dog? What is your dog doing when you are walking him/her?

Check out this link...
http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/separationanxiety.htm

Aye, that sounds like the route we're going to have to take. She was (very slowly) getting better before we moved to the new apartment in July, so I think the change in location shook her up. *sigh* Back to square one I guess.

Crating is BS. Dogs were not designed to live in small cages all day.

RD - I've found that simply having a dog-door installed solves a TON of problems. If you have a yard, I highly recommend it.

Don't crate her. Even worse, if you don't crate for a while and go back to it, she's going to go apeshit.