Hi,
I'm new here and I've read most of the posts in this thread and the other referenced thread. I think my dog also suffers with separation anxiety. I'm sure my family and I have given her very mixed signals. To make matters worse not only do I have this anxious dog, but I have two young children, 5 and 8. I've gotten pretty good at ignoring the dog when we get home but didn't know until now that I needed to also ignore her when we are getting ready to leave.

Duchess (our dog) is a Luwellyn Setter/Border Collie mix. She seems to be just fine when we leave, no barking or anything, she just looks out the window (before we started crating her). But when we come home she's going crazy. Jumping up on the window, barking, pacing from the window to the door, whining.....the whole nine yards. She usually doesn't do anything destructive but obviously she's waiting for us to return. Otherwise she's a great dog, although after reading some of this thread I can see some behaviors that show she's confused in her place in our house. She follows me everywhere...and I mean everywhere, bathroom , laundry room, etc.

My questions are:
1. How do I get my kids trained to ignore the dog when we get home and when we're ready to leave....or is it even important for them to do so?
2. Is this behavior a dominance issue? She listens to me better than anyone else in the household, she sleeps with my son and won't get on our bed unless invited. She does like to sleep on the furniture though.
3. We are planning a big move from Sacramento to Phoenix and I'm concerned about her stressing out over this as well as our being out of the house. What can I do to make the transition smooth and less stressful?

Duchess was adopted from the SPCA I think I can understand why she was surrendered. She was living in an apartment and she's a very high maintainance dog. Gotta go out and run (walks don't cut it with her) and play with other dogs. I've actually toyed with the idea of getting her a playmate...probably a retriever. I don't want to get another dog right now because of the move. Had I known we would be moving 2 months after getting Duchess I would have waited to get a dog. But now that I have her and have fallen head over heals for her I want to make this thing work.

I do plan on obedience training but I want to wait until after the move.

Thaks to anyone who's read to the end of this one.

Cindy