So, I love my dogs. They're my babies. Cora is great. Covey is usually great, but he's got separation anxiety and, after two years, we haven't made any progress. Any tips? Resources? Sites or books? Covey is making me crazy.

Honestly, this dog is making me crazy. Here's the issue. He's housebroken. He's great. He can hold it all day long . . . when I'm there. As soon as I leave him, he loses it. He will pee on everything, I swear. Okay, well not in one absence by me, but almost every time I leave him, he has to pee on something. Poodles are prone to anxiety because they are such shy and timid dogs (part of the reason I wanted one). I think Covey is so bad because he changed homes at two years of age. The transition from his first home to mine was difficult, mostly because he's such a timid dog. I know he loves my home and he adores Cora. I can't deal with this for another ten or fifteen years, though. He knows better, he just doesn't do it. I don't want to leave him locked up all of the time. I feel like that's completely unfair, and it's not fair for Cora to be left all alone just because her brother (not by blood) is a dork.

Cora was easy to train out of this. Well, once I figured out it was anxiety not a housebreaking issue. When she left a mess, she was grounded from my bedroom for the night. She rarely leaves a mess now and usually when she does, it's because I was gone longer than expected. I learned from her that treating her like a puppy and swatting her on the nose doesn't help with anxiety. I believe it works great for training a new puppy, because it's pretty similar to how any adult would reprimand a pup for unacceptable behavior. When the messes come from an adult because of an anxiety issue, it really seems to be couterproductive. I tried that with Covey in the beginning, and just kind of escalated from there. He doesn't get swatted anymore. He rarely sleeps in my room anymore either, and that doesn't seem to make a difference?

What the heck do I do with this boy? I'm at my wit's end. I'd love to hire a trainer to get expert help, but I can't afford it.