About the sweet Akita....a little over a year ago I adopted a sweet, tiny 3
lb toy poodle, 18 mos old.  The first time I left her alone in the kitchen,
she pulled out everything within her reach, and even tore off and chewed up
the table cloth!  At the time, she wouldn't stay in a crate for even a
minute without going frantic.  This 3 lbs tiny beast rocked back and forth
in the crate, growling and biting the metal door until she moved the crate
clear across the kitchen!

If your dog isn't crate trained, it might take time to train him.  For me,
community based (non-private) obedience classes have worked the best.
Rescues usually take extra time, but all told, in my case it came out to be
about the same amount of time it would have taken to train a puppy from
scratch.  Housebreaking also takes some time as the dog might have new
"procedures" to follow.

14 months later, my toy poodle will stay calm in a crate.  She's also in
intermediate level obedience classes.

Good luck with the dog.  You can fix the syncro, but it you don't "fix" the
dog's behavior, you'll probably have to fix the van lots of times.
Patti
**********************************************

On 5/11/07, Doug Fitz-Randolph <fitzr@suscom-maine.net> wrote:
>
> Syncro de Mayo "East" is next weekend in PA - see
> http://www.syncrodemayoeast.com - just a reminder in case you missed the
> announcements.
>
> So... my wife & I adopted a very sweet 3-year old Akita about a month
> ago...
> really nice dog, but he's got a severe case of separation anxiety: he
> doesn't like to be left alone. We've been working with him pretty
> diligently, slowly lengthening the time we leave him. We were up to just
> over an hour.
>
> Yesterday I left him in the van for not more than 15 minutes. When I
> returned, I could see him up on the front seat furiously tugging at
> something. It was the upper window seal - completely destroyed. He also
> ripped the top off the passenger door panel, tore the curtains off the
> rear
> side window, severed both rear shoulder belts, peed on the rear seat and
> chewed-off the passenger window crank.
>
> Basically, he lost his f%*#ing mind.
>
> I can find replacements for everything but the door panel. Does anyone
> local
> or coming to SDME happen to have access to one? It's the
> base-model/transporter style: gray, all-vinyl - no chrome, no fabric, no
> power windows. I might have a part you need if you'd like to swap.
>
> Not sure if the dog will be coming to SDME, by the way - might need a
> little
> more work before he's road-ready. :)
>
> Doug Fitz-Randolph
> Freeport, ME
>