Her name was Lola, she was a dancer....

So, I get the call last weekend from Trina that a little 2 1/2 year old brindle female was being returned after 5 months - and she needed my house - which means, BOOTCAMP! The adopters claimed Lola couldn't be housebroken (keeping in mind they had named her Kiyona, which I hated, and Lola was close enough that she would respond). She was peeing in the house, peeing in the crate, peeing when they put the leash on her, you name it. So I got in my best Dog Whisperer mode and opened my house to her. The bottom line is, this family had made her a very insecure little girl. Lola understood nothing - she didn't even know how to "come" - she didn't know how to walk on the leash. She never peed when I put her on the leash - she didn't have 99% of the issues with me that they had claimed they had. I'm gone 10 hours a day so I knew that would be a challenge for her in the crate. The bottom line is, and what my gut was telling me after 2 days of peeing in the crate, she had anxiety. The minute we would close the door and leave for work she would bark and go off! So this weekend we quit putting her in the crate - she is even sleeping downstairs on the couch with Smokey. We left her yesterday for several hours and she was fine. Obviously, the big test will be Monday when I leave her for 6 hours and come home at lunch to assess the situation. She's a gorgeous little girl - totally cat safe - full of vim and vigor.