Separation Anxiety?

Bailey has been doing well for the most part. She's doing great at day camp when we take her. She did well when we were dog sitting and she did well when a friend was sitting her for us. She's doing well on walks and she's not having accidents in the house. 

It's not all good though...I've been thinking she may have a bit of separation anxiety for a while now, but I thought I was just making excuses for her behavior. I kept pushing it out of the back of my mind and telling myself she was tearing things up because she's a puppy and she'll grow out of it, she's bored, blah blah blah. It's not just tearing stuff up though. She barks, whines, etc. a lot when we leave and she won't stay in a room alone. I used to think she just followed us everywhere because she was curious, but I think it's because she's scared to be alone. I kept making other excuses for all the behaviors that were concerning me. She didn't always have these issues. When we were in our apartment she never tore anything up and she didn't whine when we left her. She would sometimes let us be in a different room without getting upset. It didn't happen immediately when we moved in the house. I wish I could pinpoint when it started to happen, but I can't. I can figure out when she started to be destructive with things other than her toys (thanks to this blog and her weekly updates), but I can't remember if she started freaking out when we left around that same time. 

This kind of freaking out is bad. Really bad. Our carpet is brand new. I'm not ready to replace it. So...back to the crate it is for my poor baby.

Bailey had to go to the vet to get a Lyme booster last week. While we were there we talked to the vet about our concerns. Of course he can't be sure, but he agrees that it sounds like separation anxiety. We talked about what we can do to address the problem. We talked about the different steps we could take and little things to hopefully make things easier on her. We've started her on a natural supplement called Composure. We want to use this combined with some behavioral things (crating her and leaving her for short periods of time, leaving a TV or radio on for her, etc.). Of course there are medications, but we definitely don't want to go that route. If things don't improve at all, we may have to take her to see an animal behaviorist. I don't think it will get that extreme. We just have to work with her consistently so it doesn't get worse. 

I keep trying to figure out if there's something we did to provoke this. I don't know what caused it, but I do think we have been making it worse without realizing it until recently. Bailey used to be REALLY bad for sprinkling on the floor a little when we came home from work. To try to prevent this, we would just ignore her for a few minutes when we got home. Once we got her outside and she calmed down some, we would talk to her and pet her. Now that she doesn't do that anymore, we have started talking to her, hugging her and playing with her as soon as we get in. We have recognized this and we're trying to make leaving and coming home from work as insignificant as we possibly can. I know it will take some time and lots of trial and error before we start to see any major improvement. I feel so guilty leaving her now, because I know she absolutely hates it :-/