Yes, I'm a little worried about drugging Buddy. Drugs are not to be taken 'lightly' in my opinion. They do have side effects and first and foremost, Buddy should be taken out of the extremely stressful shelter environment and allowed to settle in.

Separation anxiety is common in shelter dogs for the first little while but often is not a lifelong problem.

My personal opinion is to try some training techniques...be with Buddy as much as possible to begin with and then go in and out of the house a lot, increasing the time a person goes out.

I had a very high stress dog, Holly, and only after having her for 3 years did I try drugs to help her with separation anxiety and aggression towards other dogs. It didn't work at all (not that sometimes it doesn't help some dogs), but the training I did with her went a much longer way.

I also tried homeopathy and bach flower remedies first..a much gentler approach and easier on a dog's system.