separation anxiety / aggressive behaviour

[Sandra]

Jake, our bouv-wannabe/lab/Newfie X is just terrible when we go for car rides while Tara, the bouv, is just really happy to be with us. The problem is Jake barks aggressively at any one & anything. If one of us leaves the car, he goes absolutely bezerk - barking, scratching the sides of his area. I now know I'm driving this vehicle into the ground as he has the back so badly scratched, the resale value will be next to nothing. I have a CRV with a pet gate that isolates him in the back, which keeps him very nicely from sitting on the driver's lap.

As long as we have a good supply of cookies & two humans, Jake can be distracted & hopefully over time this will help cure the separation anxiety thing. However, it only works when two humans are present. He sounds so vicious but yet he's a really pussy-cat, we're afraid he's going to develop a bad reputation in our small community, not to mention the damage to the car. I should point out that he was a rescue from the local pound when he was 8 & 1/2 months & now at just 11 months of age now, he's a really big boy and getting bigger all the time.

We'd welcome any suggestions to help make car rides more peaceful.