[Loki Pup]

So we have two Pits. One is Loki a male and the other is Flower a female. They are both rescues, but from different places.
Flower seems to have nightmares and separation anxiety. What do I mean?

Well when shes sleeping sometimes she will start twitching a little and either low volume yelps or whimpering occasionally. But it stops after I start petting her or holding her. Is that normal. She also freaks out when shes alone or even when its just one of us and Loki leaves for a trip outside or to the vet. She will start running and whining. She jumps on furniture and wont calm down for anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour...and thats if we are home. We had to take Loki for a shot and I left the tv and my web cam recording. She cried and yelped and shook her crate the entire time we were gone. I felt so bad.

The lady that we got flower from claimed to be a rescue lady that took dogs in for the shelter to help out. Flower was in a box that was connected to the outside and she had been chewing on pieces of fence and gutter and insulation. She was off on the mostly dark damp basement by herself. So I think that was part of the problem. The other part is that I was told she was found in an alley with her brother at only a few months old in the winter tied to a post. So I assume that the loneliness at the "home" and the fact her owner took her from her family and then walked away from her and her brother then her brother went somewhere else maybe traumatized her so now she always thinks when people leave they aren't coming back or something.

Do dogs have those same emotions and feelings? I mean could I be right about that? If so how can I assure her its ok. We've had her for a year in January. Maybe I'm just reading too much into things but as long as she sees Loki she seems to be ok as well. Any thoughts?

[Galadriel]

Here is some great info on separation anxiety:
Separation Anxiety - Training Behavior

All dogs get dream twitchies, where they'll bark, growl, whine, twitch. She's just dreaming, nothing at all to worry about. I even have a cat who does this.

[monkeys23]

Yeah I wouldn't worry about dreaming. Thats a useful link on separation anxiety.

When I first got Lily she would not get in the car. She would lay down and kind of army crawl. I had to lift her in. She was terrified of stairs and stuff too. Anyway I just took her everywhere with me and acted like it wasn't a big deal. After a week she zoomed down her first flight of stairs and hopped in the car grinning like a fool after she figured out I wasn't going to dump her off somewhere.

So maybe a lot of practice with you going in and out of the house and keeping entrances and exits really low key would help your girl. How does she do if its just her leaving the house with you guys?