My problems with Snoopy - Advice needed

My mood has not been good this week. I have been short-tempered with everybody at work, home, everywhere. I think it might be the change of season or maybe the fact that it's darker earlier in the evening and I feel like I don't have as much time to accomplish everything.

I know a HUGE part of my mood is my dog Snoopy (7 year old beagle/basset hound mix). Her anxiety level is through the roof. She is great all day but starts panicking as soon as we shut the lights off to go to bed. It started a couple of years ago when she was scared of thunder which isn't unusual for dogs. Then we figured she must have attributed rain to the thunder so then she was afraid when it would only rain, which is pretty frequently in the spring and fall. Then it was wind that she was afraid of in addition to all the rest.

At this point, I took her to the vet to see what they could do to help me. The vet prescribed a medication to help ease her anxiety. That worked to level her out overall, but it didn't help on those nights with rain/wind/thunder. So I took her back to the vet last fall when they prescribed a sedative to use during those nights. It worked well at the time.

Last year, she became terrified of new noises or changes in the house. Last fall, we replaced our carpet with hardwood flooring and it took her months to get used to that. It was to the point this past spring that we were going to find her a new home because we just couldn't handle her anxiety.

We decided to see how she was during the summer at the campground because she hadn't handled it well the summer before. This summer, she was as good as gold. You couldn't find a better dog at the campground, but she wouldn't carry that same demeanor home with her. So our weeknight sleeping was spotty at best.

Now with the new furnace we installed this summer with its new noises, she had started waking at 3-4am every night and whining and pacing until we get up for the day. Then as soon as we're up, she will go find her bed and lay down and sleep. On these nights, I've tried ignoring her, going to her, being strict with her, being affectionate with her, and no method seems to work. Not to mention that I just don't have the patience to deal with her when I've been woken up in the middle of the night. The medication doesn't seem to help anymore either. I give her the sedative before bed just so we can all get some sleep, and she's pacing when the lights are turned off and she won't settle down.

Clay and I got fed up again a couple of weeks ago and we did find somebody else who was willing to take her, but I chickened-out at the last minute. I figure she is our dog and we should be the ones to help her. I couldn't shake the guilt that I felt about giving her away.

So I really started working with her to improve the nights. I bought books and new leashes for training and I swear, Cesar Millan from the Dog Whisperer on National Geographic channel is my new favourite TV show! In the 2 weeks, she is doing much better with the furnace noise during the day, but we've had to resort to having her spend her nights in the garage so that we can all get some sleep. My current plan is to try the garage nights for a couple of more weeks and then introduce her back to the house while we're babysitting my parents' dog for 2 weeks so they can both be in the house. She always does much better when the 2 of them are here. I sometimes wonder if having a second dog might help her behaviour, but I just can't take the chance of getting another one and being wrong because I really don't want the full-time responsibility of another dog. Anyway, I wrote an entire book about my issue with Snoopy and what I could really use is some suggestions on how others might deal with this.