So I have now experienced some regression as far as leaving dog in crate during the day...
I hope that its not in correlation to not sleeping in crate at night, but now I fear that he associates the crate with him being alone. But 3 of last 4 days he was in crate during the day, he tried to destroy anything that he could. The crate has a fabric cover that has been on there since the day he came home. On Saturday he managed to pull the cover to the inside and destroy it. Along with the cover, he destroyed the backpack that was on top of the crate. Anything that he could pull inside he did. Chewed fabric, straps, plastic buckles. When I get home, he wont look at me and acts very ashamed and fearful. I didn't need to discipline him because he was already completely submissive, tail between legs, laying down under table. During the day he is in crate for 4 hours in morning, then has an hour out playing. Then its back in the crate until I get home which is about 3 hours later. So he is not in there for LONG stretches of time. Yesterday he would not come near me when we were inside the house. I took him out and we played fetch, wrestled, chased one another and he was fine. But as soon as we went back inside he was back to being shy and submissive. Is there something that I should be concerned with? Maybe this is normal "adolescent" behavior? He was 9 months on 9/28. Suggestions?