Hi, I've been reading here for about a year, but rarely post. About two years ago I adopted a stray mixed breed, who the vet thought was about 18 months old. He looks like a smallish (60 lbs) Lab with brindle legs and muzzle. No idea what his background is, I suspect some hound in there somewhere.
He's a great dog, smart and gentle. In the past two weeks or so, he's been sitting in his crate and crying and barking. This is with the door wide open, and he's gone in of his own volition. It is like he's trapped in there, but even when I DID lock him in (when I first got him) he never cried like that. If I go to the door of the crate and call him out, he just sits there looking at me and thumping his tail, like I'm asking him to do something obviously impossible. So I've been ignoring it, but it continues. One night he got me out of bed @ 1 a.m. I thought he wanted to go outside, but he was "trapped" in his crate.
Any ideas?