Dogs Nighttime Sleep Anxiety

Question
I have a 2 year old cocker spaniel.  My husband and I have had him since he was 8 weeks old.  He has always slept in a crate.  In the last few months, he seems to have some anxiety when we put him to bed at night.  He scratches at the crate's door, barks, and whines.  This can last for 10-60 minutes when we put him to bed, and starts EARLY in the morning around 4 AM and goes on until we get up.  He is fine when we leave the house and still enjoys going in his crate on his own when we are all watching TV.  He willing goes into the crate at night, but within 5 minutes begins breathing hard and then starts scratching and such.  He began doing this around April here and there.  We moved in May and it became a nightly issue.  We tried to simply not address it, so that he would not get the "attention"  we thought he wanted.  We have tried moving the crate, covering the crate, and ignoring his behavior.  However, this hasn't changed anything.  Every morning I have to clean his crate and the floor outside it because of all the spit he creates from the scratching and getting out of breath.  We do not want him to have sleepless nights, and the same is true for ourselves.  We are concerned for him and his health.  Especially since we are beginning to plan a family and this noise at night would constantly wake a baby.  We would love any ideas for why he is behaving this way as well as any tips to try.  THANK YOU!

Answer
Your dog appears to be suffering from extreme barrier frustration which might have been caused by an incident (noise or visual) which you might not even have noticed.  The fact that he goes into his crate while you are all present (willingly and with the door open) indicates it's not a crate issue, per se, but one that has something to do with the time of day (night), darkness, absent human family members, etc.  The move may have exacerbated this, as moving involves packing, removal of objects, etc., all in the dog's sight and normally provokes insecurity and anxiety in any dog.

There really is no reason to crate a dog for long hours, even if the dog is not totally house trained.  Put the crate, door open, with soft bedding and special toy (like doggy stuffed animal) in the kitchen with a gate or closed door.  Let the dog choose to sleep in or out of the crate.  If he cries, barks, or in any way continues his stress related behavior even when no longer crated, then this is a night time issue and needs to be addressed as such.