early morning barking in crate

Question
My 3 1/2 month old golden retriever puppy barks incessantly in the early morning to be let out of the cage to eat.  What can be done to stop this?
The puppy is quite happy to go in the cage and is fine in the day and when I put him in at night.  Even if i let him out at midnight to go to the bathroom, he still is waking up earlier and earlier to be let out in the morning. Five thirty in the morning is just way too early.  He barks and barks if I don't let him out immediately.  Should I just ignore him until it's a reasonable hour?  Normally I am feeding him right after he goes out, perhaps this is a mistake.  Please advise as I'm getting no sleep after 5:30 in the morning.

Answer
To begin with, your first mistake is letting him out of the crate while he is barking.  Letting your puppy out while he is doing this behavior only shows him that when he barks he gets to come out of the crate.  And feeding him after letting him out will only make the situation worse.  In his mind he thinks...well gee i bark a ton and i get let out of my crate and fed!

Rule number one, if you don't want the dog to bark in the crate, never let him out while he is barking.  It may be hard to blatantly ignore this behavior as I'm sure it is extremely annoying and frustrating.  However, you should wait until he has relaxed and has stopped his barking.  Some dogs catch on quickly while others may hold out and bark for a while, especially if it has come to be routine for them.  Wait it out and when he becomes quiet say "good boy" and let him out of the crate.  If you don't want feeding time to be too early, and 5:30am is very early, then take him out to potty instead once he stops barking.  Don't play with him or make social time, just tell him to potty or do his business.  Once he is done let him back into his crate and go back to bed until the time you want to wake up or set as his new feeding time.  He may bark once you let him back in his crate, especially because his routine up until now was to get let out and fed when he barked.

If you continue with this training and don't let up, even when you want to because he is barking, then he will adjust to the new routine and stop with his early morning barking.