Crate problems

Question
Hi,

We bought a 9 month old golden retriever in June, she is now 14months old. She was trained as a puppy to go in a crate and when we first got her she was really happy to go in there. She goes in at night for approx 8.5hours. We live on a farm and there is someone there with her almost all the time, so she has lots of company. We give her lots of attention, exercise and love. She is on the correct diet for her age, size and breed. About a month ago she started to not want to go in her box at night and then she started to whine. She seems genuinely unhappy and whimpers and whines for about an hour after she is put in there. The only thing that I can think has changed is the amount of people around the house. We had several visitors over the summer and so had a full house of people, which Shelby always loves. The last of our guests left about a month ago, so now there are only the two of us. With this in mind we have tried to give her more attention. We have started feeding her in her crate and give her treats in there too. Sometimes she will not eat in there or will ignore her treats. The other change in her behavior is that twice in the past month she has chewed on our kittens neck so badly to leave puncture wounds, they usually get on so well and the kitten's seem to still like her.... they will fall asleep curled up with her at times.

Please can you advise me on what I might do to help my dog like her crate again and to prevent her from hurting our kittens!

Thanks

Answer
There is no obvious explanation to this.  It could be a matter of maturing and no longer wanting to be in the crate.  If she isn't spayed, it could be some of the flaky behavior leading up to her second heat cycle.  In that case, spaying her would help, although she could be to where the vet might want to put it off.