house-broken, but regressing?

Question
my year old sheltie is crate-trained, and house broken, but recently, he has had several incidents where instead of letting me know he needs to go out (he gets antsy and won't sit still for 30 seconds), he's gone off quietly to another room and done his business in the house.
try as I might, I cannot get him to learn to bark to let me know he needs to go out. but lord knows, I can't get him to stop barking while he is out.
so, the only thing I could think of was to restrict him back to his crate training days and not give him any freedom in the house, and I hate that.
any suggestions?

also, I have always given him his own toys/slipper to chew on, but he still cannot be left unattended or he will chew on everything else available. he's destroyed car chargers and game controllers, and several leashes and harnesses. short of keeping the areas where he is allowed to go puppy-proofed, what else can be done?

Answer
Donna,

Remember the crate process is both training for you and your dog.  I would wager that the times your Sheltie is going potty is fairly consistent if the meal time is consistent.  Get a handle on that time and be ready to take him out more frequently until you understand his needs better.  Him sneaking off is a way of expressing a need for more frequent trips outside.

We take ours out prior to eating, right after eating, and about an hour after that.  Then once before bed.  We have few accidents because we take time to make sure the business is totally finished before we come back in.  Not zero accidents, but few.

I don't know you'll ever get them to bark.  Our rescue will come and sit on my chest and paw at my face when she needs to go out.

As far as chew toys: I do not give one of my personal items to a dog to chew such as a shoe.  Dogs go by smell and don't differentiate ok to chew and not ok to chew.  Avoid plastic chew toys will help prevent toys from being mistaken as ok to chew.  Take your Sheltie shopping (great fun) and let them pick flavored rawhides, pigs ears or beef knuckles to chew on.  Save the toys for play.  Take things you don't want chewed like controllers and put against the nose and say "NO".  Then give a nice chew toy and say good boy!

All dogs will be big time chewers for the first 2 years during teething.  Some continue to love chewing, some only chew occasionally afterward.  The trick is to get great "ok to chew" stuff and praise, then show "not ok to chew stuff" and reinforce with the no.  

'sneezes
Dave