Puppy Freaking Out in her Crate

Question
Hi, We have a 6 month old shepherd terrier mix (they think) that we rescued when she was 12 weeks old. We have been using a crate when we leave the house and it has been great up until last week, now every time we leave her she freaks out. She pulls anything around the crate (blanket) inside,tries to rip it up and she ripped up the pillow that was in the crate since we had bought it for her.She also ends up moving the crate from one side of the room to another. What can we do to help resolve this conflict, we're afraid to leave her out around the house and want to get her back to feeling ok in the crate, we also don't want her to hurt herself.
When we put her in the crate we give her a treat and she has learned 'go to your crate' means to go inside and get her treat. In the beginning we also would leave her for 10-15 min in the crate while we were home too.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Michelle

Answer
Such a sudden change at that age is unusual.  I am afraid I may not have a good answer.  I would skip the bedding for now.  

If she hasn't been spayed yet, it could be part of the flaky behavior proceeding coming into season.  Talk to the vet.  There could also be some other physical cause a checkup might reveal.  

Better leadership might help.  The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/ For more on being top dog, see http://www.dogbreedinfo.com./topdogrules.htm