Being firm but with love

Question
Maltipoo...apx 1-2 yrs old, male, neutered 2 wks ago; crated at nite when I am asleep and when I am not home...which is normally no more than 3-4 hrs, crate is in my bedroom.  Live in a downtown area, condo. He seems to be less and less responsive to my trying to training him in my commands...such as "come here", "lay down", he crawls right into the crate which I am using right now as my bedrooms are carpeted.  I want to be authorative and make him behave, but not mean.  With me living downtown, he barks at anything, I jerk on his collar, seems to be improving a bit....but not much and only if I jerk on his collar, but he still ignores my commands.  
I guess I just need to know if I am going down the right road, I don't abuse him or anything....someone suggest a bark collar and I don't want to do that, because of the electrical shocks  

Answer
You don't need a bark collar,as barking isn't the problem,and most bark collars now use lemmon juice rather than shocks

But what would be a good way to fix these problems is to take him to obedience classes,as a trainer can show you the best way to deal with your dog,since your dog doesn't have serious issues pretty much any trainer can deal with a stuborn dog such as this.It also sounds like the dog is trying to take the spot of being in charge,by making you do the work,and a trainer can work on how to reverse this-the best way is for a trainer to shoe you,since each dog is different