You are a good guy, and I thank you for being so open to our suggestions. He may have mites or something like that in his ears, so they might need to be cleaned. That could be why he cries, since his ears and what might be in them would bother him most when he's alone and not asleep.

Please keep us informed. We care about you and your pup.

Everyone has given great posts. There's not really much else to say. I agree with the whole neutering idea, in my opinion a neutered dog is a healthier dog. I remember when I got my dog neutered, he was 2yrs old and it took a lot of convincing but my parents agreed to do it. I always tell my 2 brothers to get their dogs neutered as they each have one. And they won't. Heck 3 years after getting Rex done, they still make fun of himand call him a girl(where's the maturity:rolleyes:) I don't mind though because Rex is healthier because of it, and he calmed down a lot afterwards.

As to answer your question, I agree that the dog should be put in the crate as soon as everyone goes to bed. I also want to add, because I don't know if anyone put this. Perhaps you should exercise him closer to bed time, that way his energy level will be considerably lower. Also a good point everyone made was not to give into the whining. I know its hard and you just want to go pet him, but remember that your only feeding into his actions.

Just be sure to be consistent, if your going to put him in the crate when you go to bed one night, and the next night you let him on the bed with you for a while it really confuses the dog. For some people an exact time works good. So you could lets say put him in his crate at the same time every night, and let him out in the morning at the same time. I've always heard people say that their dogs wake them up to early in the morning, in cases like this the answer is simple, always let them out at the same time. If you wake up around 7:00am every morning then that's the time you let your dog out, no later no earlier.

My dog Rex is never let out at an exact time, because I've never had a problem with him waking me up. I get up take a shower, and he knows that once I get out of the shower then he can go out. Some days I let him out a 6:30, and somedays(when I can sleep in;)) I let him out at 9:30

Maybe he can smell a female, since he isn't neutered.