My male is about to turn 5 and is changing

by Roxy Clark
(Tallahassee, Florida, United States)

Hello, my male pomeranian is about to turn five this September. Hes been changing, misbehaving...he was neutered at the age of 3. Which helped with some of his hyperactive mood swings. Now I understand the personality of pomeranians.

1- He was crate trained his first year. Just recently he started crying in there at around four in the morning. Why? He is in there for around 7 hours maximum.Its a large crate as well.What should we do?
2-He was toilet trained as a puppy. He gets fed in the morning and is given one treat during the day time, he gets walked 4 times a day, sometimes 5 times, he decided to start defecating in his crate every night after being walked. He used to not do this. What should we do?
3-Excessive barking, holy smokes is it bad! Both him and his sister bark at anyone, anything and everything. We have to dodge people and other dogs when its walk time so that they dont get distracted and go nuts. What should we do?
4-This past December we did our typical holiday travels with our pets to visit family. Our male has NEVER nipped anyone but he began doing this, any clue as to why?

Our dogs get plenty of attention and care, why is this happening? Please help. We are not sure what to do anymore. :(