Thanks for the encouragement. I do give him lots of exercise when we're home - morning and evenings -- by playing fetch/tug of war/etc., and then my older dog and he play a lot.

He definitely screams in his crate if we put him in there when we're around and he can't see us.

I agree he definitely is better with the playtime, but he still does the pooping and the crying thing no matter what

I called a couple of trainers today and will hopefully have some one on one time with them in the next few weeks.