Losing my mind.... (new house, live in, train)

[graysquirrel_83]

Hello to all, I recently became the owner of an 8 month old lab/newfoundland mix puppy named Jake. His previous owner didn't give me any information as to his normal routine and/or activies. By the way Jake acts, it seems as though he was kept outside for extended periods of time. I was not wanting an outside dog, I think that if you have a dog, you should have it inside with you, so you can be around him/her and give constant love and attention to. About a year ago, I helped my sister train her puppy, which she adopted at the age of 2 months. I thought I knew what I was doing, but Jake doesn't seem to agree with what I want.
I bought him a large crate in which he has room to grow, however, I put up the divider to limit his roaming space in there. I have to drag him to go into the crate, and once he is in there, all he does is bark and whine and use the crate as a porta-potty. He has not been 'fixed' yet, so he has a tendency to 'mark' things periodically... therefore, I do not want to leave him to roam freely at night when nobody is awake. How do I get him to accept the crate and be calm when he is in there? I have tried leaving him in there and ignoring him, I have tried treats and bribes... ugh, I don't know what to do.
Also, when he is inside, he doesn't bark or have a problem listening to me, but all he wants to do is whine and go outside. However, when I take him outside, all he does is whine to come back inside and lays down on the deck and does nothing but sleep. I would like for Jake to be an inside dog and become accustomed to life here at his new house, but am losing my mind and patience. I have waited a long time to bring a puppy home and realize that it is not going to be instant smoothe sailing, but I am going insane. The last couple nights, I have gotten maybe 2 hours of sleep each night (in half hour increments), and don't get any sleep until I put jake outside.
Any and all help/suggestions are greatly appreciated! I do not want to have to return Jake to his former owners and/or the pound, but if this keeps up, I won't really have a choice. I live in the country and have 5 acres for him to run around and have fun on, and I have plenty of love to offer him. I really think he could be happy here with me, he and I have already started to bond and he enjoys our 'cuddle time', but I want an inside dog... not an outside dog.

[rrah]

You may want to repost this in the pets forum as it's not realy a topic about Indiana, and you'll be more likely to receive useful answers.

[Dash76]

I'm not sure how recently you have gotten Jake, but dogs need time to adjust- some longer than others, so that may be an issue.

To get him interested in his crate more, feed him in his crate. Don't shut him in at first, just place the food bowl in his crate (do the same with treats too) and he'll get more used to it. Since you have no info on how he was currently kept, it could be that the crate was used for punishment and that's why he hates it.

I also want to suggest obedience training- again, since you don't have info on how he was already "trained", you need to start from scratch with an 8 month old large breed... not a simple task lol