[YankeeBernie]

Thanks for the responses folks. I hope I don't seem heartless b/c I LOVE my dog and he gets rained on with kisses and hugs believe me. I'm happy to see that time outs can work in some cases. When I go off to work he stays in the big living room via little gates so I don't really need a crate. For the rare times when I need him confined I have a slightly bigger cage that quickly assembles. I rarely need to use that cage however.

In any case, I think I will follow some of the advice here and not have him think of the crate as place of punishment -rather a place to chill out for a little while (e.g. putting snacks in there every once in a while). I'm still a little perplexed at the pee - still can't be sure if it was a nervous submissive pee or "take that!"

Thanks again everyone. In the meantime I'll get a sturdier bowl (maybe also remove the mat). Don't yet know if I'll stick with this 'time out' method.