I need some advice about a dog that I ended up with as a surprise gift for christmas. A little bit of background I recently moved almost a year ago since my ex couldn't agree on how to live with our dogs together. My older dogo did not adjust well to my mal x dutch mix thankfully my brother helped out and took on my tripod mutt. In sept of last year I had to put my dogo down due to brain cancer and a couple months later started the process of looking for a new pup and found a GSD breeder that I liked.
This last christmas my parents decided to surprise me with a GSD. Long story short I decided to go ahead an keep him as they were going to turn him in to the humane society if I didn't want him. He is a year old as of the 20th.
Now the problem I have been having with him is that he seems to be terrified of the crate. If put in the crate he pants, continuously turns in circles and screams. I've been trying to desensitize him to his crate with the ball and treats but don't seem to be getting anywhere. I have gotten him to the point that he'll go into the crate but then bolts right back out. I've taken the door off of the crate for now and that seems to have helped a little. I would leave him out but he isn't trustworthy when left alone. I did try to leave him in the bathroom but he destroyed the door trying to get out. I am wondering if this could be really bad separation anxiety. For now when I leave my brother has either been coming over to watch him or having him at his house.
He gets 3-4 walks a day two miles each walk, I'm not sure if this is enough exercise but I don't want to over do it since he is only a year old. As well as doing 4-5 short marker training sessions a day of about 5 minutes each.
The reason I would really like to get him over the crate fear is that on the 25th I will be picking up my little alligator.

These games are wonderful for crate desensitizing: http://www.clickerdogs.com/crate_games.php

However, I strongly urge you to wait on getting a puppy until all issues are ironed out with your current dog. It won't be fair to either of them.

Thanks for the link Melissa they were very helpful and have been doing several short sessions each day. I'm glad to say that while he doesn't like his crate he is willing to stay quietly in his crate now as long as he has a kong or a knuckle bone. During the day when I can't have him tethered to me I have been putting him in a puppy pen which he accepts much better than the crate. At first I didn't think to use a puppy pen with him as he was already a year old and then it just kind of struck me when I was watching the newsletter video of Ed's puppy bart in his pen.
Sadly the puppy I was to get didn't happen as the litter caught parvo. Though I am glad that it gave me the needed time to get my other dogs issues worked out.