breaking bad habits.

I guess you can now say the "honeymoon" phase is over with Chloe. The time she lived with my MIL she was treated like a pampered little thing that barely got any exercise. Well Chloe finally showed some bad habits that i do not even allow my other two dogs do.

She is now whining and crying in her crate to be let out when i return home. Excessive barking, the barking i don't mind which is normal for a sheltie to do, but she just barks like you would expect out of a 3-5 pound little dog!. The constant attention seeker, not the normal kind where a dog just casually comes to you for some affection. It's more of a demanding type of attention, she'll even nudge me to get me to pet her.

She even barks in her crate when my husband gets up wee early in the morning to get ready for work. I do not like the sound of a barking dog at 4 am!!! LOL

I hope this bad habit can be broken even if she's 11 years old.

Dogs do what works. Barking for attention has gotten her attention in the past, so she's going to continue to do it hoping it will work again in the future.

Your job is to teach her that quiet gets her attention. For example, when your husband gets up, I assume Chloe doesn't IMMEDIATELY start barking; he probably has enough time to get out of bed and walk to her crate before she starts barking. If he can let her out before she barks, he will be teaching her that she doesn't have to demand attention, he'll give it to her even while she's quiet. Once she learns this, he won't necessarily have to let her out every morning, but it will take lots of repetitions before she gets it figured out.