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Just to clarify, for the first one -- at this point I'm not saying anything. I just walk over to the bed (he's of course following me, paying close attention because he sees what's in my hand), lure him down on the bed and give him the bone. I might pat him and tell him he's a good dog, but I don't give him any commands. Since I'm not telling him to "place" (which he doesn't recognize at this point) or "stay" (which he does) he figures he can get up whenever he wants which is what I want him to figure. He mostly stays there because it's comfortable and so why not, and if he gets off and the bone wakes me up, I just pick it up and repeat the process. I don't think he likes the noise either because sometimes the bone will slip off and he'll startle slightly at the noise and then get up and put it back on the bed himself. At some point, he finishes the bone and either goes to sleep or wanders around or whatever. I was thinking that if I had a command that meant "go to your bed and wait for me there because I'm coming with a yummy bone" I could use it, but if not, I can just keep luring him. I don't need a "stay here while you eat it" command because if he's already on a nice comfy bed with a yummy bone he's unlikely to get off and move to the hardwood.

I guess maybe I'll just continue using the bone as a cue that means "eat this here".

As to the crate -- the bone on the metal floor of the crate wouldn't be an improvement. All I have in the bottom of his crate is a towel. I can't use a kong because he doesn't like the taste of rubber. If there's cream cheese in it he'll lick it for a minute, but never chew. The chewing seems to be crucial because once we started this routine all his innappropriate chewing disappeared over night -- a few nights ago I tried a kong and he shredded a sheet of newspaper within minutes of finishing the kong.

As for the second one. At this point, the only time I use the word "place" with him is when we're doing "drills" in the morning. Everyday before I leave I take him upstairs to the room where I leave him and we play a game where I call out a series of random commands and he follows them quickly for cheese (his favorite treat). He loves this game -- you can tell it's his favorite part of the day. Recently we've been doing a lot of "up" (for climbing on the bed), "off" (get back on the floor), "here", "sit", "down" and "place" since the place is new I lure him there, although yesterday he was watching my eyes and when I looked towards the bed he'd run over and beat me there before I got there with the lure. So the longest he's asked to be on his bed is maybe 30 seconds. I'll pause after sit or down, say stay and do something like fill his bowl of water, but haven't been doing that with place because it's so new. Then at the end I throw a slightly bigger piece of cheese so that it lands on his bed, and then slip out the door. I don't say place then because I don't want him to think he needs to stay there or even lie down -- he just eats the cheese. Once this week, I walked out and realized I forgot something, so I went back in, then he ran out of the room and I had to go back downstairs, get more cheese, and repeat. Another day, I he was doing so well I gave him a "jackpot" and realized I had given him the last piece of cheese by mistake. Again, back down to the kitchen. Of course it isn't a big deal, but it made me think that I need another way to keep him back from the door so I can close it carefully. I thought maybe there was a way I could send him to his bed, but if that always means "stay there until I release you" I don't think that's fair. Same with sit -- if he followed my direction he'd be sitting until I came home (he wouldn't of course, but then he'd learn that sometimes you can release yourself from sit and noone notices).

So, what I'm guessing is that in both situations I should just continue to lure him. As we build up the 3 D's for place he'll figure out -- "if I go there because she tells me, then I need to stay put. If I go there on my own accord, even if it's because a yummy treat happens to be lying there, I can get up on my own accord too." Is that right?