Strange tastes and weird noises

I have a two-fold problem.
1) My 12 month old Jack Russel female has a habit of eating the crotch out of pants. Underpants, sweat pants, jeans you name it, she eats it. Not just mine, ANYONES she can get her little paws on. She has cost me HUNDREDS of dollars in underpants. She knows it is wrong because she ducks for cover when she can tell i am going to discover some. I have no idea how to stop her from doing it, except the obvious of not leaving them anywhere they can be found, but she has been known to go through laundry baskets.
2) and this is more concerning. My 7 year old red cattle dog cries a lllllll the time. it is his way of communicating with me but because he almost constantly cries, i can never tell when there is something actually wrong. He wants for nothing. he is fed well, runs 5kms at least every day. has a good bed and yet he will still just follow me around the house crying. it is really quite stressful. he has done this all his life but i fear it will get worse as he gets older. Interesting point, he doesn’t cry if he is around other people. just me. like a kid who cries when his mum appears. I would love some advice with this.