I know the crate is supposed to be the dog's "safe place". And eventually they will become very comfortable with it. I also know that dogs are obviously social. We had a labradoodle and kept his crate in the living room. My thinking is he'd like to be around us rather than tucked off in another room. The problem was I had a really hard time keeping my young (at the time) kids away from his crate. I think that was a big problem because he never felt safe and left alone in his crate.

Our current Shi Tzu is crated in the dining room. Our kitchen and living room are one big area and the dining room is just off of that. Her crate is both near our front door (which causes problems with guests) and near our main living space, but not right in the middle of it. She also doesn't sleep in her crate at night. She sleeps on our bed at the foot. As I said in my other post, this is my wife's dog and we've not followed Ed's advice very closely.

We're looking at getting a second dog soon and I'm trying to plan how this works. I have an office in the corner of my unfinished basement. That's where I spend most of my day. I was thinking of crating the new dog down there. I could crate the new dog also in the dining room right next to where the Shi Tzu's crate is. Another option would be up in our bedroom. I just don't know what's best or even what to consider when choosing a crate location.

Why not have more than one crate? There's no rule that says each dog can only have one. You could put one in your office for when you're down there, and one in your bedroom and have the new dog tethered to you when you are in another part of the house.

 Quote: Angela Burrell

Why not have more than one crate? There's no rule that says each dog can only have one. You could put one in your office for when you're down there, and one in your bedroom and have the new dog tethered to you when you are in another part of the house.

I agree! I have 4 crates for 2 dogs.