We still have to crate Vader at night...he's fine as long as we are with him but if left by himself, I'm confident he would eat our house. Do your dogs stay out at night or do they have to be crated too? I would LOVE to be able to leave him out but so far it's not a possibility. We did get him to be a watchdog but he can't do much guarding from behind the wire crate

Danke slept in her crate until this incident: http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=208519

After sleeping on the floor while ill, we realized she could probably be trusted to sleep on the bedroom floor at night.

We now alternate between the crate and our room, depending on whether or not the cat is joining us for bed.

Murphy slept in his crate until he was about two years old. Right about that time he seemed to be able to discern what was okay to chew and what wasn't, so I took a leap and trusted him.

He's been sleeping on his own bed on the floor of my bedroom ever since. I would allow him on the bed, but he seems to have no interest in it which is fine with me.

Roger still sleeps in his crate, no exceptions.

However, we recently got stranded in NJ on the way back from my folks' in New England, and had to stay in a hotel room. Without his crate, Roger chewed everything in the hotel room...until we allowed him to get on the bed.

He promptly squeezed in between us, watched "Independence Day" for about 20 minutes, and passed out.

Great story, Ross

I really wish we could trust Vader to be out by himself, but he just gets into too much trouble. I'm really hoping once he's older he can control himself a little more. Our sheltie used to sleep with us and honestly I miss it. I have no issues with a dog in the bed...except for the 60 lb malinois who thinks my expensive sheets are a snack Puppyhood is so fun....

Storm slept in his crate with the door closed until her was maybe 9 months old. After that I left the door open - about 13 months he decided that he wanted to sleep on the floor. I ditched the crate and put a bed on the floor.

My two slept in crates when they were young. I'm having a hard time remembering exactly when I started trusting them loose, but I think it was a little older than six months. I'm fortunate, though, in that they've never gotten into stuff or chewed stuff they weren't supposed to.

I am now in a situation where the crates had to be folded up and put away. I live in a very small, two-bedroom house. The second bedroom was my office, but I had to give that up so my mother-in-law could have a bedroom when she stays with us occasionally. So all my office furniture got crammed into our bedroom, leaving not a speck of floor space anywhere in the house for crates.

There are two dog beds on the floor and one dog is happy to sleep there all night, but I usually wake up sometime in the middle of the night to find my 86-pounder has gotten into bed, completely under the covers, sleeping soundly down by my feet. (How do they breathe under there????) Anyway, I'm usually not awake enough to put any effort into kicking him out.

Kira puts herself to bed when she is ready...just heads to her crate and I will eventually shut the door on her. If she does sleep out of her crate, she will wake you up to "cuddle". Vigo, at only 7 months, definitely still needs to be crated. He also will just go in his crate when he is tired and generally has no objections to "going to bed". Grace sleeps out of a crate, usually on the bed or on the couch...she tends to strategically place herself to keep an eye on everything. She is my only dog that was not sleeping in a crate after 6 months...but then she is my good girl out of the bunch!

I did it in steps confined one room, crate in the doorway across the hall from our bedroom, never locked in the crate but because the crate was the closest thing to us she slept and stayed in it anyway. *She was not allowed in the bedroom at first because that was the safe house for the cats. About 4 months gave her free reign at night and she would sleep in the doorway to the bedroom still not allowed in. At about 6 months she started sleeping at the foot of the bed. I felt doing it in steps i could easily take her back a step if she didn't behave properly. 9 months and it started getting colder out my wife let her on the bed, at first i was against it however, letting her on the bed she wont eat the cats food so now we feed the cats at night and everyone is happy. The most important thing is when i tell her "off" she gets off and lays on the floor. Marker trained "bed" and "off" just for that so either way its a game.
This worked for me but we were lucky to have a 9 week old puppy house broken and only wanted to sleep with shoes not eat them im sure most are not as lucky.

In bed with me, I'm a bad trainer