Boz only goes in crate when i am at work, along with storm except she goes in at night on her own w/o door closed. But they are 6yrs old. The puppy Rayne sleeps in crate and is 6 1/2 months and is around 60lbs. She still chews and my other female does not care for her,,so she gets switched in and out of the crate. as well as the other two.

Ollie sleeps in his crate. I'd like to make the switch to leaving him out at night, but when we moved into the new house, I think the carpet confused him and he had an accident in our bedroom. Now, the new husband is COMPLETELY against having him out at night becasue of this. I'm hoping when he gets older I can leave him loose. He doesn't chew or anything.

Funny, I can't remember where the dogs slept when I was a kid...but I know we didn't have crates.

Mine sleep scattered all over. A couple loose in my bedroom, 1 loose in my son's bedroom, 1 likes to sleep in the master bathroom, the youngster (6 months) is crated in the guest room, etc. I also have a couple of other crates in the guest room that I use when I have 'extras' at my house (dog returned to me, or a dog I'm watching for a friend, etc). Plus it's handy when I have human guests, since most of my guests also are dog people, they use them with their own dogs when they stay over. Or let them sleep loose in the guest room, whatever their dogs are used to.

I've had them sleeping loose as early as 4 months (loose as in not crated, but they were tethered to their dog bed). Since I already have adults who sleep loose though, I don't feel the need to rush to have the pup sleeping loose, so she'll probably sleep in her crate for quite awhile longer. Less concerned with chewing and more concerned with 2AM play sessions, kitty harrasment, etc. Personally I like to sleep at 2AM, not be constantly telling the puppy to settle down.

 Quote: dennis jones

In bed with me, I'm a bad trainer

Ditto on what Dennis said :-) Actually my "new" old dog Robin does not get along with my young male Sinjin so he sleeps downstairs loose in my dog room. Tessa, Sinjin, and Frost sleep on my bed. To be exact, Tessa and Sinjin sleep on top of the covers and Frost sleeps underneath the covers :-P

All my dogs have always slept in my room from the first day they arrive. My female on her bed or on mine. Depends on hot warm the weather is.

My male sleeps in his crate as he would be pestering her during the night or jumping on & off my bed & pestering both of us. Just not enough room for 2 dogs on my bed, as I move around alot during the night.

Olivia, I would not expect a 6 mo old puppy to protect anyone. Nor would I expect any untrained adult dog to protect anyone.

As far as barking at noises in the house....they can & will do that from inside a crate. At least mine did, before any formal protection training.

We've always had the "furniture is for humans" rule in our house and that means no dogs on beds. They have their own comfy beds however. Besides, my husband is 6'6" and I have enough trouble fighting for my own space without having to deal with pushy dogs too!! (To be honest, with the amount of hair I vacuum off the floor every other day, I can't begin to imagine having that in my bed. I guess that makes me a bad dog mom...)

Our IG used to sleep in someones bed always, under covers. Now she sleeps in a bed by herself, or with my 89 yr old dad when he is here. Pinker sleeps in his crate.

As a young puppy Sierra slept in a crate in my bedroom so I was able to hear her if she woke up during the night and get her outside.
At 12 weeks old (and housebroken), she choose to sleep in the crate in the living room and was in there until a little over 1 year old. She had freedom at night first and once she did well with that for about 6 months, she started having freedom during the day as well.

Just after she turned 2, she had a three day destruction spree which resulted in her being confined to a hallway with baby gates during the day. I didn't have the crate at the time as I had lent it to a friend with a new puppy. At night, she still had her freedom.

Anne-I wasn't being serious I was joking. I wouldn't expect Vader to protect us at his age without the appropriate training, nor do I really want him going against a bad guy on his own. If someone is breaking into our house at night, I would bet they have a gun and his teeth are no match for that Honestly I miss having a dog in bed with us and can't wait until he's trustworthy on his own.

My big sweet angel boy sleeps where he pleases which is usually in his canvas crate. We tried getting rid of the crate because he doesn't need one at home. It was so sad! He would be up and down all night and finally resorted to sleeping under the coffee table (he didn't really fit). We had to put the crate back up (unzipped). He doesn't like to sleep on the bed and really he wouldn't fit there either. He gets up and snuggles in the morning when one of us gets in the shower.
The totally typical malinut baby girl must be crated at night or we get no rest from her antics. She can't be left loose unsupervised yet.