Love the pup and also love his name, but WHAT do you call him? Do you say "Optimus Prime!! Come!???

Falcon is crate trained and goes there either on command or just when he wants to hang out, but has never been fed in his crate.. He is fed in the garage and our other dog is fed on the porch.I found it much easier to clean a section of concrete with a mop/bleach than it was to clean out a crate (we feed raw).

You will find what works best for your family/situation. You can give yummy treats in the kennel to reinforce what a great place it is to hang out.

Cute pup and best of luck! Marker training is THE way to go and it won't take long for it to become second nature to you both.

I have three dogs and three different feeding strategies. My Jack Russell is fed in the crate because he will gulp down his food then go try to help the other dogs finish theirs. That's a No, no. He loves his crate and we call it his man cave and he actually arranges it with his blanket and whatever he can find around the house because he knows it's off limits for the other dogs.
My Shih Tzu doesn't have a kennel and is feed in a secure area so she isn't bothered by the other dogs because she will give her food to them.
My GSD/Mal mix is feed in the kitchen behind a dog gate or in her kennel. She shows a little food guarding with the other dogs so we don't want a incident.
The way I got my GSD/Mal to love her kennel was to get in it. She thought that was fun! Eventually I had all the dogs in with me (tight fit) but it made her want to be in it. I also spent several days just sitting by the kennel with the door open tossing treats in and praising her when she went in for them. Now all I have to say is "get in your bed" and she goes in, sits, gets a treat, the door is closed and gets a couple more. She cried at first at night, but with lots of treats and games she got over it in about a week or two.

I started out feeding both dogs in their crates, but modified the method when I noticed Jethro didn't like eating in his crate (although it is his little oasis of calm at all other times). We have had a couple of incidents of fights over bones (handler error/learning) so I feed them now where they can't see each other in separate rooms. I haven't had to resort to baby gates, but I do supervise and make sure Skipper goes back to his nest rather than inspecting Jethro (who always takes longer because he eats three times as much food).

This is probably unorthodox, but the way it has evolved in our house, the dogs eat late in the evening. This is another example of setting up household routines that work for everyone. They seem okay with it, they eat all their food, they sleep well, and they are hungry for training all day.

i feed my young GSD in his crate (usually), but only because i have 2 of them and don't want to even start food fights. that said, the 2 are fed at opposite ends of the house as well. if i had only one dog, IDK, i wouldn't close the crate to feed, might not even feed in the crate, but.....

whatever works best for you and OP, works. BTW, Ikon frequently just hangs out in his crate, especially in a strange place when we travel. your (oh so CUTE!!!) pup may well end up doing so as well. not a bad thing.