Soft-crates are only good for dogs who are *really* crate-trained.

As in, I had the same fears and apprehensions before putting Rien in a soft crate when we went to our first trial. However, he did wonderful in it because he recognized it as a crate. He barked (wuffed, more like) ONCE and I told him schh and that was it.

He was crate-trained at 8 weeks old when I got him. Never again will I get a dog that I have to crate train... it's just too much of a pain and if they're trained from babies, it's so easy.

So, if you're confident in how she sees the crate, then it should be fine. Otherwise, dogs can do a LOT of damage to those things.