Do your dogs sleep in crates at night??

[cocker_luva]

no jesse sleeps on the bottom of the stairs, couch, rug, and some other places.

[Sky57]

I had never used a crate until I got my Westie a few months ago. I had done research on this seemingly cruel practise and became a convert. The crate was brilliant for toilet training, but now Jindi still sleeps in her crate. Sometimes she starts the night on our bed, but I'm always afriad of her falling off the bed and hruting herself. She is not flexible like our kelpie and I do think she could fall off and hurt herself. So sometimes she starts on the bed but later I get her to go into her crate.

She loves her crate and I love that she loves her crate. And its all she has known for ngiht time. Its in our bedroom with us. She doesnt; need it anymore for toilet training and maybe as she gest older I will leave the door open so she can go in and out as she please. I would like to keep her in the habit of using her crate though so that if she ever is in it for travel or to keep her safe from something or for recovering from a health issue or whateevr it might be, that it is not foreign to her. Having a dog crate trained is a wonderful thing. Its not cruel if done properly. If your dog happily goes in and out of the crate then you know you have trained them well and its not cruel at all.