Anonymous wrote:We did as a puppy. The crate is in our bedroom, and we'd toss a t-shirt we'd worn in there. When our dog got older, we'd say "Okay, time for bed!" and point to the crate and our dog would trot right in, but we stopped closing the crate door. Sometimes I'd wake to a soft thump in the middle of the night and our dog would have jumped on our bed. We have never minded. Dogs are pack animals.
The crate in our bedroom always had a dog bed, a couple of dog toys, and a bowl of water.
This except no water at night. Depending on the dog we stopped closing the crate anywhere from 6-18mo depending on if the dog reliably was not destructive. We had one dog that was a big cheese so he was in the locked crate until probably 18mo and from then on used the open crate as his bed at night. Current dog was much more trustworthy and we stopped using the locked crate at about 4mo. In all cases our dogs have slept in our room. They are pack animals.