[JadeD]

Most of my dogs have preferred a wire crate over the plastic ones. They want to see what is going on. I have 5 dogs crates here (4 dogs). I keep the smallest crate in my car usually. It is big enough for both puppies to fit in if I want to take 1 or both of them someplace.

My setter used to sleep in a crate at night until he was about 3 years old and proved he was capable of being left loose in the main rooms (bathrooms are bedrooms are gated off) and he does great.

My 9 year old Yorkie sleeps in my bed with me and he is rarely ever crated, although he tolerates a crate with no fussing at all.

One puppy sleeps with my daughter (12 weeks old) and is doing really good. About half the time she wakes my daughter up in the night to have my daughter put her on the floor and she goes on the pee pad and then asks to go back to bed and 1/2 the time she sleeps from about 10pm until 7am.

Other puppy (also 12 weeks) sleeps in a wire crate next to our bed. He goes from 10pm-6am more nights. I did have to take him out at 4am one morning. Last night he was on the bed watching a movie with us and he asked to get down (he has food/water available) and so I put him down and he went into his crate right at 10pm and laid down in his bed and went to sleep. he will sleep with us when he is bigger, older and more house trained. I have a pee pad for him but he will not use it at night, he insists on being taken outside and will cry until we take him out.

The girl puppy is doing better with pee pad training. She runs to the pad to pee usually and about half the time will poop on it when she is in the house. The boy puppy does not try to pee on the pad and will poop on the pad most of the time, but prefers to go outside.

Good luck and keep up the crate training. It should get to the point where you leave the crate door open and she should go sleep in the crate sometimes when she is tired. All of mine do that. The 9 year old Yorkie does not so much because the puppies took over what was his crate, but he doesn't care because he prefers to chill out on the couch anyway so he technically doesn't have a crate right now and he really doesn't miss it. The back of the couches are his. LOL