I never crated Daisy who was a holy terror of hell as a puppy! lol
Pixie I used an ex-pen and crate at night by my bed. Now she is pad trained and sleeps with us.

As for Daisy, If I knew about the ex-pen it would of saved me from hell. Daisy was into EVERYTHNG and ate everything. I would go to the store and come home to many disasters. she would eat anything on the floor. I vacumed every day just to make sure she couldn't find anything, but my kids would leave the darn celler door open and she would have a field day down there.

I am not a believer of crates or crate training. No completely closed boxes, except for on the airplane because I have no choice in that matter. I bought a dog play pen that has a roll up side door for Cerise. For the first week I kept it down and took her in and out of the pen to the potty pads and watched her around the house so I could correct her. Of course I closed off all rooms and kept her mainly downstairs. Then if I needed to do things upstairs in the pen she would go. We went for a walk twice a day, everyday, and she did her business outside too. So after last week (our first) she got the hang of some rules.

Since I returned to work this week I opened the side door and had it facing into the doenstairs bathroom and she has been using her pads everyday. The funny thing is after that first day I left her for work she decided to jump out the pen and sit in my recliner...LOL So now I keep the pen open and facing the dining room for her to go in and out and she has the downstairs to herself while I'm gone, because she still uses the potty pads. She even started pulling out some of her toys that were in the pen and yesterday she had some in the recliner with her...LOL

LOL, that is too funny. Sounds to me like she is trying to tell you that the recliner is hers! Does that mean you get the pen?? LOL. Too cute! I think I worry over them too much but she has proven herself.....so far. :D