With my girl, we tried the crate, maybe a couple of weeks (can't remeber), but she never got used to it. At first my hb would lay down next to the crate and put his figers in so that she would be able to feel him. Nini would get up very close to his fingers and fall asleep. Then he would get up to go to bed and she would start crying again. It was so sad :(

I was told by the lady I adopted my girl from that the crate was best because dogs are used to living in cave like places, they feel more secured in them, etc. So, I insisted on the crate for those days and tried everything to make her like it, toys, treats, softer inserts.

Nothing worked, she hated it :thumbdown I would wake up at night and look over at her in her crate and she was usually up, leaning against the bars, staring at me. It broke my heart every time. So one night I just picked her up and put her in my bed with me.

Wow! It was like a treat for her, she was so happy, kiss me (which she hardly ever did) and slept all night :D Never did she potty on the bed even when she was going potty every 3 hours. She's never seen the inside of a crate again, unless she went in it to grab a toy (it became the toy storage) :p

With Nicky, I put the crate up on the bed the first night (by this time, I had a crate made with fabric, not entirely bars). He kept whimpering all night, so I let him out and kicked the crate to the floor ;)

I put a plastic cover on the mattress, just in case of accidents, but they have never wet the bed. They don't like crates and I respect that :)

As far as rolling over them...we've been lucky, it's never happened. My hb used to roll over me and I would wake up with black and blues over my arms and legs (I used to be tiny), but weird, he never rolls over our babies :confused:

Rosie sleeps in bed with me. I tried putting her on the floor by the bed in her own doggie bed. However, my hubby gave in and put her in the bed one night. Well, she has been there every since. :D She sleeps curled up next to me. The best thing is that I have her trained. If he rolls over to close to us she growls at him. :p I love it!! We have never had any problems with her being in the bed with us. She has left with us since day 2 that we got her.

He slept next to my hubby and me perfectly, and even got out of the way if we had to move or turn over. He was a good boy.
So night time we're doing good. Now it's day time when he has to go in the crate that we need to work on.

Sigh, thank you all for your advice. Now just need some prayers that he stops peeing in his crate during the day.

Thanks guys!

I like to get mine crate trained when they are puppies because I figure there will be times in their life where they HAVE to be in a crate, like for instance if they ever have to go to the vet, or stay at the groomer, etc. Also I travel frequently with mine and they have to stay in a carrier either in the car or on the plane. So mine both slept in the crate until they were potty trained- once they were trained, they were allowed to sleep in the bed. I love having them sleep in bed. But, I also like that in certain situations, I can put them in a crate or some other kind of carrier and they will go to sleep and be quiet.

That's exactly what we're trying to do. We'll put him in the crate when we leave for work or whatever the case may be. But I think night time is cuddle time with Mom and Dad and he seems to be doing better throughout the day with actually getting a good night's sleep with us. He's eating better, playing better, and just acting better especially with him being on antibiotics.

So, hopefully we're doing the right thing with putting him in the crate when we leave. I know he's going to get adjusted, it's just the extra encouragement that I needed from my wonderful YT peeps.

Thank you all so much