Should I just give up on the puppy crate thing?

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He has been in it since we got him, late September.
To be honest he has never liked it. His previous owner slept on the floor with him from the time he was born (seriously - it is why she had to give him up. I think her husband was going to divorce her) and being alone at night drives him batty.
He struggles with any kind of separation although gradually getting a bit better.

When he was struggling early on we let him out one night (sleep deprived twittery) and he ate a big chunk of my carpet.

What downsides are there to just leaving him out with our other dog? If I risk carpet eating, is there any other potential downside I haven't thought of?

Our other dog sleeps in the hallway or occasionally on the upstairs landing. Should I take a chance that together they will be happier and we can all get some sleep.

I would.

I've happily crate trained 3 of our dogs - but the newest one just hated it, so we gave the no crate thing a go.

She's been fine. Night time house training has taken a different form; rather than wailing from inside the crate, she has just had a wee/poo on the kitchen floor and we've cleared up in the morning. On balance she's been dry at night faster than our most recent crate trained dog - there's just been more cleaning up to do.

She hasn't destroyed anything at all; we made sure there was nothing electrical or dangerous she could get at and decided that if anything else got damaged we'd just sort it out. She absolutely and honestly hated the crate.

She leapt into bed with one of the big girls with a grin on her face and has pretty much carried on doing that.

The alternative is to move dog and crate into your bedroom and slowly, slowly move it away from you - not something we wanted to do, but it does work.

My staffy hated the crate from the word go. He was happy to sleep curled up in a corner of the sofa.
But now we have the Doodle aka Destroyer of Everything! they LOVE the crate.

It's their personal space. It's in the corner of the room and covered with a big blanket so nice and dark.
Doodle usually takes himself to bed before you ask!

Oh thanks.

I might just try him out tonight.
The crate is comfy and his kong is in there. I have tried it covered, tried it open but he just hates it.
I guess I am hesitant because it worked so well for big dog and if I leave him out tonight and it doesn't work I won't really be able to go back.

But I am not sure it can get worse.

You can go back. You're the one in charge.

If all goes well tonight, then brilliant. But if it doesn't there's no reason on earth that you can't go back to a crate again.

Oh yes. I'm in charge. I remember that

Thank you all so much.

Puppy slept with big dog in the hall all night. Not a peep!

Total bliss.

Thanks everyone

How did it go tonight? Two nights of good sleep?

Hope so.

Oh yes !

He is much happier. So big dog is also happier. Crate is history

Thanks again. We were all knackered.

Oh, guess he considers your entire house his crate then! So congrats on training him to be happy in a BIG crate!

My lab when pup hated crate so at about 5 months we gave up and she happily slept on her bed in corner of room - never looked back .

I really dont think that crate training is a 'must'.

Enjoy many more peaceful nights!

TBH - my dog when a pup was "crate trained". But he cried and hated it, he loves sleeping with whichever one of the household will have him and we love sleeping with him too.