New puppy - to crate or not? and overnight location

[PositiveModelling]

Hello all! We are getting a Labrador puppy soon and I have read so many different opinions on crating etc that my head is spinning. 😅

The first couple of books I read were very pro-crating especially for overnight and it made a lot of sense to me. We live in a 3-storey house and in my mind it makes most sense to have pup downstairs at night so it's a short trip from their bed to outdoors for toilet trips... but we also can't leave them uncontained downstairs overnight! Also, whilst there will almost always be someone at home during the day, there will be times when we might have to leave for five minutes (school run) or be able to put puppy in a safe place to exist unsupervised whilst dealing with a kid emergency / bum wipe etc. Finally, with youngish kids around the house there will be times when some rooms just won't be appropriate for a chewy puppy whilst toys with small parts are out and being played with. So in my head having the option of containment makes sense to prevent puppy from getting into mischief when we can't be supervising.

However, I have been reading various posts that oppose the use of crates ("cages"), but I can't get my head round the practical issues of what to do with puppy when you need to keep them safely contained, especially at night.

I'm also wondering whether anyone has any perspectives on dog sleeping on a different level of the house from its humans, I'm not sure if I'm being woefully naive 😅 but it also seems practically easier to have puppy at garden level!

Any thoughts/advice gratefully received!

On the 5 minutes question the problem is puppy will want to be with you and 5 minutes will seem like a life time so jumping straight to that from 0 will feel like a lot.
when you get the puppy just see what he/she can cope with. Could be 10 seconds could be 30 seconds. Idea is you re-appear before they panic. If you keep doing that and going up by 1/3 each time (don't start at 30 and jump to 5 thats way too much). You'll get two 5 minutes in no time then.

I'm sorry I may sound like I'm over egging it but separation anxiety in dogs is one of the top reasons they get surrendered and even without that it's an awful condition to live with. It's worth over egging for a few weeks so that you can live the life you imagine with your new dog.

I agree with sparrow. See how your pup is. My eldest couldn’t cope with being left for even a couple of seconds. My new pup takes herself off to the pen when she’s tired. (And she was like yours in the nest. The others lay on top of each other to sleep and she found a quiet corner!!) Good luck.

Our dog just sleeps in the kitchen, door closed with some toys. He whines the first few nights and (like kids really!!), Id go in, soothe, but then straight out. Have been lucky with him to an extent but he does sometimes get it in his head to destroy his bed (vet bedding which apparently isn’t meant to be something they can do😅)