Crate is a dog's home within your's, not a jail.

There are lots of great suggestions for crate training your puppy in the many posted replies. I strongly believe if it is taught right your dog will actually like their crate or as I would say their own private space. We trained our dog when we first brought her home, she was 7 weeks old. We have never used the crate for disciplining or to punishing our dog. She is now 2 years old and we let her roam the house if we are going out. We have had no problems or surprises. Our dog still to this day loves her crate. We keep it in our kitchen. We have a rule the crate is her den and when she is in the den it means hands off. No putting your hands in the crate or pulling her out. Her crate or den as we call it, is her space and we respect this. Her den does not have a door, it used to when she was a puppy. Often now she will go into her den to sleep or just lay in there. Sometimes when we go out we will put a treat in her den and she will go in after the treat lay down and sleep in there and often will still be there when we get home. She always goes to her den without us asking when we are having a meal. She was taught to go to the den during mealtime usually with a special toy or treat because begging at the table is not acceptable in our home. Sometimes when I am in the kitchen cooking she will sit in her den to be out of the way and just watch what I am doing. We also use her den for when we go to Supperdog or Agility Dog Shows. It can be a long day so she will go into her den when she is not in the ring were it is totally safe to have a rest, or if I need to do something and she cannot come with me she will go in her den and wait until I return. The crate we have for shows does have a door, and it is not the hard surface type, it is canvass, you can open up all 4 sides so she can see out, or close it up on all four side or whatever combination you want so she can have it private. I would not recommend the canvass type to crate training but it is wonderful once they are crate trained and very easy to take along as it totally folds up. 

When we first rescued Sugar, our Schnairdale about 25 lbs, we got her a crate. We wanted her to have a space of her own where she could always feel safe. Prior to Sugar, we had a Cocker Spaniel named Max for 14 years. We did not crate train him. He never messed in the house, day or night. Nor did he destroy  anything when left alone. As he got older and developed aging problems, he became insecure when we left him. Hindsight told us that if we had crate trained him, both Max and us would have felt better about leaving him, even if it was only for an hour or so. That experience told us to make the better choice when we adopted Sugar. She loves her 'bed', as we call it. She sleeps in there at night. We only shut the door when we leave the house for longer than an hour. She is frightened of fireworks and thunder and will choose to go in the crate when the noise begins.We have had Sugar for over 4 years now and all of us are pleased with her being crate trained.

Way to go! I was told by a dog trainer and judge that crate training sure helps a dog if they are feeling unsafe or afraid, they can go to their crate/den and feel safe. A crate should never be used for punishment. I believe a dog should have a place in your home that is totally their space and in our home that just happens to be the crate or as we call it her den.