Eliminating the crate at night

[Sara & Trix]

I would like to know what process you DK members have used to eliminate the crate at night (those who use a crate). DH and I work 9am to 5pm M-F and Trixi is in her crate three days a week (we visit at lunch to give her a break) and she goes to daycare two days a week. As she is only 6 months old, and we plan on keeping our routine of crating her three days a week until we can fully trust her and are sure she'll be safe (and she loves her crate)

That being said, I wanted to start letting her sleep out of her crate at night, so that in the end, she only has to be crated when we are gone. The catch here is that my husband and I absolutely do not want her sleeping in our bed or in our room (personal preference). We have a baby gate blocking off our bedroom and the door is always open - my first guess is that, if out of her crate, she will be barking and whining at the gate since she will want to be with us. Since she loves her crate and sleeps SO soundly in there...should I even bother? Is this something I would just try out of the blue one night? Or is it a slow process?

Thank you for listening to my rambling - hope it made sense! Any advice would be appreciated.

[Katie, John & Parker pup]

We eliminated the crate only after Parker was fully potty trained obviously. We also gate him into our bedroom so he can't be roaming the whole apartment and getting into things he might not normally do. The first few nights though, we left the crate door open so he had the choice to sleep in there or sleep wherever he wanted to in the bedroom. He would go in, sniff his crate and then realize that he had freedom and decided to sleep right on daddy's head instead! Now he kind of switches spots throughout the night, sometimes on my feet, sometimes on the floor, sometimes on his blankie and sometime on daddy's head. lol

[Sara & Trix]

Haha - that's funny because it's one of the many reason we rather not have Trixi in our room.  You know those people who wake up very violently if startled?  That's my DH - and a doodle on the head would do it! :) 

[Katie, John & Parker pup]

lol yah the only reason we braved the crate elimination is because he is in the room where we can know what he's doing. He also never allowed us to not have him in the bedroom because he just constantly barked and whined every time we tried to crate him in the living room alone at night! Enjoying our sleep, we gave in...but again, I also like dogs in the bedroom to cuddle with! If your doodles likes sleeping in her crate though, there isn't any reason to eliminate it right now, especially when she will be where you cant keep an eye on her! It will be a long time for us before we eliminate Parker's crate during the day when he's home alone...our door would be knocked down when we came home if we left him now! He hates being alone! Anxiety!