To lose the crate or not?

[Jennifer Goaring]

So Sam will be 2 years old next month  (October 14th I think...  gotta double check that date!) and he is crate trained.  But ever since we let Mojo go (our trial pup that we were guardian parents for and it didn't work out :() we haven't needed to use the crate for anything.  I left it out because Sam seems to like to retreat to it at times.  It lives my living room which is open to the kitchen and thus near where we all are most of the time.  When he follows us upstairs he seems to like hanging out on the couch in the playroom.  

 

Anyhow... I still sort of feel like the crate is an eye sore and my goal had always been to put it up and away some day.  But while I am sitting here I see he has gone in the crate again and is curled up in the corner... so clearly he still likes it some.  I have no idea if he would really miss it or just find new places to curl up.

 

At night I just let him roam.  I think he probably sleeps up on the couch upstairs most of the night and then comes down to lie on the hardwood floor if he gets too hot.  But he does tend to start the night in his crate (out of habit I am sure... we used to lock him in the crate at night just to avoid night time accidents or the chance he would decide to get into something or chew on something.

 

He really never chews on anything these days.  He has some toys, but would rather play fetch than chew on them.

 

Just curious what others have done...  I know I have read up on it some before.  Anyone keep their crate beyond the puppy years?  Keep one available even with no puppy in the house?  

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We left the crate out until Ned quite using it at all.  It was a gradual process.