Out of crate at night

[Laura]

Michele's post had me thinking about nighttime crating....
Molly's crate is currently in the living room and that's where she sleeps at night or when we're not home. For those who have gone through this, did your dog have a "spot" at night? My husband and I don't want her in bed with us, but I'm wondering if I should put her in a spot or just let her sleep anywhere in the house. Thoughts?

[Sheryl & Safiy]

Safiy sleeps in the kitchen/dining area where his crate is. Sometimes he'll sleep in it, mostly not. A lot of the times he gets out of the gate and wakes me up by nudging me with his nose or he'll let me sleep and wait on the floor next to the bed or in the master bath.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Enzo sleeps in our room, but not on the bed. It is where her crate has always been. Once she was housebroken, I just started leaving the crate door open. Sometimes she sleeps on it, other times on her bed. Most times, she can be found sprawled out in the shower or on the cool tile floor. The door to our bedroom is closed, as we have cats and I am not a fan of cats in the bed.

[Diane, Hurley and Sidney]

Initially Hurley slept on the bed with us after we quit kenneling him at night, which was about 2 weeks after we got him.  He couldn't figure out how to get off the bed so sleeping with us was his only option.  

At 8:45 every night I would say 'Hurley bed" and he would go jump on our bed, curl up and go to sleep.  Once he figured out how to get off the bed he started sleeping initially on the bathroom floor, then the kitchen floor and sometimes we find him on the wood floor by the front door.  

To this day Hurley curls up some where and goes to sleep at 8:45 PM   He likes to sleep in so he is actually is never up before me in the morning.  I get up at 5AM and my husband gets up around 7.  So I always take a few mins, sit down by Hurley and talk to him while petting him, shortly after I get up.   

[Kerry L]

We brought Hank in the bedroom with us pretty quickly after getting him(again, he HATED his kennel from day 1). We have dog beds on each side of our bed but he primarily sleeps on my side, he's def more my dog :)

I really think he prefers to be on the floor vs in bed with us. Our usual routine is: I get into bed and watch tv and Hank jumps in bed with me, my husband usually stays up about 1/2  hour after us working, when my husband comes in,  hank is usually fast asleep and promptly crawls down to the floor when he sees my husband comes in. We've never had problems with him trying to jump onto our bed uninvited.

[Olivia & Chanel]

Nellie who is almost 8 months old sleeps in the back playroom where her crate is.  We just recently starting leaving her crate door open at night in the playroom when we leave during the day and at night.  She will occasionally choose to sleep in the crate and otherwise, will chose one of her dog beds in the room.  Even though she is in the playroom by herself, when we go to sleep we still go through the actions of "crating" her--but just leave the crate door open.  We want to have the flexibility of using the crate when we travel or for other situations and don't want her to get out the habit as she has been so crate and easy with crating so far.  

[Laura]

That's a great idea to still go through the actions of "crating" her. We also want the flexibility of using her crate in the future.
Thanks for everyone's advice and suggestions!