Originally Posted by
Freedom1990 
I'm a huge advocate of crate training. All of mine are crate trained. I can tell you that in the event of a very sick dog who requires hospitalization at the vet's, a crate trained dog does much better usually. I have 4 who are crated when I am gone and the other two get run of the living room/kitchen
I use treats and they associate going into their crates with a treat and go quite willingly. My greyhound often goes into his crate during the day just for naps!
i woule also recommend crate training...last year after being sober for 4 months i adopted a 5 year old Pom from a rescue group...he had not been neutered or house-trained, but spent a month in alocal kennel who fostered him until all the testoerone got out of his system....he's a big boy Pom 12 lbs, but did not understand until about amonth with the crate while i was at work....the crate sits in the doorway of my walk-in closet....he loves it and jumps off the bed around 11PM to go to a restful sleep with no cat drama all night. during the day i have him confined to a big room that lead out to my deck and a wooded view so he can walk around and still see critter action, but i won't come home to the TV broken on the floor between him and the cats having racing trials.