When we got the first dog we didn't use a crate - too cruel I though so she had the run of the kitchen and garage (through the kitchen door) and didn't we know about it she is a labx and chewed whatever came in sight. Also took ages to toilet train.
Second puppy, still didn't want to crate too cruel, but the first girl hated the puppy and we would always wonder if we'd have a puppy in the morning, we had moved by then so she had the kitchen and part of the conservatory to destroy.
Third puppy thought we'd try crate training as we didn't want a repeat of the worry so asked the breeder to let her go in and out of a crate while she was there (they use crates) and we had no problem with her destroying the place and toilet training was reasonably easy.
So with puppy number 4 our choice - straight in a crate no debate and no trouble.
The youngest one sleeps in the crate, he's an intact male so will remain crated at night, and is a happy boy.
The new puppies will have a crate that they can go in and out of in the pen and will probably sleep in it when they are older, hopefully then if the new owners want to crate train they wont have problems.
I love my dogs but I have to say that with puppies life is a lot easier and safer and not quite so much gets destroyed if you have the option of crating them whilst they are still learning good behaviour.
