I'm going to regurgitate as much as I can remember about what our dog trainer said about crates (He is also a dog behaviourist at one of the UK's best dog training schools) 

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For him, he absolutely hates it when crates are referred to as a cage. He said if you look at how a wild dog would sleep, if they were on their own, they would find a small den or they would dig a hole and sleep in the hole with their head out. They wouldn't sprawl out across the floor because they'd be open to predators. Obviously our dogs aren't 'wild', but his point was dogs are happy to sleep in small spaces.

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Now onto the main pro's of a crate in his opinion. He said the idea of the crate is to create a safe space which is purely for your dog, somewhere where they feel safe and protected and can go to when they want to be left alone. This is doubly important if you have children or other animals that could aggravate your dog. If they don't have somewhere to go to 'escape', that could lead to a biting incident or other signs of aggression. 

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It also means that if your dog has to stay away at someone else's house, you can take their crate, and they'll have a home from home environment, which especially as puppies, can be very calming for them. 

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It can also be used in the car, he said he has worked with dogs before who were absolutely terrified of the car, they'd refuse to get in it, and if they were put in it they would go mental. He said when they were in their crate in the car, it was like a whole different dog- again, their crate is their safe space. 

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Medically there are also benefits of crate training as a puppy, firstly as much as it keeps your furniture safe, it also keeps your puppy safe by limiting their access to potentially dangerous things around your house.

 

Also, if at any point in your dogs life they need an operation, or they hurt their leg or pull a muscle etc, vets can often recommend crating them temporarily to limit their exercise and stop them from running round like crazy. This alone won't be nice for your dog, but if your dog isn't used to their crate, it's going to be 10 times worse!

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The other thing is if they are admitted at the vets, they will be put in a crate there. If your dog isn't used to it, you're going to have one seriously stressed dog! 

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Now obviously there is a flip side- taking the emotion of 'I don't want to cage my dog' aside. Some people say that crates are dangerous. There have been a handful of cases of dogs strangling themselves from getting their collars caught on the cage and of dogs getting their jaw stuck on the cage from trying to bite it, also getting paws stuck between the doors. 

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Always take your dogs collar off if you are leaving them alone in their crate, or at least get a break away collar which should come off if it does somehow get caught. 

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As for paws and teeth getting stuck, it depends on how your dog sees the crate. Does it see it as a punishment or does it see it as a safe place? If they see it as a safe place the chances of them desperately trying to get out are a lot lower. At the end of the day accidents do happen- and they could happen in or out a crate. 

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Personally the crate has worked out very well for us and for Cooper, I wrote an article on his sleeping arrangements and how I used the crate, which is linked below.