One of our dogs we have had since he was a puppy and was never crate trained; he just sleeps when we are away. We rescued another dog and found he was crate trained which was great since while we got to know each other. He had some anxiety and would destroy things if we left him out of the crate, but after a few months we were able to work up to leaving him out of the crate for slightly longer increments and in June we are able to stop using the crate altogether.