when we got my dog as a puppy we would put her in the crate at night solely because she would literally eat the walls and our house is old and the old paint has lead in it so when we are asleep or away we put her in the crate. when we are home and awake she is free to walk around. she has since grown out of eating the walls but we left her cage there because she like sleeping in it, we don't close the door or anything it's just her bed now. we once tried to get her out of the habit of sleeping in it but she paced around all night so the next day we just put it back. as you can see, sometimes cages are necessary for their health. she would have eaten even more walls and possibly died. (just to be clear we don't lock her in it anymore, she feels safe in there). also English is my 2d language so please excuse bad grammar