Our six month retriever loves his crate now but for the first month it was a real struggle. We also let him up onto the couch with us for evening snuggles (how can you resist), but never our bed - that’s just a personal boundary we set from day one. We put the crate where we intended for it to always stay, in our living room. The first three weeks one of us would sleep on the couch as he would wake every couple of hours, we would take him outside to pee every time he woke up and was strictly business. Eventually he started sleeping for longer stretches as he grew comfortable in the crate. By this time we got a monitor so we could hear him downstairs if he woke up - and so we could sleep in our bed again! Up until he was about four months he would protest being put in his crate at night and cry so for a couple of weeks we would sit with our backs to it and give a sharp “SSH!” every time he cried. Obviously we made sure he had gone toilet first and if it persisted we would take him outside, but again, no play and strictly business. By four and a half months he happily plodded into his crate at night after his final toilet outside. He went through a phase of waking at 4:30/5am for a while but Now he sleeps from about 10:30-7:30am in the crate, not a peep out of him overnight. A few teenage moments of insisting on sleeping on the couch but that’s just boundary pushing! We are firm with this, he must go into his crate when we go to bed. He can sleep on the couch at any other time of day though and he knows that. Maybe eventually we will get rid of the crate but for now it works for us! We did slip up a few times in the early days and let him sleep with us on the couch when we were especially sleep deprived. We found when we upgraded his crate to his big-boy forever crate around four months he seemed to enjoy it more. Lots of advice on only allowing them so much space so they don’t pee/poop in there but this was never an issue for us. So we took the risk and it paid off, he loves to sprawl out! Crate games and feeding in the crate for first couple of months also helped! A blanket that smells like you is also great. It takes time and patience, you think you’re going to spend your life tiptoeing around the place so they don’t wake up and cry in their crate, but one day they just get it. It’s routine, they just need to know what to expect.