To me, it doesn't seem like he minds being in his crate, especially if he goes in it during the day when he wants to take a nap. If he goes to the bathroom in your house when you are not home, then I would say that you should keep him in the crate when you are going out for long periods of time. We don't have an actual hard plastic crate, but we have a SportPet Pop-Open Dog Kennel. We have a larger one, so that Cocoa has plenty of room. Some people that have them say that they are not sturdy, but for us it works just fine. It is where Cocoa sleeps, so we have a dog bed in there. The dog bed is a rectangle shape & it fits perfectly in the kennel. Cocoa doesn't mind being in it either & he goes in there when he wants to take a nap during the day

We used to leave Cocoa free when we went out, but he's the type of dog that likes to 'explore things'... One day he got to one of my dad's sponges for washing his car and ripped up half of it. Another time, he tore up part of a cardboard box. Also, one time the TV was left on but when we got back, the remote was on the floor & the TV was off

So now we put him in the pop-up dog kennel when we are going out. He doesn't seem to mind it though. If we are going to be gone for a long period of time, we give him a few things to keep him busy. For the time being, I would keep your puppy in his crate when you're not going to be home, but maybe when he gets a little bit older, you can try leaving him out again. If nobody is home, then I don't think he is really missing out on anything anyway. I would say that once you know he won't do anything bad then you could leave him free. But ultimately it's up to you! Good Luck!!
