My first yellow lab, Millie, LOVED LOVED LOVED her crate. If left to her choice, she'd've lived in it. We used to lock her out of it to make her sit with us! Our second lab, Maddy, hated that Millie was unhappy and learned to open the crate to let her in. To open it, you had to push the two parts of the closing mechanism together, then lift it up, then pull it toward you. Maddy learned to help her sister--we got it on tape as who would believe it otherwise? And both Maddy and Millie would sleep together in the same crate, that was made for one large dog, not two and were as happy as peas in a pod. They were funny, to put it mildly!