8 Months! That's not too bad, only five more months to go. It's crazy, I want them to be potty trained but I don't want them growing up too fast. It will be a bittersweet, I'm sure. We don't keep anything in their crate and I went through a period where I was feeling bad, until I rationalized it to myself by the reminder that Porter LOVES spreading out on the floor more than any other place. His crate pan thing, it's pretty much the same texture. Ha! He is one stubborn boy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Otherwise, I wouldn't have a bulldog. We could get up with him every hour on the hour, which we actually tried two nights to prevent the accidents, and he walks out, looks at us like, "You REALLY woke me up for me to just walk outside and go back to sleep, you should have just left me!" He goes out for fifteen/twenty minutes, then walks in, and within twenty minutes has pee'd in his crate. He's too smart for his own good. Ha! Work. In. Progress.