This puppy that we purchased in December has been growing like crazy.  He had two weeks between vet appointments.  After weighing in, we discovered t;hat he had averaged 3 pounds a week!  Wow.  I can attest to the amount of dog food that he has consumed.  Crazy.  Up to this point we had been borrowing a kennel from our neighbor.  John hadn't wanted to purchase a kennel until Skagit grew more and we'd know how big of a kennel to purchase.  One of our neighbor's dogs passed away a few weeks ago and they are in the process of aquiring another dog.  The news was that the puppy would be arriving towards to the end of February and so our time to purchase our own kennel was drawing near.  Yesterday I took Skagit to Petsmart, to practice his obedience (failed! - he couldn't stop wiggling when ever we approached someone) and to pick up a kennel, and a new food and water dish (he was having trouble reaching the food at the bottom - his head is too big) and of course more food.  I looked on the box, himmed and hawwed and finally bought a 42" kennel.  It is way larger than what we were borrowing but it did say it was for golden retrievers.  Job helped me set it up.  We took the other one back over to our neighbors and Skagit went right in his new kennel and so did Job and Lona.  They reached through the bars and locked themselves in with the dog.  It was hard to get out.  Now all three of them want to sleep one night with the dog.  He on the other hand would rather spend the night in their bed.  I remember when we lived in Montana, we had moved Isaac to a downstairs bedroom.  It had an enormous egress window that John had put in and if someone wanted, they could have broken in that way.  So we had Madison sleep downstairs in Isaac's room.  We'd go downstairs to check on Isaac.  There would Madison be on his bed and Isaac no where to be found.  Each night, Madison would crawl into his bed and Isaac would crawl under his bed onto  the dog mattress.  Dogs don't want to sleep on a thin piece of foam, they know where the good stuff is and Skagit is no dummy.
I may just have to have each child try it once.