There's so many posts about problems and issues I just wanted to be positive for once and say I am very proud of all my dogs. There has been a serial arsonist at work in my neighborhood. I can walk just three blocks and pass four burnt homes. The fires have always been set at night, but I'm still paranoid being at work all day, so since we got home from vacation I've been leaving all my dogs free in the house, plus I leave the porch open so that if they had to they could easily claw the screens out and escape from a fire. There have been no more fires since ATF showed up and a reward was posted, but you never know. Coke and Kenya have often taken turns being free while I'm gone but for Nikon, this was going from being crated while at work and any time I leave the house to no crating at all. I do have a gate installed so the dogs do not have access to the entire house and the part they do is dog proofed. I talked to my neighbor (we are in a duplex) about my concerns and asked him to let me know if the dogs are barking or being rowdy, but he says they've not made a peep. Nikon used to chew everything in sight as a puppy (I have a Flickr album just of the valuable things he chewed) but nothing has been touched. I'm liking all the extra space that 4 GSD sized crates used to occupy! I am not one to insist that all dogs graduate to free reign (I'm pro-crate training!) but in this situation I feel much better knowing that if a fire started my dogs would not be imprisoned in their crates and I'm so proud they've all made the transition without any hitches.