Those who work full-time....

we crate. sydney cant be trusted to roam the house without tearing something up. they go in the crate just before i leave home between 7:30 and 7:45. i come home at lunch for a bit and let them out. then we are usually home from work at about 5:30.

Boomer is almost a year old and stays in his crate. One or two days a week it'll be for up to 8 hours, usually it's more like 4 or 5.

The older two (9 & 12) either roam the house or stay in the backyard.

With two large dogs, they get the backyard. But Beau is very trustworthy in the house. Sasha on the other hand, you can not trust inside.
 
It really depends on the dog, the size, and how much you trust it. When Beau stays in because the weather wont let him stay out, he is let out around noon or so to potty. Normally he wont go, but he gets to stretch his legs.

All three of mine have never been crated and have free roam of the house. They're 5, 3 and almost 2. They have never destroyed anything. Of course they also have access to outside whenever they want, through the dog door. I don't work now, but when I did that was the scenario.

I've never believed in crating my dogs but thats just a personal preffernce. I feel that the dogs who "cant be trusted alone in your home" just havnt been disciplined enough.
On the other hand I have a pit bull, if I had a poodle or some toy breed I think the case might be different. A lot of dogs feel safe and protected in their crate and is helpful when traveling. I just dont care for the owner's who crate out of laziness but sometimes its hard to distinguish between responsible craters and lazies. Too many people try to train the dog out of their dog and humanize them to much.
Anywhoo I am a full time worker who has to leave my girl home everyday. I am a fanatic about exersicing ANY dog prior to leaving them alone after a long nights rest. Rory mostly gets free rein of the house. I started out with baby gating her in the kitchen and opening up more and more space for her as she got older and more obediant. I have a storage shed in my yard so when i do leave Rory outside on nice days I open up the shed to giver her a safe place and also put her food and water in there. I always make sure she has plenty of chew toys and have picked up all my sandals, remotes, shoes,and other things that might tempt her. The worst thing she has damaged was my brand new ipod but she was only 4 months old and was totally my fault.

I've never believed in crating my dogs but thats just a personal preffernce. I feel that the dogs who "cant be trusted alone in your home" just havnt been disciplined enough.

 
While I don't crate my dogs but they stay outside when we're gone, I'm wondering how you would teach a dog, especially a pup not to bite and chew up things.  I realize you can put many/most things away, like remotes, but my lab actually shredded my chaise lounge cushion one evening.  She's outgrown that stage, but I'm not sure even if I were the best trainer there is, I could've trained her not to chew up things.  Inside it might've been a chair or couch cushion.  If your method is to use baby gates to confine them to say the laundry room or kitchen, isn't that still prevention not training?  Not trying to stir up anything, but I'm curious.

I work from 8 to 5 and while I am at work Lizzie is outside. I wouldnt dare leave her loose in the house as she is not yet 100% potty trained and likes to chew. She gets plenty of love and excersise before going out for the day, and I always leave out plenty of water and her Hello Kitty stuffie.
 
Our Golden was crated when younger but we eventually moved to confining to a room and she eventually got free rein of the house but thats impossible now because she likes to tear up the sofas so she is confined to the laundry room at night

When I'm at work I just let Giz roam the house. I only needed to crate her after her surgery because any running or rough playing would have made the healing process even longer.

I keep my house dog-proof. Meaning anything my dog might eat, chew or distroy is above her nose level. She can't jump very well so i can just leave most stuff on the table without worrie. She isn't a destroyer of soft things so I don't have to worrie about her distroying the couch. I come home for lunch to let her outside for her lunch time potty break and when I get up in the morning she goes out first thing then agean when I get home. I've never had a problem with her peeing inside.

Lana gets to full access of the house when we're not home.  She seems to just lay around and sleep anyway.

Our dog is home alone during the day. Today was the first day that she went the full 8 hours without having a visit from my mom/sister, who have been coming to check on her until she got used to our house (and to make sure she doesn't freak out alone, she's new to our house so we had no idea what to expect.) She was fine...we baby-gate off one room of our house since we have brand new furniture there and we didn't want to risk it yet. She also stays downstairs, we gated off the upstairs just cos there's a lot of junk up there (we moved into this house in the last month, so there's stuff she could hurt herself on up there until we get totally settled.) We'll see as we go how much we want her to be able to wander around, but she seems to love the kitchen/family room anyways cos there's a huge window that she can watch outside from. [] We're very glad she's good about her potty training...no accidents!!

Gracie didn't get free reign of the house until after she'd earned her house-training stars (think potty training) and I had tested her with shorter trips away.  She now has full free access to my home, and the only thing she has ever chewed (and more than one I should add) was the remote control if it was left on the bed or the couch.  She won't touch it if it's on a table or someplace else.
 

ORIGINAL: cakana

I've never believed in crating my dogs but thats just a personal preffernce. I feel that the dogs who "cant be trusted alone in your home" just havnt been disciplined enough.

While I don't crate my dogs but they stay outside when we're gone, I'm wondering how you would teach a dog, especially a pup not to bite and chew up things.  I realize you can put many/most things away, like remotes, but my lab actually shredded my chaise lounge cushion one evening.  She's outgrown that stage, but I'm not sure even if I were the best trainer there is, I could've trained her not to chew up things.  Inside it might've been a chair or couch cushion.  If your method is to use baby gates to confine them to say the laundry room or kitchen, isn't that still prevention not training?  Not trying to stir up anything, but I'm curious.

No prob! I wasnt implying that the baby gates was a training method for teaching her to not chew but I can see how that can be read that way. Thankfully Rory never went after any furniture but she was taught the "leave it" command from a early age and if she would go for soemthing of mine I would giver her a firm "leave it" and give her one of her toys.
As for getting them to not chew up furniture many people rub bitter root or something sour on table and chair legs to keep them from chewing things like that. It has always been my impression that dogs who chew are bored or under exericised.....and of course a small amount of luck! Dogs dont USUALLY chew on pillow cushions and things of that nature unless there is another underlying issue of seperation anxiety or boredom. If you supply a dog with super enticing things to chew like bully sticks, pigs ears, cow hoofs (real stinky enticing things) versus generic plastic chew toys you'll find they'll choose those over couch cushions anyday. I still and will always stand by the fact that a tired dog is a good dog!

Mine our crated 4 hours in am then I am home for 45 mintues for play, potty break and snack then 4 hours in the afternoon , then I am home again.

Ginny was crated until her spearation anxiety was under control. Now she has free reign of the apartment. My schedule goes like this
 
8 am - up and let her out
8:30-12:30 - work
12:30-1:30 technically my lunch break, but instead I go home to walk her for 2-3 miles
1:30 - 5:30 - work
5:30 onwards - give another ~3 mile walk and some playtime and obedience time.