I never crated any of my dogs when I was home, and only briefly when they were pups or new to me adults when I was absent. My solutions were various when I couldn't supervise. When Tamu arrived as a pup at our first house she and Lady were In the finished basement with the wood stove blazing in winter, out on the sundeck in summer when I left them alone. At the farm, we had a wired gate to the kitchen, confining them to there and the breakfast nook, or alternately kept in the sunroom on a nice day. In summer at the farm, out in the dog run. But when I was home they had the freedom to follow me around, although access to a few rooms was blocked.
As my dogs got older and more reliable there were less and less off limits areas, until there were none. Pups learn very little when confined. Under your supervision they learn the rules of the house, what is permitted, what is off limits. Yes, you need a safe place initially when you can't attend to them, but that should be kept to a minimum, IMO. The more they are with you and learning, the sooner you have a reliable dog that doesn't get into trouble the minute your back is turned.
"In order to get along with a Basenji, you have to be at least half as smart as the dog!"
last edited by eeeefarm