I've never even owned a crate. My dobes share the house with three small dogs, and everyone gets along just fine. I work, but my wife hasn't worked for about a year now, so there's someone home with them for most of the time, If we go somewhere, we usually take one or two of the dogs with us, or leave them home alone if we're just gone a few hours. They all have very good house manners, do their business outside before we leave, and after we get back home. I sometimes get up in the middle of the night to see if anyone needs to go out, and if they do, they do. We don't really have the room for a bunch of big crates, anyway.