I'll be honest, when I lived in So Cal, I never used a crate, I let the dogs have the run of the yard and the garage...Even when we went to Ireland, it was the same....When I adopted Samson, his foster mom recomended that I get one to use for a bit...Glad I did, Samson suffers from separation anxiety and demolished my house when he managed to get out of his first crate...Once, he knows that's he's not going to be left behind, he doesn't get crated...So he runs free in the house, but Angel is definitely crated...It took me awhile to make Marq understand that it wasn't a bad thing, it's more to protect your boxer from hurting himself, and of course your house!!!