Mine are crated. As they get older and more trustworthy, we'll let them stay out. Baby steps, though. I'll confine them to a small area first and go from there.
We crate our lab at night and our other dog just sleeps wherever she wants. They both run freely around the house if we go out for errands or whatever but during the main part of the day they're outside so they can run around and do their business and what not.
We've been leaving our lab out more and more at night now a days. We just leave the door open and he usually saunters in there regardless of whether we put him in or not.
Bimmer and Kharma have the run of the house. Shiva gets to stay in the bedroom. Shiva and Kharma together = CHAOS, as they try to figure out ways to get each other into trouble or cause trouble themselves that the other one will be blamed for Shiva ended up being the one in the bedroom by herself because Kharma is much less bumptious than Shiva - and she minds Bimmer better, lol!
Shiva used to stay in the laundry room until she figured out how to unlock the door to the outside
Mine are outside, we have a couple of acres fenced around the house for the dogs and a dog door into the basement if they want to go in. There's also dog beds on the covered front porch and that's where they like to hang out. My neighbor (she's retired) stops by to check on them during the day.
Otto has been lucky because I am self-employeed out of my home so he can hang with me all day. Which is good because he hates when I leave. Now my business has grown and I am leasing office space so he is going to be mad when he realizes I will be leaving him every morning now.
For us, either Tippy, the border collie mix is crated, or May the lab is crated. They don't get along with eachother very well so they can't be left together. The terrier mix, Colby, is left out with whoever else is not crated.
Until they were old enough to stay home alone safely they went to the babysitters..usually GG. When i had to work and my german shorthair was still young i took him to the kennels and then picked him up afterwards.
Mine go to work with me, or on the rare occassion they can't, they stay with Daniel. They're almost trustworthy enough to leave loose in the house for more than a few hours.
Carly needs to be confined to the kitchen, so I usually gate Maddie in there with her because Carly has seperation anxiety from the dogs as well. Otherwise the other 3 have run of the house