He's a good dog

Now, at least. The Max-inator has been having some, uhmmm, issues for the past month or so. And by issues I mean that every time we leave the house, he craps on the living room floor. We finally got tired of disciplining him and cleaning up his mess, so we decided to try something different with him.
He's always had the run of the house when we're gone, so we decided to take this priveledge away from him. We purchased two of those child safety gates and make it a point to pen him up in the kitchen every day when we leave now. Now, before you go thinking I'm all mean, let me just add that the kitchen is unarguably the largest room in the house and he's got his food, water, and bed in there, so it's not like he's hurting for anything he needs.
So far, confining him to the kitchen seems to have worked. I haven't had to clean up dog mess in over two weeks. Such a nice thing to come home to. I think it's working out to everyone's advantage, because I know I'm much happier to see him now that I know that I don't have to clean up after him every night. He's happier because I'm so much nicer to him when I'm not all pissed off at him for making a big mess. Everyone wins.