He has a crate which is only used if it's too cold in the garage. The garage area is nice and big with nothing he can get into within reach. He has a big old carpet which he can scratch up all he wants, an old un-used body pillow and his food and water. Only problem with that is it gets really hot in the summer and really cold in the winter, so his crate is used often.

I was thinking about moving that rug to the basement and putting fencing around it so he has a place with more natural light and less worries about tempurature. Problem is finding enough safe and not-too-expensive fencing material for the indoors. I'll check out hardware stores and pet places. Thanks for your advice everyone, I'll see how an improved dog-space can help him.