Do you let your birds out of their cage?

I've always dreamed of owning a canary or a parrot. The first reason why I don't have one (yet) is that I'm afraid that my dogs would be way too interested in it. Imagine how much the presence of two dogs would scare the tiny bird! The second one ist this thread... I couldn't bare to keep my bird locked in the cage constantly. I would have to let him fly around, but I'm scared that sooner than later, I would forget to close the window, or something