My mother lives on my way to work and babysits Toby so he is around someone so much I think he actually enjoys his occasional alone time. We never used a crate or a pen and he has never been bad (as far as we know) while we were away although we never left him alone until we felt we could trust him.We were aprehensive at first about getting a Yorkie after some of the stories we heard but we have never for a second regretted it.He has been a perfect gentleman so I guess we are lucky.