[matese]

Welcome to YT. I have worked all my life and have had puppies all my working career and never had issues with my yorkies being alone for 9 hours. As puppies they were confined to a small and safe area with food, water, pee pads, bed and toys. Because puppies cannot be potty trained out doors until they have all their vaccines which is usually at 5 to 6 months old, they were pad trained. At 5 months old they were 100% pad trained with no accidents and were then allowed free roam of the home, also it was time to train them to potty out doors. So I put them on a food a walk schedule. 7AM they ate, 7:30am they were walked,they made their pee and poop, even if they had made on the pad, they were walked anyway. 4:30pm I came home from work, they were walked, again they peed and pooped, fed at 5PM. 10PM I took them to the curb for their last pee and off to bed we went. Schedule feeding and walking is a MUST. Feed and walk at same time every day. By 7 months old my puppies were 100% house broken with no accidents in the house. I will say, I had bigger yorkies, my smallest weighed 9 pounds, 2 at 13 pounds, and my last girl weighed in at 17 pounds as adults. I never had anyone come to care for my pups while I was at work. Dogs are creatures of habit, once you start a routine they expect it all the time at a certain time. Smaller yorkies 5 to 7 pounds have smaller bladders and as puppies cannot hold urine for long periods of time, so potty training will take longer. Xpens or Iris pens are ideal for pad training and keeps them in a safe area while you are at work. There is no reason why you cannot have a puppy and work. Millions of ppl work and raise puppies.