How is your little pup getting on now?
I have a 9 month old Yorkie named Alfie and we work during the day which meant that we were away 8-9 hours a day. But our little pup is now well house trained and can do lots of tricks. It was a matter of keeping an eye on him whenever he started wondering about sniffing and just getting him in the act. We used wee wee pads and now if he can't get going outside he goes there. He was ok with being left alone when we were at work. We did feel bad about leaving him on his own so we got him another puppy to play with and to keep him company but he wasn't too impressed with that so we had to rehome the little puppy as it wasn't fair on him. Alfie kept fighting with him all the time so he is really quite contented as he spends all the rest of his time with us playing, working and walking.
I was also off work for a few months when he was younger, not by choice, sadly my father passed away and I was able to spend more time with Alfie when I was on bereavement leave.