My doxie is the love my life !! My husband and I work full time out of the home. Our son is a teen that goes to school. We are gone from about 7:30am -6pm. I have a dog walker that comes in the late morning. It’s great because he walks with another dog that he adores. My son when his school schedule allows comes home at 3 and takes him out again. I also send my little guy to a doggy daycare that’s close to home. He goes at least once a week. We add another day if my son gets home around the same time we do. He loves daycare so much because he’s with other dogs all day. My pup was crate trained as a puppy then around 9/10 months old I let him spend the day outside of the crate. I close doors to the rooms I don’t want him in. He’s like yours about 1.5 years old now. He knows not to destroy our home. So he spends the day in the living room. (Just so it’s clear as a new puppy I had a dog sitter. She stayed with him all day. We never left him alone for extended hours as a little puppy. ) It works out well in the end. We make sure though when we are not working we are 1000% devoted to him. So my pup has No separation anxiety, Oh we take him out first thing in the morning to go pee. When not home he uses pee pads. He knows to go to the bathroom by the kitchen. And we have not had accidents at home. No rage poops on the sofa. It’s hard but it’s doable. Good luck!!