Black Puppy Labrador

Question
Hello, my question is regarding a black Labrador, he is still a 4 month puppy but he is a very dominant dog and has strong character, we got him when he was 2 months and now I have been taking care of him for other 2 months, he is always with me and we take him out twice a day, the is always around me and wants attention all the time, I was able to take care of him very well because I was unemployed but now I have to go back to work. He lives with me and my husband that works too. We live in a very small apartment but with a balcony/terrace what is good space for the dog, he can walk move and change places there. My question is if he is still too young to stay by himself for about 10 hours a day? he has alot of toys and there is shadow and sun in the terrace, he would eat and go out early in the morning, then stay by himself until we come back in the afternoon and go out and eat again, and he sleeps inside with us. I think he has separation anxiety because the times we have tried leaving him alone for about 1 or 2 hours he barks and whines a lot and specially he bites ANYTHING he finds, we remove everything but he still bites the walls and the floor edges! He is a very loved dog and I am worried about having to abandon him for so long but we have to work, and we prefer to know if we can teach him how to stay by himself and know if it is not too long but at his house instead of leaving him in a dog nursery or taking him to my parents house cause we would not see him and we think that might confuse him more on what his house is... do you think we can already leave him alone? we dont want him to become an angry or stressed dog, he is so sweet... thank you for your help!!

Answer
I hate to see a puppy left for 10 hours.  He is going to need a mid day break.  If neither of you can make it back, see if you can find a neighbor or a professional dog walker.  Leaving him with your parents or the dog nursery for the doy would be good too.  

When you do have to leave him alone, a crate works very well.  It is only natural that a puppy resists its crate at first. What the puppy wants more than anything else is to be others, you, anyone else in the household, and any other pets. In our modern society, even if we are home, other things distract us from the attention an uncrated puppy must have. The only real solution is to crate the dog when you aren't around. The dog may be happier in its den than loose in the house. It relaxes, it feels safe in its den. It rests, the body slows down reducing the need for water and relieving its self. Dogs that have been crated all along do very well. Many of them will rest in their crates even when the door is open. I think the plastic ones give the dog more of a safe, enclosed den feeling. Metal ones can be put in a corner or covered with something the dog can't pull in and chew. Select a crate just big enough for the full grown dog to stretch out in.

Leave it some toys. Perhaps a Kong filled with peanut butter. Don't leave anything in the crate the dog might chew up. It will do fine without even any bedding. You will come home to a safe dog and a house you can enjoy.

A dog that has not been crated since it was little, may take some work. Start out just putting its toys and treats in the crate. Praise it for going in. Feed it in the crate. This is also an easy way to maintain order at feeding time for more than one dog.

The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy. Very few houses even have a safe room. How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing else? Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else. In addition to destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have intestinal blockage from the pieces. I had a friend that left her dog in a "safe" room. It ate a hole in the floor covering. The safe rooms fail to give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires. Nor do they restrict activity extending the time the dog can go without relieving itself.