ZaneErikson

My girlfriend and I recently adopted a 3ish year old Plott Hound/Shar-Pei mix. He is on daily medication for anxiety but has calmed down quite a bit in the 2 months we've had him. Our biggest struggle is getting him comfortable with being alone in his crate. The two times we have had to leave him home alone, he has torn up the bed in his crate and peed. We are working on getting him used to being in the crate alone and are slowly increasing the amount of time he spends in there. My question is: on those occasions that we overreach and leave him in there a little too long and he begins to bark, should we return right away? I've read in several places that we shouldn't return to the crate while he's barking since it will create an association between barking and us coming back into the room. If we try to wait him out and only return to the room when he stops barking, he will bark endlessly and I'm worried that will do more harm than good. Also, he is completely comfortable in the crate for any length of time while we are in the room and goes in it happily every night. Thanks in advance for any help.