I have a 9mo male Westie who is great at being alone on his own. He's been with me since 12wks. He has a playpen set up that he can hang out in when I'm not home and also a crate in there that he can go in and out of freely. He used to sleep in the crate at night, but has transitioned over the last month to sleeping in my bed with me, and he's very good at that too. We snuggle a bit, and then he goes over to his chewy and makes a lot of disgusting noises until he chews himself to sleep. When I am at home, he's allowed to be out and about and excluding a few lingering chewing and cat-chasing issues, he does well.

The problem is, he has separation anxiety... *Only* when he's not in the playpen. I know this sounds like it's not much of a problem, because "Well, put him in the playpen when you leave then." seems like an obvious answer - And I do do that while I'm at work. He doesn't cry or complain when I leave for work in the morning, or if I leave to the grocery store or even go to take a bath by myself so long as he's in his playpen.

The issue is that I don't want him to be confined to the playpen forever, and perhaps selfishly, it's taking up a ton of room in my apartment and I'd like to put it away eventually. He cries and howls when I go out to toss the trash or do laundry and don't put him in the playpen. I've tried the thing where you wait until he stops crying to come back in, but I'm worried the only reason he stops crying is because he can hear me out there. It takes me three minutes to switch my laundry over and I can hear him bawling from the laundry room the whole time.

Making him confident with being by himself in the crate or playpen was a breeze, to be honest. After a week we was fine with me leaving, and he flops down or eats his breakfast or plays with a toy before I'm even out the door. This other stuff has been SO MUCH HARDER.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Is it still gonna work if the only reason he stops crying is because he already knows I've come back?