My dog barks the whole time I am out?

I wasn't sure how to address the situation when I had this problem with my dog. I use to lock him up in a crate when I left the house and he would bark up a storm. Not sure how I got him to stop but this is what I did: When I got home I let him out of the crate and ignored him for a few minutes b/c if you start petting them and loving them when you come home and they've been barking the whole time, you reinforce that barking is okay. I just kept doing this and in a few weeks he stopped barking and whimpering and he stayed quiet in his crate for the time I was gone. I was gone for about 8hrs or more sometimes.