Hi,

Following on from my post 'No More Lie Ins', firstly thank you to all of your advice.
When she was with the breeder, she was kept in a crate with her brother. As I said, we had her at 5 months, and have had her for a month, however as our house is quite small, didn't get a crate. Could that be the answer to her whining? Would she settle better, or now that she has spent time out of one, would it mean retraining? We only want to do whats best for her.

Thank you

I'm not sure if it would be a cure, but you can make a crate a safe place and I find that my dog goes in to hibernation whenver she goes in. The door is never shut on her, but she sees it as her "cave"
Moxie was also five months when we got her, and had been in an outdoor kennel.
I think in wild dog behaviour the pups would be left in the den whilst the adults were out hunting for long periods of time.
They need to have a good walk to drain their energy, then they are happy to be in their "cave" I have always left the door open after the first week, so that it is her choice whether she is in it or not.
You can put a cover, or blanket over to keep him warm, but let some light/ventilation in. They will still cry when they want to go out for a wee in the morning, and to be honest, 7am is about as long as I would expect a pup under one to be able to last.
Someone else posted about putting a warm wheaty in to make them cosy. I thought this was a very good idea.

You may need to reintroduce her to the crate by associating it with good things. I added a command for going into the crate, pointing inside and saying 'In your crate', luring with a treat to begin with. Lots of fuss when they're in the crate to begin with.
She may accept the crate a little easier than others who have not been in one before, but it does depend on the dog and how much of it she remembers.
A crate alone probably will not stop the whining in the mornings as they will probably need a wee by then. Try to look at it as a good thing, better to have a dog who whines when it needs to go out than have a dog that stays quiet and messes its bed, even if it means lie ins are not possible.
It may become a little later as the dog grows up. To begin with, we took Zack out for a wee at 4am because getting up for half an hour then meant we could lie in until 10, he would go back into his crate and go back to sleep after the loo break.

Restricting food and water before bed may help to a certain extent, but judging by
what i've read on here, Zack is unusual in that he will quite happily go without a break from 10 at night until 10 in the morning.