Howling at night

[Doggotired]

Hi, we have had our rescue puppy nearly 2 months now, she was a stray and we think about 8 months old, she is generally a good girl however at night she howls from about 4am onwards. The advice at puppy class was to ignore her unless she wants to go out.... she doesn’t. She has a different noise for that.
She sleeps in a crate which happily goes into at bedtime, if I do go down and let her out she just stands at the door to come back in, I put her back in her crate and she will be quiet for 15 minutes or so then starts again.
I suspect she just wants to get up and be with us but at 4am this isn’t ideal 😂
She is fed and watered and exercised and doesn’t go to bed until about 11pm so really should be able to sleep until we get up at 6am anyway.
Does anyone have any advice on this cos the ignoring which we have done for two months now is doing bugger all and I’m tired.... and my neighbours are mardy.
She doesn’t come upstairs so her sleeping up there isnt an option.
Thanks!

To be honest I would put her crate in your room and see if that makes a difference. I know you don't want her upstairs but she's showing she can't cope all night on her own so this might be the best option for now - then once she's sleeping through there you can slowly move her back downstairs, bit by bit.

A couple of things to try.

First is similar to what you are doing which is go down and let her out and put her back in the crate without any noise and fuss each time she howls. So you aren't letting her howl and disturb the neighbours but she isn't getting the company she is after. I did this method when mine was a young puppy.

Have you made sure the room is warm enough at that time so it isn't the cold waking her up. Try a white noise machine to muffle outside noises.

Second thing you might try is an alarm clock. Set it for a few minutes after the time she would normally wake up. Yes it means getting up at stupid o'clock at first but then put the alarm back 5 minutes at a time so she starts to associate the alarm with morning and play time.

My bedroom is too small to get her crate in cos she’s quite a big dog, I will try the alarm thing though... at the moment when I go down and let her out I totally ignore her and when I come down when it’s actual time to get up I give her loads of fuss.... I dunno it’s hard to try not to confuse her cos she can’t tell the time 😂 I will try put some white noise on the Telly tonight for her and see how that goes too 🤞🏻