Our black lab is 7 months and we have just transitioned her from the crate to free roaming around the house at night. She was very happy in her crate but it was getting a bit small and we don't have loads of room so thought it made sense to give her a bit more freedom. We still have it but just leave the door open now so she can go and stretch out if she needs to. She's fine when we go to bed, seems ok all night then around 6am starts the whimpering and whining and it's awful!! She never did this before in her crate, she would wait patiently for us to open up. Is it a phase? Should we ignore it? Should we go back to closing the crate? It's really really annoying!