Lola - my beagle/foxhound mix - is a real whiner, anything remotely stressful to her and she whines.  Major issue at the moment is that I am trying to get my dogs and my partner at least familiar with each other.  So a few nights this week we stayed over.  She and Roxy have a crate they share.  She goes in happily and stays quiet in it all night at home.  At his if they start to get a bit rambunctious we crate them for a bit of downtime.  She whines and settles - not great but not the end of the world.  The problem is when she starts whining at 5am on Sunday morning.  We both get up early for work (although not quite that early) and a lie in is about 8am at the latest so I don't expect them to hang on for hours in there but it would be nice not to have to get up and go do something with them to stop the whining.  Ignoring is not an option as there are neighbours around too.  Also, it doesn't work.  She is a bit of a stresshead when we lost my old lab she was on clomicalm for about 3 months to help with seperation anxiety, if you leave her to whine it becomes a howl etc etc

Any advice or suggestions welcome

Can your partner not come and stay at yours to prevent the stress ?

I'm going to watch this post with interest.

I too have a stress head!

Gets up at 5 am. and drives us nuts.

You could try buying your partner a dap diffuser for the bedroom if thats where the dogs are staying too.  What about putting a blanket over the crate so it is dark for them?  My house has velux windows upstairs and I don't have blinds on many of the windows so its always light.  My boy has been coming through at 4am every morning to be petted and to chance his luck that I might get up and walk him.  When it is dark he doesn't get up until I do.

What about giving her something of yours.  My first spaniel was like this but it was separation anxiety.  She quickly worked out that if I was going to leave, I would pick up my bag so she started sleeping on that so she could relax and know I was there.  She never once chewed that(she chewed everything else!!) so I was happy to leave her with it if I wanted her to settle anywhere.

It's much more convenient at his for walks and the like - he is literally 100 yards from a lovely country park!

Going to try the blanket thing

And I am also trying this  http://dogscouts.org/Protocol_for_relaxation.html

Had a go at day one last night and considering this dog was pretty much ready for her bronze when we were training regularly and has not slipped at all since she had major trouble with just the first few steps on day one!  I think it may genuinely work though as a lot of her problem with training was that she was always too wired to stay still!  Also not using treats at all as she gets too obssessed with them. 

I have tried giving her something of mine but it does not seem to make much difference.  I may try the diffuser thingy though.