Whining to pee vs. whining to get out of crate?

Ok, I have a question.

...I don't have my puppy for another month yet, but yes I have a specific training/behaviour question.

What do you do if your puppy is in a crate overnight and, as is natural, whines when he/she needs out to go pee. You can't NOT taking him/her out because he/she probably DOES have to go pee and you don't want an accident. But you also can't take him/her out if he/she is whining because then it reinforces that behaviour.

I know the common answer will be "just take the puppy out BEFORE the whining starts", but what if you don't catch it in time! What if you set the alarm for every 30 or 60 minutes, but the pup still starts whining before you're set to take him/her out. There just may not be time to wait until the whining stops before getting him/her out. I'd hate to think of the pup with a little bursting bladder. But I also understand that you can't take the pup out when it whines because then you get a whiney pup.

Ideas?

You'll get to know the different whines a pup can have And it's also important to take the pup straight to their pee spot and make it all business immediately after taking it out of the crate. That way out of the crate does not equal fun or play time. You'll also have your pup on a schedule for food etc and it will become routine

I would take him out once, no playing as Saje said, just out praise for going (make sure she does not have to do both pee and poo) then straight back into the crate. Generally when we say to ignore the whining it's for the time when you put the dog in and he freaks out for a couple (or many, many more) minutes. You also have to consider age and if the dog did both types of potty before bed or if he only peed. The age thing is an hour for every month, so 8 month puppy should be able to hold it for 8 hours. How old is your pup when you get him? and what breed? Now i know that means with an 8 week old pup you'd be taking him out every two hours but through the night that can really be up to him just be aware that if he whines he probably has to go out. As he ages watch and make sure the amount of times he wakes decreases and if it does not you might want to do that yourself (if there are times (like say usually midnight) he wakes you but does not potty start ignoring the midnight wake up) and if there is never a specific time but he does tend to not go potty on at least one of them remember the usual times he wakes you and then choose one to cut out based on how close it is to another potty break (cut out one that is very close or closest to another ).
I make it sound complicated but this is really worst scenario, most dogs just stop waking you for potty on their own.

And I agree make a schedule and stick to it, make sure dinner is not too close to bed time and try to take him for a walk about a half an hour before bed (if that is safe for you) so he will most likely poop.

This is always a hard call, but I like to respond in the way Saje recommends, at least in the beginning. This does teach them to whine to go out, though, so once I know the puppy better and get them on a consistent schedule, I try to ignore whining that I am 90% sure is just out of boredom or protest. And, as Maxy24 says, I ignore protest whining that occurs right when I put the puppy to bed.

It seems inevitable that very occassionally you will make a mistake and ignore whining that was for real, causing an accident. (More often you'll take the pup out when he was just "playing you") If you ignore him and he has an accident, just try to remember exactly how he sounded- that will teach you what his urgent, "I gotta go" whine sounds like, making a repeat mistake much less likely.

Good luck and congrats for starting your research early!