In the summer, Willow somehow became sensitised to the car for some reason. I have no idea what the trigger was; although I could make a guess it’s not that helpful inasmuch as it doesn’t help solve the problem. It’s not a huge issue because we very rarely have to travel by car; she’s been in it once since we got back here the week before Christmas. I have, however, been wanting to work on it, but with the stressful season with all the avalanche blasting, it’s not been appropriate to address it until now. I’ve been doing a lot of scatter feeding around the back of the car for the past few weeks; every time I go past it with her, I’ll throw a bit of food on the floor. At first, she was hesitant about approaching it, but we’ve built up to her being in a sit/stay and being released to run towards the car with the food around it on the floor, even with the tailgate up. Lots of repetitions later, she was a lot more relaxed and we started doing a little “ping pong” game where I throw a piece of kibble away from the car and a high value treat towards the car. Playing this game over several sessions, she managed to be brave enough to first put her feet up on the rear bumper and eventually to jump in. She was very much in a hurry to jump out again, so I’ve been putting the release on cue so she learns that she only gets out after hearing that release. In these early stages, this has meant making sure I say it before she jumps out, rather than asking her, or forcing her, to stay in until I give her permission to leave. Today was a good day for us. A few sessions ago, I changed my tactic from the ping-pong game, which is great for introducing movement but is still very much a lure, to using a start-line stay/go like we do in agility. She loves this game already. So, I sit her behind a line on the floor, walk a few steps forwards then release her with “go!” as I start running towards the car. A push forwards with my hand like I do in agility to cue a jump and she’s in the car, hurrah! I can now do this with her running past me, so I don’t have to go all the way with her to the car. Of course, I have been treating her a lot once she’s in the car, and today I aimed for extending the duration a little to try to calm her so she’s less frantic to get out. So I paused a teeny tiny bit (a fraction of a second) between treats and then cued the release. She gets a reward for every release, too, which I think is very important for reinforcing her jumping out only when I ask. Well, we’re working in tiny increments but I was so pleased this evening when she offered me a sit between treats in the back... and then, a minute or so later, offered a down! This is a very big deal for her, as only a short time ago she was too scared to even approach the car and now she’s relaxed enough to lay down in it. We’re still working on very short duration and will continue to build it up very slowly. When J takes the dogs to Spain, she will go on the back seat in a harness so as not to undo the progress we’ve made with the boot. I know we have a long way to go but I’m happy to see strides in the right direction. I know we have other people on here who struggle with their dogs being fearful of the car, so perhaps this will give a little bit of hope that things can change for the better with a bit of patience.
Thanks for sharing this, Fiona. This will help a lot of people. Because I've had so much joy taking my dogs everywhere, it always makes me sad when people say they can't get their dogs in the car at all because of crying, whining, damages from panic, etc.
You are so wonderful with all your dogs Fiona. Thank you for sharing this with us, I am sure it will help someone with their dog. My late mother would of said You have the patience of a saint
It's all useful information. I love the one when you teach Squidge that harnesses are ok. So effective and do able. X
“It’s not a huge issue because we very rarely have to travel by car; she’s been in it once since we got back here the week before Christmas.” This will be the reason, I think. Some dogs need to experience things regularly to stay comfortable with them.
That's not it in this case. It happened over the summer when we were travelling by car at least twice a week. When we can go in the car, we do more regularly - over the winter I would normally be driving to different walking spots at least each weekend to get a change of scenery. But we don't have to - I can start several different walks from my front door. Like I said, I don't think it's massively helpful to agonise over the reason, but my gut instinct is that she either got upset at being in the back with both the other dogs as Luna grew (so we're getting a divider made so that she can have her own space) and/or she got thrown against the side on the bendy road on the way to agility class and/or she feels more vulnerable in the new car (Mercedes estate) than the old car (Jeep Grand Cherokee) because it's lower so other vehicles appear more imposing.
