Hi all - first post so apologies if it has been asked before. Our pup is nearly 7 months old now and we are working through most of the usual lab things but we are having difficultly with him travelling. He is calm in the car initially, he will jump in, sit and wait but at some point during the journey he will just start trying to destroy the lining. Even a kong/chew won’t keep him distracted! We bought a boot liner but it wasn’t very durable and our boy is a chewer (just ask the 8 beds he has gone through!). Just wondered if anyone had any wonder solutions? Looked into car crates but they take up so much space I worry he would be cramped then into our VW golf boot! If anyone could help it would be much appreciated!
Hi @DexterL Welcome to the site. Two suggestions: 1 dog wears a muzzle. You will need to desensitise the dog to wearing one. 2. Stop the car frequently, ideally before he feels the urge to eat your car. Put him on a lead or ideally long line and let him expend some energy before resuming your trip..
Thanks for the suggestions - might try some work with the muzzle as I hadn’t thought about that and do some training for longer journeys and letting him out frequently. Was just worried that he might learn that if he starts destroying then he gets out quicker as it can sometimes be pretty quick from starting the journey! Thanks!
As I understood your initial post, he starts on the lining only after some time in the parcel area. The idea is to get him out before he begins.
With my dog, once something's caught his attention as needing to be chewed there's very little you can do to stop him apart from remove the item. This obviously isn't possible if it's part of the fabric of your car. Can you put him on the back seat of your car instead? I use a 'hammock' to protect the seats and a seat belt attached to his harness, which he hates,unfortunately, but does keep him and the car safe.
I've often wondered how dogs figure out what they can chew and what they should not. Both of our Lab pups chewed up things they weren't supposed to when they were puppies, but none of our 3 Labs (Ginger was a 4 yr old rescue) did/do it as adults. They Shred their toys, but don't chew up our stuff, and don't chew on furniture, rugs, shoes, upholstery etc. When they were pups, we did say NO if we found them chewing something they should not. Maybe it really worked.
I'm sorry to say this, as it's likely not going to be an inexpensive suggestion, but nothing beats a custom-made car cage to fit your vehicle. When a dog is doing something you don't like, you either need to be supervising directly and there to intervene and stop the unwanted behaviour and redirect the dog - OR you need to implement prevention by ensuring the dog can't reach anything they are not supposed to chew/do. Since when driving a car, you can't do the former, you really need to do the latter instead in this instance - and the only want to implement prevention under these circumstances, is to restrict the dog to an area where they can't destroy anything. AKA, a car cage....
I was thinking the same thing as Jo but it really is an expensive solution as I can't see you getting a cage big enough for a Golf so you'd need a new car too. I didn't like the cage we had in our Volvo V70 (enormous boot) as Loki couldn't stand up in it comfortably so we went for a Travall dog guard instead and he's much happier. He doesn't like the back seat option in my little Renault but we're working on it and at least he's safe - consequences of being rear ended in a small car with dog in boot too awful to think about.
If the cage is a custom-made one, it might be big enough - if you just purchase an off-the-shelf kind of cage, then it probably won't be. But a custom-made cage should follow the shape of the boot and give as much room as possible. There are some photos on the websites of the companies that make these cages of them in various models of car... Are you in the UK or US? (I don't know US companies but know several UK.)
Have to agree with the others. A custom made cage, although expensive, could still work out cheaper than a ruined car interior. Just imagine the cost and inconvenience if he chewed through the seatbelts, the backseat, or found the wiring loom under the carpet. My dogs have always travelled caged, at present I have a TransK9 but have had Barjo and Guardsman cages in previous vehicles, all very good quality.
