Our 9 month old lab has always readily jumped in the car and been eager to go with us anywhere. We recently went on a one week vacation, during which she stayed at the kennel. It is a kennel we have used before and she always seemed happy to go, but we have never left her more than a night or two. Now she won't get in the car, and is too big for me to lift. I think she may assume she is going to the kennel for a week if she gets in? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!
Hmm lots and lots of treats thrown in to the car for her to go get? I'm currently doing that with Axel to coax him to jump in to the truck
Gradually getting there with mine with breakfast eaten in car then out for walk. You may have to start doing short journeys to where you walk or play with him but allow plenty of time to reload on the way home and take extra tasty treat to get him in coming home. good luck and lots of patience.
Do you think she could've been injured? It might hurt her now to jump into to the car. Snowie started to refuse to jump into the car. We subsequently discovered he had a bulging lumbar disc. After vet therapy and lots of rest allowing the area to heal, he had no problem jumping into the car. Having said this, though, he sometimes wants to have a sniff around the car and won't jump in. Of course I worry that he's sore, but it is pretty obvious when he's wanting to do his own thing, particularly at the end of a walk and refusing on the basis of simply not wanting to end the walk. Then out come the treats and I toss them into the backseat and he jumps in very willingly. Of course I'd like him to jump into the car every time on command (my mother says he's disobedient!), but until such time, the treats work well and painlessly. My trainer suggested that before he's even thought about not wanting to get into the car, to toss the treats onto the pavement as a kind of "find it" game, all the way to the car, last one on the backseat. This way she said I'm not treating for refusing to get into the car because he didn't get a chance to refuse. This game works sometimes, sometimes not -- if something else comes up that's more interesting, you can bet he'd rather not get in the car in case he misses out (he does suffer from FOMO!).
