Hi All, I have a lab mix that is a little over a year old and he is extremely anxious while driving in the car. I am going to have to take the blame for this, as we took him on a long vacation when he was about 4 months only (18 hours of driving each way) He did great on that specific trip, and no signs of anxiety until he was about 6 months old. Fast forward to 6 months old to the present. He has no trouble jumping into the car, or being in the car when it's not moving, but as soon as we start moving he starts shaking, breathing heavy, drooling (almost foaming) pacing back and fourth, and refuses to sit down or take any sort of treat/food/water no matter how long the ride. We travel a lot and most trips are 2-3 hours in length. We also do go to the dog park at least 1-2x per week so it's usually a fun destination for him... A few things I have tried: - Lots of praise & tried offering treats or toys (wont even sniff them) - Pillows/bed/blankets to try to make him comfortable - "Calming" treats. (don't remember the brand but the ones you take 30min before driving) no improvement Anyone have a similar experience or advice? Of course I feel so terrible that the long car ride as a puppy could have caused all this.
Hi - It's possible the long car ride caused this, but also very possible that motion sickness has developed as he has got older. So try not to think about the cause of it - and work on addressing it instead. From the sound of it, there is some nausea associated with the car - the problem is that the nausea and how unpleasant it is, gets associated with the car itself, so the dog comes to hate the car. IE: A physiological 'thing' causes a behavioural 'thing'. (Same goes for humans - I get really seasick, and I only have to look at the harbour and the boat, to start to feel ill and have very negative associations with the boat!!). I would suggest you forget about actually going anywhere in the car for now. Instead, practise your daily training around the car and near the car - whatever you are working on in puppy class. (Which you should be going to!). This training should be positive reinforcement and involve lots of treats. Sit, Down, Heel, Watch Me, Stay blah etc - all around and by the car. Then you can move onto jumping in and out of the car. Click when he jumps in, give a treat. Then release him to jump out - click treat. Think of it like an agility jump and train it like that. Then you can move onto sitting in the back with him and training there. You can do nose touches, paw, Watch Me - anything not involving too much movement (of course!). Then you can start the car and leave the engine running and do as above. (Remain at this point until there is no fear at all around being in the car with the engine running.) When you first start to travel in the car, have someone else drive it, and you sit on the back seat with him, with windows open. The person driving should be going EXTREMELY SLOWLY around suburban neighbourhoods, and stopping frequently. Keep it no more than 10mins each session. If he shows a lack of interest in treats, get them to stop driving and pull over and have short sessions with the car static... And so on... Keeping windows open (ventilation) and ensuring the dog can see out the windows wherever they are, are important - so, not crated in a solid crate. Equally, sitting on the front passenger seat will be the location least likely to cause car sickness (as for people - sitting way back causes more swinging around, and so more motion sickness). Keep trips very slow and short, to fun destinations until things improve... If you find the car sickness returns when trips become faster, it may be worth a trip to the vet - all the behavioural training in the world to get rid of negative associations, can't compete with ongoing nausea due to motion sickness...
Hi @Ashley Sagnis To this day I still get car sick if I'm not sitting in the front of a car. I don't think your long trip had anything to do with your dog's experience. While you work on potentially desensitising him to the car and motion, I have a suggestion. A few of the members of this site have found Jean Donaldson's book train your dog like a pro to be highly useful. There is a copy of Donaldson's complementary video on YouTube. The book would give you plenty of things to train in the formal sessions, which, in another thread, I have suggested you could follow .
