In the latest article from The Happy Puppy Site, we take a look at what you can do when your dog won’t get in the car. Giving you advice on the reasons dogs refuse to get in vehicles, and at how to fix this annoying problem.
Won't get in the car!! How about can't keep her (them) out of the car if they think there is a chance we are going somewhere. If we need them to get in, the command is "Dog Aboard" It is the easiest command we ever taught, and it did not need any reward training. My Samoyed owning neighbor has a Jeep, and Tilly (our older Lab) loves to ride in it. If Laura takes her to the store, Tilly sits at attention in the driver's seat and looks like she is the official jeep guardian. She won't look at people, just sits in the seat and looks straight ahead. Laura's older Samy would not allow himself to be picked up and loaded into the Jeep. When he tore a cruciate she had a real problem getting him in, so we had to build a ramp. Both Tilly and Cooper are quite willing to put their paws up and let us lift their butts into the car if they can't jump in easily. Laura trained her new Samy to do the same thing, and it is a big help. Some years ago, we were at our cabin, and Tilly was swimming/wading in a pool that had orange algae and other slime in it. My son drove up from Portland in his Subie wearing his clean work slacks and shirt. He rolled down his window, and Tilly jumped through the window into is lap, pond slime and all.
This weekend, Cooper did something that none of our dogs or friends dogs have ever done before. She was checking out the Wayback in our Outback and put her front paws up on the floor. After a second she jumped all the way in the car from that position. We think she might be a Gazellador!
Holly loves the "magic kennel" - she gets into it at home and it magically transports her to exciting places. Our issue is stopping her from jumping out when we get somewhere interesting. Normally I put a blocking hand in front of her to stop her moving while we attach her lead. I've thought about training her to sit whenever I open the tailgate. I'd be interested to know how other owners stop their dogs from jumping out.
If I'm honest I wouldn't say I've trained Juno not to jump out as I open the tailgate. I've always til her to sit before beginning to open up and then opened up. I attach her lead and she's usually having a good look around as to where we are and she gets a treat for sitting still. I then ask her to come out and treat her again when she sits for me while I close up the car.
Charlie had some issues getting into the car for a very long time after we rescued him, he was transported here and there throughout his short life so I guess he was worried, but we overcame this with patience and training Ours jump in no problem as it usually means something different is going to happen. I ask Hattie & Charlie to sit/wait whilst when I open the boot, I wait for 15 or so seconds take their leads and say "OK" they jump down. I think it's really important to train a dog to wait as you could be in a very busy/dangerous place and the last thing you want is to open the boot and your dog to jump out if your not ready.
Tara loves riding in the car, but is also very keen to get out at the destination - which is usually a walk. To stop her jumping out, I have a short lead attached to the guard between luggage (dog) area and seating. I open the hatch, get her in, attach captive lead to her collar, remove walking lead = secure dog. To let her out, I reverse the process, so she is on the walking lead before releasing the captive lead.
I have to use the blocking hand. I do ask Ella to sit as it takes me a little while to get her harness unclipped and the seatbelt undone (she rides on the back seat with a car harness). Quite often she's so excited that she does that silly half sit where her bum's hovering and wagging from side to side so it's not ideal.
When Fred is in the boot of the car he stays there until I say he can come out. I got him to lay down in the boot and said stay. Then I slowly closed, but not fully and keeping hold of the edge of the boot, then open again not fully, and said stay. I opened it wider keeping hold of the edge and closing it again. I said stay, good dog , lots of praise. The car is a hatch back. I kept doing this for a few minutes. I could then open it fully and he would not move. I put on his lead. When it was safe I said out and he jumps out. I hope that makes sense. I did this in my drive so he was safe and I only had to worry about him not anyone else.
You can train a dog not to get out of a car with positive reinforcement but negative punishment is a great deal quicker (not better). Take away access to the outside if the dog moves. It's easiest if the dog is in a crate - just swing the door closed if the dog goes to get out before you say 'out'. Some car boot lids lend themselves to this easier than others. The side opening door on a land rover is easy peasey to use. If I were doing this again I'd use my treat and train at the back of the boot so could treat continuous while I started to open the boot - but I didn't have that when I trained Charlie.
Not rushing out is really easy to train with a crate, the door only opens if the dog is sitting - it closes again if their bum moves. That has worked for all three of mine, they stay glued until given the cue Tatze hated the car and shouted loud, but she soon learned to love it when she connected it with walkies. She still needs a treat to jump in 'tho - habit, I'm sure. Gypsy hated the car when she was tiny and, after that, only tolerated it. Guide Dogs looked especially for an owner who never uses a car - so that will suit Gypsy down to the ground. Twiglet was fine in the car from day 1, I put her in a really small cat crate in the big crate and I think that helped her feel secure. She's been in all kinds of cars since, with car harness or crate and has been great. . .
I should add to my earlier post that Juno was first crate trained in the car so a sit before the crate opened and while I clipped on the lead. The sit etc. just transferred once out of the crate in the back of the car.
