Hi All I'm new to the forum and after a little bit of support after an emotional day with our dog. 6 weeks ago we rehomed a lovely 2.5 year old black lab - he's perfect in the house now (after being taught a few manners). Good on walks and excellent recall (if you take away his dislike of golden retrievers ). However he is awful in the car. We've changed our car to an X trail so he has a lovely big boot, we put his bed in and after hours of encouragement he jumps in nicely. Mostly,he decided to not want to get in after our walk today which was pretty stressful. But the barking is driving me to tears (literally today). I've put a barrier up so he can't see out the front and it's helped a bit. But he's so loud and I just don't know what to do to stop him. It's impacting our life and his and we can't do the walks we wanted for him. He's happy enough in the front seat although still won't settle, clearly not a safe option so we don't do it. Help, advice and encouragement gratefully received please.
Hi Charlotte and welcome to the forum I'm sure this is really frustrating, when all you want to do is go for nice walks. If only our doggies could understand our intentions... I'd say that your dog (what's his name? ) is scared or confused about being in the car. When you say that he barks, do you mean that he barks befor getting in, or barks continuously as you drive along or barks at specific things as you drive along? I'm assuming you mean that he just barks and barks as you drive along, at nothing in particular. I'd adopt a two-pronged approach here. First, I'd work on his anxiety or reluctance by going back to basics and gradually re-introducing him to the car. First, just feed him near the car. Then with the boot open. Then with his food in the boot. Then with the engine on. Then with the boot lid closed. Then with some one in the driver's seat. Then add a bit of movement. You get the idea. You want it to be in baby steps. Only go on to the next step if he's looking comfy with the preceding step. This'll take a bit of time and you won't be able to go on longer trips till he's ok with the baby steps. Then I'd be working on his barking in the car. The best thing is to reward him for being quiet. You can start this around the house, then transfer it to the car. There's an article about teaching 'quiet' so I'll hunt that out for you. Take heart though, it sounds like you've made wonderful progress in a really short time. All rehomed doggies come with some baggage that we discover, never really knowing the cause but having to deal with or re-train. You will get there with this I'm sure that others will chip in with ideas and support too.
Thanks Oberon. The terror is called Jet Yes just Barking and barking as we drive along. At nothing in particular. It stops if we get on a fast road though but not particularly helpful when we live in the country. He doesn't really ever bark in the house so we're finding it hard to train on being quiet when he is quiet all the time - any help with this would be brilliant. We've been doing as you said with getting him used to the boot and i know logically we've made progress as last week he wouldn't even get in and now mostly he's really good jumping straight in with a bit of cheese flavoured encouragement. I probably could cope with the barking if it wasn't so obscenely loud. I've never known a dog with a bark like it. Thanks for the encouragement. Much needed today.
You are making great progress, don't be discouraged! We found that our dog, whom we adopted when he was around 8 months old, took a few months to completely settle in with us. So you may find that there will still be room for him to relax and get more comfortable with all his new routines. Rachael has given you some great tips. Can you get someone to help you once you get to the moving the stage? You could have that person armed with treats, ready to reward the first moment of quiet. You might be surprised how quickly he catches on!
When my dog did this, I just stopped the car and when he stopped barking, I drove on again, it didn't take many days to cure him. You need to find a quiet road though to do this!
You could also look at using a remote training and using it to reward him when he's quiet. I have a Treat and Train, which is expensive but as loads of training applications (here it is on Amazon, but I think you could find it cheaper elsewhere if you looked around: https://www.amazon.co.uk/PetSafe-Treat-Remote-Reward-Trainer/dp/B0010B8CHG). This article also discusses a few other options. Alternatively, you could try someone sitting in the back and C&Ting for quiet, if they can drop treats through the grill. You may find that Jet takes the person's presence as part of the cue for quiet, though, and he may still bark when there's no-one sat there. Maybe worth a go, though.
Hi @Charlotte Best I would work with the desensitising to the car and travelling in the car. You have already made some good progress that he is happy to jump in the car in a short period of time . Unfortunately we have no way of knowing what associations Jet has with travelling in a car but one trip may well have been to the rescue centre where he was left by the people he loved and trusted . So the aim is for him to learn/relearn that good things happen when he is in the car - lovely treats which are gradually followed by outings for walks etc. He will get there with a little patience
Is he crate trained? My pup wont go in the truck unless shes in her crate...thats her safe place, and keeps her safe in the event of an accident or slamming the brakes etc....
Thanks everyone for your help and advice. I feel much more positive today. My other half has just taken him out in the car so I'm eagerly awaiting an update. We've been doing a bit of treat dropping with one of us in the back. It doesn't seem to have much effect which was a surprise because with all the other training he's been really quick to catch on. I'll take a look at that gizmo for treat dispensing. Thanks
