# Dog hates car rides - what to do?



## BaileyGirl (Mar 13, 2007)

My 10 week old puppy HATES car rides. She will cry/whine/bark the entire time and will not stop, whether she is in her travel carrier or not. Even if I'm sitting in the backseat with her and try to wrap her up in a blanket and offer her toys and treats, she will fuss. She also doesn't want to sit still and seems pretty agitated.

This might partially be due to the fact that she was shipped to me and perhaps didn't have a good experience being stuck in the carrier on the flight over. I don't know exactly what the problem is because I always thought that dogs were supposed to love car rides! 

She is going to need to get used to the car soon because I'm going to have to take her to the vet, to puppy classes, doggy day care, and eventually outings like the dog park, etc. I had also been planning to take her on road trips when she's older. How can I get her used to car rides? I seriously cannot stand having her whine and bark the entire time I'm driving, it's awful and makes me drive even faster to try to get to my destination as soon as possible so she'll stop making that terrible racket!!

We were going to take her to a friend's house yesterday for a doggie play date but she was making so much noise in the car that we turned around and took her back home! I know that I'm supposed to be socializing her at this age, which means she needs to get out and see/experience different things but I don't know how I'm going to do this when the car rides with her are intolerable!

Please help! Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!


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## Ginny01OT (Dec 3, 2006)

I got my dog at 7 weeks, he is now 9 months and still does not like the car. On the upswing he used to get car sick and I would have to give him medication but now he just hates the car ride but does not get sick and I have stopped giving him medication (benadryl or dramamine which is what my vet recommended)----providing I stop every 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours so he can get out of the car and get his sea legs. Everyone keeps telling me he will get used to it but it has now been 7 months and, yes, I try to take him everywhere and always make it a positive experience. The only thing, to date, that has improved is that he doesn't physically throw up. I am going to keep on taking him on short trips at least 4-5 times a week and hope that as he matures he gets more comfortable.


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## luv4gsds (Jul 27, 2006)

This site might help you.

Canines in the Car
http://www.inch.com/~dogs/canines.html


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## Ginny01OT (Dec 3, 2006)

thanks for the info--much appreciated!!!


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## siberian husky lover12 (Nov 17, 2006)

Ginny01OT said:


> thanks for the info--much appreciated!!!


Well mabey she just doesnt like the motion of it, get a crate and put her in it lined with blankets so she feels secure,then drive slowly to get her used to it, then you can start taking her one step at a time.


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## Cheetah (May 25, 2006)

Shippo whined in the car when I first got him, but I took him lots of fun places, and he got used to it very fast. He was 12 weeks old when I got him. Yours is 10 weeks, so it's the perfect age to start... the earlier the better.


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## Chayse (Mar 16, 2007)

I had the same kind of problem with my Sheltie Laci. When i went to pick her up the guy i got her from said that was afraid of cars. I didn’t really think anything of it. So i played with her for a while and when i went to put her in the car she bit me. So i muzzled her and took her home. A couple days after i got her home i started working with her to make her understand that the car was not going to hurt her. 

So here’s basically what I did with Laci and it worked really good she gets car sick but not nearly as often as she used to. In fact we haven’t had a problem in almost a year. 

Step 1: Put your puppy on long leash. I used a 20 footer but you can you a 10’ foot one if you want. I used that is she wanted to run away she could but I would still have control over her. Anyway make sure you a collar that fits well and won’t slip off or hurt your puppy don’t use a choke chain or anything like that. You don’t want to make this scary you want to make this a fun as possible. So before you bring your puppy over to the car open the back doors or where ever you’re going to put your pup. I used the backseat with both doors open because it confined her so she couldn’t get hurt and she would still that she could escape if she wanted to. Anyway so go over to the car and ask your puppy to come to you once she takes even one step toward the car. Reward her and take her away from the car and play for about five minutes. Then take her back over to your car ad try again. Since she is only 10 weeks I would suggest only doing this for no longer than 10 minutes at a time. The idea is to get her to walk up to the car without getting sacred. 

Step 2:
Once she can go over the car with no problem than start trying to get her to get in. It may take a while to complete this step but just be pacencht with her. She is young an new things are scary. So for this step put her on a long lead again and open both back doors. And take he to the car and ask her to get in take one of her favorite toys or treats and throw them into the car hopefully she will try to get in. if she does praise her like you did before and walk away form the car. This will teach that if I walk to ward the car and try to get in then I get to go away from the car and eat or play. Since she is only 10 weeks she probably won’t be able to get in by her self unless you have a really low car or steps for her. Anyway lets assume that the 1 st time you tried to get in her to go in the car she wouldn’t. It’s no big deal just back her up a couple of steps and try again. If she tries to get in praise her and take her a few feet from the car and play for a couple minutes. Once you can get to go to the car and put even just one foot in or tries to try to get it in. Stop for a few hours and take her in side and feed her or whatever you usually do with her. And come back a few hours later or if you have ton of time the next day. 

Step 3. 
Once you can get her to get in the car with out fight or very little fighting. The next step is to get in the back seat and just get her to get in on her own as much as she can the leave her leash on her and another person go to the other side of the car and stand at by the door and make sure you leave them open. And call her to the other side. Once she gets to the to the other side reward her and play like you did before. And assuming that she did it do it four or five more times correctly if she starts to get board or nervous then try one more time and if she does it right stop right there. You always want any kind of training session you have with her to end on a good note. If she gets really nervous or won’t go to the car then stop and close your car up and go do something that you know she can successfully. Like sit or down or something like that. That way even if you can’t get her to do the thing with car than at least you can get her to do something successful which is all that matters. I’ve learned from horses and dogs that it doesn’t matter what kind of results you get as long as you get some kind of result. Good or bad at least you have some thing to work with. So let’s say she didn’t do what you wanted her to do. So go back a step and do it again to build her confidence back up. And once she clams down and does that right then either take a break or just stop all together for the day. Depending on how much time you’ve spent or how your puppy is acting if she starts sniffing around or won’t look at you the it’s time for a break or to stop for the day. Sniffing and looking at random things are signs that a dog is getting board. There are other signs but I can’t remember them at the moment and those are the two you really need to know, for right now. 

Step 4 

Once you can get her to walk through the back seat of your car with out any problems then start closing one door. Don’t close the door all the way just close it a little bit and still the door she came in open. Just keep walking her through the car over and over again and each time she goes through close the door a little more. Once you get to the pint where you can close the door all the way then you need to start closing the door she got into the car from. Closing the door behind her should bother her as much as closing the door in front of her. Once you get he door in front of her to close all the way with out her getting nervous than it’s time to start leaving it closed a little longer. You need to just close the door for and make her wait a couple of seconds before you open the door again and every time you open the door make it a ig deal and make sure something waits for on the other side.


If you plan on putting her I in a crate when you travel you need to start getting her used to it. I assume that you have gotten her used to being in a crate already. So you just need to get her used to be used to being in a crate that in a car and moving. You basically need to do the same thing s you did when you trained to go in the first time. I suggest putting a blanket or towel in the crate and make sure that you have them against the side’s front and back to kind of help cushion her. So if you have to take a sharp turn then she won’t bang her head or anything else on the side of her crate. I would also put her crate sop it’s facing the other door of your car and not facing a window so that she won’t have a chance to look out the window and see things flying bye her then she hopefully she won’t get so nervous. I would put a towel or something over the front of the crate so that your pup can just relax in her crate. It may also make her more nervous to. It really depends on your puppy with Laci she tends to get sick more often in her crate so we put her the back seat with a seat belt type thing on so that she can move around if she wants to but she can’t get hurt. 

Step 5 and hopefully the last step. 

Once you have gotten her used to getting and a out of the car with no problem than you can start to take her for short rides. The fisrt couple of time put her in the car and take her down to the like the end of your road and turn around and go back home. Once you get home let her out as soon as possible and play and have fun. Then you can start going farther and farther away. Like if you have to go get gas for your car take her with you just that she can go for a ride. And see that it’s not going to hurt her. 

Now I tell you all of this assuming that you have some experience training dogs or animals of any kind. It’s not really as hard as everyone says you just need to break everything into steps and go one step at a time. If you don’t have any experience that I suggest you call a dog trainer near where you live or you can PM me if you ever have any questions. I may be new to this forum but I’m not new to training animals. I have had dogs my entire life and have been training since I was five. Ok I was helping my dad but at least I was involved. So like I said be foe good luck and feel free to contact me if you need any help. Sorry this post was so long I just wanted to make sure I covered everything.And i hope that helps.


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## BaileyGirl (Mar 13, 2007)

Thanks for the great suggestions everyone! I'll follow your advice and take it slow for now. luv4gsds thank you for the helpful link and Chayse, I really appreciate the thorough step-by-step training info! 

My puppy hasn't had all of her vaccinations yet so I can't take her to any fun public places (dog parks, pet stores, etc). Do you think if I just take her to nearby friend's houses for now, and make sure that they give her lots of attention and treats, that those will be good enough positive experiences for now?

Also, can you recommend any specific kinds of dog seat belts or car seats? My puppy does NOT seem to like her travel carrier (again, possibly because she was trapped in it while being shipped to my house, and right now associates it with negative experiences). I'm thinking of trying other options to make sure she's safe and secured during car rides.

Thanks again!!


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