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car anxiety issues..help!
Our
golden developed anxiety to cars (not just car rides) around 4.5 months
old. At first we though it was the teething but quickly noticed that he does
it only in the car. He does not like going in the car, does not freely
jump up, we have to carry him in. Then he starts drooling A LOT (like car seat is wet!) and sort
of stiffens up. He is either nauseous or scared or both and we can tell
that he gets more anxious when the car hits a bump, makes a turn or
stops/starts. He was never like this before that. We did not use to use a
seatbelt on him and there was a time when he fell off the seat when a
car in front of us suddenly stopped and DH stepped on the breaks. DH does
not agree but I think this set off the car anxiety (if he did not
already have a mild one before that). We have fixed the safety issue so it does not happen again.
He is now 7.5 months old and we have tried a few things. The situation has improved somewhat but not entirely and I really really want him to enjoy the car. Since the last two months 98% of the car rides are either to the dog daycare or to the dog park, which is about 3-4 times a week.
I have tried to make the car fun. I put toys in it. We tried feeding him in the car (kibble does not work, has to be high value--cheese or hotdogs or peanutbutter) to convince him to jump in. He will eventually get in when I throw in these treats in there. I try staying with him in the backseat, giving him more treats, and playing with toys. The thing is when we are out of treats, he is not quite as interested in the toys, and then he starts to drool and stiffen up (even when I am there with him in the back seat and the car isn't even moving). Obviously, we end up driving him somewhere because he still needs to go to daycare, park, or vet. I play music and it seems to calm him down a bit. It is much better than it used to be now that he does not drool quite as much, but still drools. Will jump in the car over 50% of the time. But he is clearly not relaxed yet.
I have not considered medication as out car rides are 10-25 minutes and then he gets to have fun and I worry that it makes him feel different for a longer time than he needs to. Or should I start considering medication? What else can I do? I am willing to do whatever it takes. He also has fear of loud noises which I thinks contributes when we are in the car (the car as well as other car/truck noises). Though he is fine walking by the road (until some truck makes a sudden loud noise). I appreciate any advise is there is anything I haven't tried.
Re: car anxiety issues..help!
Here is what worked for us, as our dog as a puppy one day decided he didn't like the car either and started getting sick:
1) Baby steps. Walk him next to the car - doors closed, engine off. Treat. Open the doors and treat. Then start the engine. Work your way up to getting him to go inside. If he goes in willingly, leave it there. Then maybe do it again the next day, but only back down the driveway. Then do it again and maybe drive down the street. Gradually increase it.
2) We found that our guy did better in the car if it was dark out.
3) Once we were up to trips that were a half hour long or so, we would stop in the middle and let him get out and walk around.
Good luck! Our guy couldn't handle 15 minutes in the car and now can go 4 or 5 hours to flyball tournaments without a problem.
Also, we didn't use it, but I believe some other girls here have given ginger, so that's something to consider too.
We had a foster lab that developed some anxiety in the car. I would harness him in and he flipped out so much I thought he was going to injure himself. I randomly decided to try to crate him in the car instead and that was apparently all he needed. I guess he just felt more secure being crated. I've since crated almost all our fosters (and our permanent dog) in the car and have never found one that dislikes it.
Not sure it's enough for your guy, but might be worth a shot.
Hopefully, your dog will outgrow it too.
Mine outgrew the car sickness around 11 months or so. He would vomit before we got to the end of our block, so getting to obedience class and the park (45 minutes away) was a messy ordeal. We tried ginger, dramamine, benadryl, food before the trip, withholding food for a few hours, water, no water, nothing worked. We just needed to let him grow out of it.