Dislikes car trips

oliwa

Snickers does not the idea of getting in the car. When she realizes I am going to put her in the car she does everything she can to get away and I am forced to pick her up and put her in the back seat. Once she is in she is ok...she lays down and goes to sleep. She used to whine, but she hasn't done that since Thanksgiving. Every time she goes in the car she goes to a wonderful place...my brother's to play with his 3 labs, puppy training to play, doggie day care to play, petsmart to play, etc. I know Bassets can be stubborn, but she's not getting the Premack principle and I don't speak dog.

Any suggestions? She is getting bigger and it's not going to be easy to pick up a 60lb Basset!

Elocin87

Charlie hated the car until I started bringing some of his toys and kibble with him. Sometimes I will have to sit in the back seat and coax him in with a really yummy treat but it's been three weeks and he's starting to understand that cars are fun. I also take him on a car ride at least 3-4 times a week so he gets used to it.
Is there anything your Basset really loves that could coax her into the car? Or does getting into the car hurt her feet or back? If it does you could get a doggy ramp or stairs to make getting in easier.

oliwa

When I first started the car trips I treated her with her favorite treat, unfortunately 20 minutes later she got sick and threw it back up...just as we arrived at our destination. From them on, I try not to give her any food right before we leave or during the trip to avoid car sickness.

I can try a ramp or stairs, but as soon as I open the back door she heads for the door to the house.

Mikey

We had trouble too

First I would just take Mikey out to stand by the cars (as he would drag us past them or freak out and shake) -and then his reinforcement for 'cooling off' was cookies and no car ride. We did that several times an evening-randomly.

Then we went and practiced-getting in and out of the car-for treats. Then short car rides.

All the while of course we needed to do some car rides to get to the dog park-none over ten minutes-and always to a fun destination.

What really helped as well was taking him for a car ride with a good doggie friend of his-the friend rode well in cars and loved them and Mikey saw that and relaxed.

Just lots of gradual exposure to the car-especially when your not going for car rides-and give plenty of praise and treats (for good behavior only of course-you don;t want to reinforce bad stuff) and you'll be literally 'on your way' hehe

Mikey

Missed this-does she drool in the car? That's a sign of car sickness even if they don't get to throw up. If that's the case talk to your vet about medication-if you've ever had car or boat sickness-well it sucks; so conditioning won't be very nice-try fixing the sickness

oliwa

No, she never drooled in the car for me. When the vet spayed her he came and picked her up. He said she was drooling a lot and that a sign of nervousness.

I'll try what you suggest. I recently bought her some Happy Hips Chicken Jerky treats which she goes crazy for so I'll try coaxing her into a stationary car with those.

Mikey

OK great-car sickness is not fun! They drool a LOT and generally hide and feel miserable. If it's just anxiety that's easy enough to work with

I'd really start first off by just standing near the car-even a car with it's door open. Then work in getting in and out-oh and I left out-before you progress to car rides-do sitting in the car while it's running. We spent an entire evening in Dave's car listening to music (we were camping and it was raining) and Mikey relaxed so much he went to sleep! That was great progress

fawkese1

great advice mikey, i had to do just a little bit of this with clover, but not much, but yeah... just like mikey said, just stand next to the car for a while, maybe have her target (touch) the car and click/treat her for it, i've found that clover gets over things really really fast if i incorporate the clicker in the process...

Mikey

Exactly!! The clicker makes things go so much quicker and even better is targeting the scary thing

MySoulmateEmmy

I think maybe she doesn't show the typical signs for car sickness all the time?

but I like what Mikey posted about getting her used to the car.

Good luck!

~MSE