I posted a thread last November asking for people to suggest somewhere to buy a dog.
To that end, we now have a dog from Bawtry animal rescue centre, a 4 year old Heinz 57, a well trained and lovely dog.
Thing is, whenever we take him out to nice places in the car, he is scared and whines all the time and will not settle, so we cannot take him very far.
Is there any tips to keep him settled? :confused:

You could try looking at the rehabilitate area on the Battersea dogs home web site it has plents of hints and tips that might help...Good luck

Look under basic training and there is a section on car travel

Thank you Garigon.
I looked at the Battersea site and it is good thankyou.
However, It does not mention whining in it`s car travel section just barking. Thank you anyway.

If you don't know his history the whining may be a sign of being scared or anxious, he may of been driven somewhere and abandoned and so he associates car travel with being dumped.
When the car is parked outside your house let him sit in it with some-one with him, then if this seems to settle him take him on very short tripsinitially even if it is just round the block. Over time he should begin to rrealise drives are fun and he'll get loads of fuss and attention at the end of any trip.
Whining though can also be a sign of supressed excitement, without seeing him in action it's difficult to say which. One final thought is that he get's travel sick and is trying to let you know he is unhappy and trying not to throw up. This last point was the cause of problems with a friends dog, how well do I remember the time when the dog poked it's head between the front seats and threw up all over the gar stick and console, how long can you drive a car without changing gear? A long way!!!

Have you tried giving him a treat while hes in the car maybe a bone or a chewie.:)

My dog hates car travel too, she whines for the first 5 minutes then is quiet for the rest of the first hour or so. Thats when the real trouble starts, she whines again, then begins to shake and then is sick again and again until the end of the journey, after which she mopes for the rest of the day.

There is medication available from the vets but I don't like the idea of drugging her (i like to treat her how I would like to be treated).

After several attempts to get her comfortable with car travel I have just given up and resigned myself to the fact that no matter how nice the destination is it isn't worth all the upset to her.

Have you thought about taking places on the train, the motion of rail travel is much less dramatic, is smoother and is less clostrophobic and your dog may deal with it fine.

Why not try a short trip at first, perhaps out to edale and take your dog for a walk in the peaks.

Paul.

Have you tried giving him a treat while hes in the car maybe a bone or a chewie
Thats what we have tried, but he is to scared to touch it.
I cannot try train travel, we plan to be camping this year and some places are too far out.

I saw a programme on this once. In an extreme case they suggest starting by opening the doors and letting the dog see it can get out if it's inside. Try to settle the dog, but don't restrict it. Then start feeding it it's meals near to, then in the car.

Progress to having the engine on, but not moving. Then driving a few yards. Etc, etc....

Another approach might be cage training. There are whole books on this, but basically a cage is an indoor kennel. Dogs who have one are often more confident in new or 'scary' places if they can 'hide' in their 'kennel', so that may be worth a try.

A cage should be introduced in a similar fashion to the car above - feeding with the door open, and introducing the closed door over progressive periods of time.

Originally posted by WallBuilder
This last point was the cause of problems with a friends dog, how well do I remember the time when the dog poked it's head between the front seats and threw up all over the gar stick and console, how long can you drive a car without changing gear? A long way!!!

LOL thats sick dude.

Well my parents dog is really bad at travelling, whining, not sitting still, throwing up(in many places, even the gear stick!!! sure they do it on purpose!!) now what they do is give him some dog travel sick pills, i think they are just mild tranquilisers because he just sleeps the whole way now!! You can buy them from the vets, they come in very handy!!

Well my parents dog is really bad at travelling, whining, not sitting still, throwing up(in many places, even the gear stick!!! sure they do it on purpose!!) now what they do is give him some dog travel sick pills, i think they are just mild tranquilisers because he just sleeps the whole way now!! You can buy them from the vets, they come in very handy!!

He is not sick, just nervous and whining. Best i can do is just take him on regular short journeys and see from there.

You could ttry blanking out the rear window and the rear passenger side windows (with newspaper or something) - if you cant see the movement of the car then you dont get sick. Might help if travel sickness is the problem.

my jack russel was the same,he used to whine and scratch at the doors and windows,drove me mad, i started to put him in the car when it was in the drive and leave him for a few minutes, built up the time and he started laying on the seat nice and quiet, it was when i started to drive off he started whining again,i put it down to things were going by him to quickly and he was confused.

i had him sat on the floor with one of the kids strocking him so he coul not see out of the window, up to now hes ok, but only on short trips, his temprement is to be active and i think its because he sees things on the outside of the car that he has no time to register its playing him up and causing the distress

I had to take my cat to the vets a couple of weks ago, and it was a complete nightmare! Even though he was sat securely in his catbox, the noise was unbelievable.

By far the worst part though was when he saw my hand through the cat box door, and scratched it while I was changing gear! :shocked:

Next time he can just take himself to A and E :hihi:

K x

hi ya viking we had the same probs with my lakeland they are very active dogs at the best of times whining and the like all i did was to ignore him did not even speak to him sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind now he goes evrywhare with me in the car most weekends we go to ingomells and the only time he goes off on 1 is when he sees another dog or heaven forbid a pussy best of luck with your new found friend m8 and have fun all the best steve...

hi
I couldn't help notacing your ad. iused to have a dog that didn't travel very well and i tried a number of things. the best thing we found was tablets from the vets which helped alot. after a while on those we stoped giveing them to her and with some talking to in on a journey she was fine

kind regards

rob

hi ya viking we had the same probs with my lakeland
Thank you for that Steevie/d and everyone else.
I would love to take him to the coast. I will try ignoring him today. :thumbsup:

hi ya viking ive had dogs all my life sometimes more than 1in the car with me if you try to ingnore him i know its not easy but its worked for us and give him plenty of praise when you arrive at your destintion if you talk to him whilst on the trip when he is whining the dog will associate it with being fussed as i say it worked twice for me now diffent dogs 1 was rescue colley type and my preasent lakeland terrier best of luck with him any how it wont happen over nite tho !! you got to patient mate by for now steve ...