Canine Car Sickness or Anxiety? (skin, rescue, shots, puppy)

[melbern]

Has anyone else ever had a dog that started to pant excessively in the car? The minute my dog enters a car til the minute he gets out he pants like crazy. I am wondering if this is car sickness or anxiety. He also feels the need to keep his head pointed forward and looking through the front window (like a person who was feeling motion sick would do). I picked him up as a stray puppy when he was 5 or 6 months old, and his first trip in the car caused him to vomit severely. He doesn't vomit anymore but does pant like mad. I try to limit car trips with him as much as possible but of course sometimes I just have to take him along.

Anyway, I will be asking the vet, but wondering if anyone else had the same experience and what they did about it. Thanks.

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by melbern

and his first trip in the car caused him to vomit severely.

What you have here is a vicious cycle. Either the memory of severe motion sickness or the feeling of teetering just on the edge of bringing his guts up is causing anxiety. The anxiety is causing the panting.

To the dog, the car = unpleasantness which leads to anxiety. To him, nothing good comes from going in the car.

However, the good news is that it's perfectly possible to desensitize. You start with just getting him in the car (a stationary car) for a very short period of time - less than a minute if that's all he can take. Something pleasant, something very pleasant has to happen in the time he's in the car so that the seeds for car = good & pleasant can be sown. But the trick is in the timing because you need to reward before he even thinks about getting anxious. You build on it from there (and never be afraid to take a step back, let the dog set the pace) until the dog can happily sit in the car for a period of time. From there you move on to the car moving - also going back to square one in that it might only be backing out of the garage or the car just easing a few feet - whatever he can take. What you don't want to do is push too far, too fast as it undoes all the hard work both of you will have put into it. Let the dog call the shots - he'll communicate quite effectively when he reaches his comfort limit.

You can also use some anti-anxiety homeopathic remedies to help him over the initial hurdle of being able to get in the car without panic/anxiety. I seem to remember that the "Homeopet" range has a specific travel anxiety formula. Or there's always Rescue Remedy.

[melbern]

Great, thanks for the ideas!