Another poor car traveller - worried mummy

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Twinkletoes

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Our 5y/o terrier has never been a great traveller, but now we are starting to worry rather than just try new things to help.

We have a new Honda CRV so he has a large amount of boot space, always travels with his best dogfriend, our other terrier, always has his bed in the boot, and water / weewee stops every hour. Journey takes 5ish hrs and with our toddler as well, can be quite a mission. He has always been the same, even when we had a Discovery before.
We've had him since a pup and has never had a 'bad' experience, but over time has worsened.
He pants, and I mean seriously, incredibly fast and anxiously, for the entire 5/6 hours, dribbling everywhere, and his eyes go all red and weird. He has a heart murmour too so I worry that it could all get too much.
We cant leave him at home and kennels are not an option. He is no better caged, or on the back seat.
It doesnt appear to be motion sickness as we have tried every remedy under the sun to no avail. We are always very calm and reassuring to him so that he doesnt pick up on any of our anxiety over him!
Has anyone got / had a similar situation, or can offer some good advice?
Many Thanks.
 
Mine are all ok to travel so no advice that way. Could you get a mild sedative off your vet. You don't say how often you make this trip but if it isn't too often that may be the answer.
 
Hmm, had thought of that and not discussed with vet yet, as naturally thought with his heart murmour and the fact we make the trip every few months that I would rather try to 'cure' the problem and help him rather than mask it, but you are right, acp may be an option which I will discuss with our lovely vet (evilwhitecoatedmonster in dog terms). Can they after a while build up an immunity to a sedative? Thanks for advice.
 
How is he on short journeys? Have you tried doing more trips but short and always having good experiences?
One of mine doesn't like to travel, from they day i picked her up as a pup she didnt like travelling. Shes never had bad experiences as such, but she used to travel to go to vet etc at a young age, as your pup may have to.
She's a lot better than she used to be, shes better when another is in the car, but if i make a trip to the vets the drool and stress comes back for another day or two, until i drive her to other nice places and do fun things to remind her the car doesn't just go there.

So maybe if you can convince him he isn't so bad to travel his anxiety might reduce over time? This seems to work for me.

Sorry i might not be of great help...
 
He sounds like he has a serious anxiey with travelling, I would also go with a sedative or maybe try rescue remedy or Skull cap and valarian, and DAP collar.
 
Thanks all. Yup he's fine up to about an hour, over that and its downhill rapidly. Tried rescue remedy for quite a while, so it seems a sedative may be our only option now.
 
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