Car/Travel Phobia

[Bounty]

Any suggestions on how to deal with this?

Would really love to get Trooper out and about as he is such a good companion and really fun to have around, but at the moment we are limited to outing that are within walking distance from home

He HATES travelling. He will grudgingly come to call by crawling on his tummy if he thinks you want him to go in the car, and once you get him in he immediately starts hyperventilating, and if you continue he will violently vomit EVERYWHERE

I've been meaning to speak to the vet about it, but haven't gotten around to it so though you guys might be able to give me some ideas?

 

[CAYLA]

Start off with small journeys to nice places where he gets out and plays with his ball/toy e,t,c...maybe leave the boot open and throw a favourite toy in whilst the car is stationary see if he will jump in and out to get him to assosiate just sitting in it with a positive.

Some dogs settle alot better within a crate whilst in the car, they eel more secure and u could cover it over, always starve beore a journey and give peppermint or ginger as it's a natural anti sickness, also try a dap collar to help with his stress, also skull cap tablets.
The trick is to get him to assosiate the car with going somewhere exciting, my dogs fight to get into my doggi van as they know they will have a quick 5 minute journey before we hit the fields for play time

 

[Bounty]

Lots of good ideas to help with the sickness, thanks!
The only trouble is I think part of the problem is that he lacks confidence and actually doesn't like going new places. Once he has been somewhere a couple of times he goes back to his normal, happy, confident self, but any change makes him very timid and worried

 

[Louby]

Im the last person to give advice as we are struggling with our puppy but when I got him I put him in the boot on a nice bed with the parcel shelf removed. He poo'd everywhere, stood in it and got it everywhere.. mmm nice.
I bought a small crate and put it in my back seat and hes been fine. Prob now is crates getting too small, cant fit anything bigger in, so we are soon going to have to try him without Eeek.

 

[Reinback]

My puppy was like this, but it only took about a week of feeding him in the car (without going anywhere) for him to try to get in every time he was near it!

We then took him on little journeys, coming back before he had time to get sick, and gradually building it up to longer journeys (not even getting out to start with).

Does he like walks? If so try goiung out early in the morning before everyone else is taking their dogs out & going for a really fun walk somewhere.

We took my puppy to training classes, because he loved seeing the other dogs there, so now he associates the car with going somewhere fun & is quite happy with it.

Good luck

x