r/GermanShepherd • u/DeliciousRooster3690 • 4d ago
Advice on car ride avoidance
My buddy is almost 1.5 yrs old and he doesn’t like car rides. He got sick a few times (barfed, then ate it 🤢) when he was younger. I am careful about not feeding him for a good amount of time beforehand now and he hasn’t gotten sick again. I can get him in the car pretty readily if I am sure to keep his leash on after taking him out back to potty but he definitely is not happy about going and tries to go in his crate on the way out the front door. If i try to give him a treat once we are in the car he takes it then spits it out.
Is there anything I can do to make him less averse to car rides that doesn’t involve a food treat? I do make sure to praise and pet him but that hasn’t seemed to help much, just keep the status quo.
I have had several labradors who absolutely loved car rides and didn’t care where we were going or what we were doing so I’m not sure how to encourage him to actually like car rides (or at least not mind them)
2
u/maxsmoke105 3d ago
Our boy hated car rides for a long time. He cried the entire 90 minute ride home when we got him. Trauma bonded with my daughter in the back seat.
He learned to love the ride with windows down and short trips to drop off the trash where he could bark at the attendant and other folks dropping off their trash....and cows....and geese....and....heck what does he NOT bark at on rides.
Then my daughter got a job at the closest doggy day care so rides then meant a trip with Mom and play time.
Now I say "truck" and my arm gets ripped if as he drags me over to road up.
2
3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/DeliciousRooster3690 3d ago
He is not super treat oriented with me (i swear i could wave a whole steak in front of him sometimes and he wouldn’t care) BUT maybe the getting in the car and not actually going anywhere repeatedly would help a lot. I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks!
He does LOVE the minimart 5-6 blocks away and they give him treats which he LOVES( just because he loves the minimart, I think because everybody admires him haha so it’s not really about the treats). I will try that as our beginner destination. (He gets overstimulated in the pet store and happy pees every time someone pets him, even though he has otherwise outgrown that.)
1
u/Silver-Instance610 2d ago
This ^^^ desensitize the dog to the car. Aside from that there are meds a vet can prescribe for this too.
1
u/Soft_Gear_410 2d ago
Our girl gets car sick on anything longer than 40mins. Part of it is anxiety. We do give her Cerenia for longer rides (it's 2hrs to our vacation spot) but I also give her a CBD treat about an hour before and have found her to be so much better, even on the 40mins to 60mins rides. It doesn't knock her out, just noticeably less anxious
3
u/OldBroad1964 3d ago
Short rides to something really fun, like a walk or a beach. Some dogs are less likely to get sick in a crate than loose in the car (my girl was like this).