Dealing with car sickness

How can I get a dog used to travelling in a car? While my two older dogs have always been fine travelling in the back, my new puppy is unable to travel in a car without drooling and being sick.

Motion sickness is much more common in puppies and young dogs because the balance mechanism in their ears is not fully developed. It can also be stressful and, since stress itself causes dogs to be nauseous, dogs that suffer motion sickness should be treated as soon as possible, otherwise the problem is likely to perpetuate.

Start by simply putting the dog in the back of a stationary vehicle. As it has already developed motion sickness, stay with and reassure your puppy.

Try to ensure that it associates the car with pleasant experiences. Let it play with or chew a favourite toy in the back of the car or feed a few tasty treats and give plenty of praise for sitting in the vehicle. Later, start the engine and if all is well, move off.

Try to ensure that your dog associates the car with short journeys to places that will provide especially pleasant, positive experiences where it will enjoy itself.

If the dog seems to have problems maintaining its balance in the back of your car, try sitting it on the back seat wearing a harness. Dogs experience fewer nauseating visual cues facing forwards while travelling, rather than looking out the side windows.

If it is restless and won’t settle during the journey, try using a DAP — dog appeasing pheromone — collar and consider investing in a collapsible dog crate or a purpose-made dog transit box to provide somewhere to snuggle down while travelling.

Finally, if your dog is unfortunate and has developed a secondary fear of travelling in the car, then your vet will be able to prescribe travel sickness tablets. In the past, we usually had to resort to sedatives, but more recently anti-emetics — drugs that prevent vomiting — have become available for use in dogs and these have less tendency to cause drowsiness. TB

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Help to cure travel-sick dogs by getting them to associate the car with a pleasant experiences