How To Prevent Your Dog From Getting Carsick
Like humans, dogs can also experience motion sickness.
Motion sickness can be caused by a number of factors, but mainly it is by movement in the inner ear.
First and foremost, it is important your dog associates car journeys with positive and good things.
To do this, you need to adapt them slowly.
Stress is another major factor in car sickness, since many dogs come to associate car travel with a trip to the vet or a kennel.
Also, if a dog's been in a car accident, the trauma could hang on.
For the vast majority of dogs, car sickness is related to stress rather than the motion of your car.
Some say that your dog's most powerful memory is of the car journey that took it away from all it ever knew to be safe and secure, namely its litter mates and mother.
So from a very young age, car journeys are often associated with bad things.
First, get your dog used to just being in the car, without it going anywhere.
Everyday leave them in a well ventilated car for up to 30 minutes.
Ensure they are comfortable and have a bed in which to sleep during this period.
Repeat this for a week and then start to do very short journey's (5-10 minutes) with a really positive experience at the end of it - usually this would be a nice walk or a ball game in the park.
At the end of the return journey, create just as much fuss and play a short game.
Gradually build up the length of the journeys up to about 30 minutes.
If your dog is sick during a journey, reduce the length of the journey such that it ends before they are sick.
Build the journeys up again.
When your dog is able to do 30 minute journeys without stress, anxiety or sickness, you are pretty much there If your dog's only exposure to riding in a car is an occasional trip to the veterinarian's, don't be surprised if he's not the most easy of riders.
Try to build up his passion by increasing his time in the car and praising him for his good behavior.
The first short trips should be to pleasant locations, such as parks.
Dramamine avoids car-sickness in dogs as well as people, but other medications are also available (talk to your veterinarian).
A dog-show trick: Your dog should travel on little or no food and should get a jelly bean -- or any other piece of sugar candy, except chocolate -- before hitting the road.
The sugar seems to help suppress vomiting.
Because most of the problems come from fear, not motion sickness, building up your pet's tolerance for riding in a car is a better long-term cure than anything you could give him.
Motion sickness can be caused by a number of factors, but mainly it is by movement in the inner ear.
First and foremost, it is important your dog associates car journeys with positive and good things.
To do this, you need to adapt them slowly.
Stress is another major factor in car sickness, since many dogs come to associate car travel with a trip to the vet or a kennel.
Also, if a dog's been in a car accident, the trauma could hang on.
For the vast majority of dogs, car sickness is related to stress rather than the motion of your car.
Some say that your dog's most powerful memory is of the car journey that took it away from all it ever knew to be safe and secure, namely its litter mates and mother.
So from a very young age, car journeys are often associated with bad things.
First, get your dog used to just being in the car, without it going anywhere.
Everyday leave them in a well ventilated car for up to 30 minutes.
Ensure they are comfortable and have a bed in which to sleep during this period.
Repeat this for a week and then start to do very short journey's (5-10 minutes) with a really positive experience at the end of it - usually this would be a nice walk or a ball game in the park.
At the end of the return journey, create just as much fuss and play a short game.
Gradually build up the length of the journeys up to about 30 minutes.
If your dog is sick during a journey, reduce the length of the journey such that it ends before they are sick.
Build the journeys up again.
When your dog is able to do 30 minute journeys without stress, anxiety or sickness, you are pretty much there If your dog's only exposure to riding in a car is an occasional trip to the veterinarian's, don't be surprised if he's not the most easy of riders.
Try to build up his passion by increasing his time in the car and praising him for his good behavior.
The first short trips should be to pleasant locations, such as parks.
Dramamine avoids car-sickness in dogs as well as people, but other medications are also available (talk to your veterinarian).
A dog-show trick: Your dog should travel on little or no food and should get a jelly bean -- or any other piece of sugar candy, except chocolate -- before hitting the road.
The sugar seems to help suppress vomiting.
Because most of the problems come from fear, not motion sickness, building up your pet's tolerance for riding in a car is a better long-term cure than anything you could give him.
Source...