This is the case of the three year old Jack Russell terrier, William, who had serious problems traveling in the car. He was already an adult dog when Miriam (his owner) adopted him from the pound, and mistrusted the car right from the start of their relationship together. On the way home from the pound, he threw up and urinated on the back seat, and demonstrated signs of extreme anxiety:
panting, chasing his tail, and howling.
Miriam chalked this up to a combination of stress about the new experiences after so long a confinement, as well as excitement at being released from the pound. She expected it to diminish after a couple of weeks, but as it turned out, William didn’t get any better at all: he continued to howl, vomit, and wet himself in the car. It was clearly the motion that was so upsetting - he was OK in the car until the engine started and the wheels started turning, at which point the nervous reaction would set in.
After an email consultation with the team at Kingdom of Pets, Miriam decided to desensitize William to the car and the sensation of motion. Before doing anything else, she put down a thick layer of newspapers and towels throughout the car, to make any cleaning up easier!
The first step was to start hanging out with William in the car for ten or fifteen minutes a day. At first, they’d just sit in the car together with the engine off. After a few minutes of this, Miriam turned the engine on, let it run for two or three minutes, and then turned it off again.
Because William was so stressed out by the engine running, Miriam practiced the “arm clamp” on him: she’d drape one arm over his shoulders, as he was panting and howling, and give him a firm but gentle squeeze which she’d maintain for a few minutes. This served to remind William that everything was OK, without the “coddling” effect of repeated stroking or verbal murmurings.
After a couple of days of this, William began to calm down a little bit. When Miriam could turn the car engine on without any adverse reaction from William, she practiced backing down the drive and up again - driving slowly, at a snail’s pace.
The first couple of times she did this, she kept one arm draped firmly over William to stop him scrambling about and getting more agitated. Quite soon though, he stopped wanting to do this, and - although he still panted a bit and drooled some - began to sit or lie down in the back. Clearly he was still tense, but significantly less so than he was when Miriam brought him home for the first time!
Over the next several weeks, William and Miriam worked up to several trips around the block every day. When William was able to tolerate three times round the block in one sitting, Miriam took the newspaper and towels out of the back seat (but left him one, just for security’s sake).
Although she hasn’t taken him on any long-distance car journeys yet, Miriam reports that William is now a tolerably calm companion on car trips. He still likes a short break every twenty minutes or so, but has completely stopped all of his previous nervous behaviors. And all this inside of two months!
R. Review of DOG 202
Now is your opportunity to take a moment and consider all the aspects of dog ownership and behavioral problems we’ve covered in this section.
Read over the following list, and see if there’s anything you’re not quite familiar
with, or if there’s anything you’d like to have another look at.
IN THIS CHAPTER, WE DEALT WITH THE FOLLOWING CANINE BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS:
Aggression problems: causes, what to do about it, early and advanced
● warning signs, a treatment program for dominance/aggression.
Dog-on-dog aggression: causes of, prevention, what to do with a
● dogfight.
Fear-biting: Why it happens, how to handle it, do’s and don’ts.
●
Play-biting: causes, how to prevent it, how to train your dog not to
● nip.
Chewing and other destructive behavior: why it happens, prevention,
● do’s and don’ts, options for serial destroyers.
Digging problems: why dogs dig, how to control excess digging.
●
Disobedience: why you need to nip it in the bud, tips for combating
● disobedience in your dog.
Fear of the leash: how to desensitize your dog to leash-fear, how to
● train your dog to accept the leash.
Off-leash problems: practical steps for ensuring good behavior in your
● dog while off-lead.
Leash-pulling problems: a step-by-step breakdown of our recommended
● techniques for teaching your dog good on-leash behavior, and a look at some of the more common tools for achieving this goal.
Barking problems: why dogs bark, what it means, what to do about
● it, alternatives for chronic barkers, teaching your dog to “speak” on command.
Whining: why your dog is whining, what to do about it, what NOT to
● do about it.
Thieving: how to prevent it, a word about booby-traps.
●
Travel problems: symptoms of carsickness, training your dog to accept
● car journeys, car safety tips.