Ep 105 Dog Car Travel Made Easy: Stop the Barking and the Stress

Yeah, a dog that is a pleasure to have in the car is means that they can get involved in more experiences with you. Before we dive in a warning, the content of this podcast may not be appropriate for some young listeners. This is real life and that means that sometimes it can be a little bit graphic, so listen on at your own peril. As a veterinarian, dog behavior is best-selling author and trainer over the past decade I've had an obsession with transforming the behavior of dogs. Understanding their brains and creating practical strategies that you can implement easily at home. I know all too well when the dream you imagined when you first got your dog is far from your daily reality. In fact, out of the blue, a few months ago, my little dog Gorse was bitten by a dog 20 times her size and suddenly our life of stress-free walks, a calm and cuddly household and being teen maids was replaced with reactivity, anxiety and worrying about what's around the next corner. I'm Doctor Tom. This is The Help My Dog Podcast and this is me documenting that journey of transformation, sharing my knowledge and experience with you and having a few laughs along the way. Hello and welcome to this episode of The Help My Dog Podcast and today's episode is a fast fire listeners question and it's on struggles in the car, which many of you might struggle with. So here's the listeners question. Will I ever sort my dogs barking in the car? 10 years I have been trying. Spent a fortune on behaviorists all for nothing. Stop taking him anywhere in the car now. Okay, so first things first, well done for still looking for answers 10 years in, right? Because I get it when you've tried loads of stuff before, then that's, you know, it's tough and it takes grit and determination and belief that your dog doesn't really want to behave that way, which if you dog, you know, anybody who's listening to this and your dog's struggling, realize that they are struggling. In other words, they are the victims of this situation as much as you are, right? They found themselves in a situation where they don't have the skills to navigate that situation effectively, right? And trust is when we say that so many, I mean, I'd even go as far as say the majority of dog owners that we see for behavior consultation at behavior, they've tried loads of things already, right? And that does not impact whether they are likely to get results this time or not because the reality is it's not your fault, it's not your dog's fault, it's the plan's fault, yeah? And we get the plan, right? From people that have been do this day and day out and they've seen all variations of things that needs troubleshooting, then, you know, you get progress and you move forward. And that's where reaching out for a consultation with behavior, so powerful, even if you think, oh, I'll just try this one more thing or, you know, this one blog or whatever else. Honestly, guys, the you mentioned spending a fortune on behaviorists, the most expensive service is always the one that does not work, right? Because that ultimately was a waste. And that's something that we say a lot when people are thinking about coming to behavior is like, well, actually, it's the cheapest service around because actually you're going to get results and you're going to move forward. And of course, you know, if your pet is insured with pet plan, kennel club, agria, Napa, LV, every poor, right? You know, we work with so many different pet insurance companies, literally, you can have consultations with your dog, regular consultations, and it's covering your insurance policy. So actually, the out of pocket expense to you is just 25 pounds, right? Which is, which is really cool. Anyway, a bit of a tangent, but I think it's important for those of you listening to know that just because you've tried stuff before does not mean it's not going to work this time. In fact, it just means that it's even more important to get the right plan this time. Those of you who want to inquire about a behavior consultation with behavior, all you need to do is go to www.betha.vt. That's www.betha.vt. And so, car struggles. What's going on here? So what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk through the common reasons why plans in the car fail, okay? The first one is that often the training starts in the car, which is the first challenge. Actually, we need to see that your dog is feeling powerful, optimistic, and confident around your car on the way to getting into your car, right? And so, that's going to look like your dog practicing doing power poses and other confidence boosting strategies and getting positive outcomes just around the vehicle. And then what we would do, second thing that is so key is that and what goes wrong in a lot of behavior plans relating to the car is that at some point the dog realizes, oh, I'm going on a journey, I'm going in the car, and they kind of shut down from learning. And so a little bit piece of their learning that you kind of have to break in order to rebuild the picture is just because you're going in the car doesn't mean you're staying in the car doesn't mean we're going anywhere. And so we play a lot with hop into the car, do power pose, hop out the car we're done, hop into the car, move around the car, you know, put your seats down search for bits of food around the car, hop out the car you're done, right? And so actually they start to get to the point where they go, oh, I'm going in the car, I'm hopping in the car, but I'm definitely not going anywhere, right? And that's the foundation that we that we then build upon. Then what we would do is we would build this into actually, okay, can we spend some time in the car, long lasting chew, and we use the long lasting chew as like a little thermometer to temperature check where your dog's arousal level is. So if they can engage with the long lasting chew like the dried camel skin or tribe steak or pizzle or stuffed con or whatever, if they can engage in that and that they can lick and chew, that suggests that they're in a nice place arousal wise. If they can, then we need to do more non-event hopping in, hopping out, just being spending time in the car, being in the car, the passage of time passing, eventually hopefully they'll engage with that long lasting chew. That thermometer is powerful because do they continue to chew the chew when you switch the car on? Or is that the breaking point, okay, we need to spend longer with just like let's switch the car on, let's switch it up, let's switch it on, let's just sit in the car and read the book with the heating on, right? Then we're going to switch it off, we're done. And that becomes your like thermometer temperature check as to the arousal level of your dog. Then you might start to build this into growing out and this is where, you know, it can vary from dog to dog as to how we handle this, which is where it might be worth you to schedule in a consultation with BehaveVet for us to talk through. And we deal with those of you listening where you're like, oh, I wonder if that's right for me, we do full spectrum of struggles from, you know, struggles that have just started to very, very established struggles where we're the fifth opinion on the case, right? Very normal for us to worry about reactivity separation anxiety, you know, right? Check out the reviews on trust pilot for some insight on that. And you're going to start moving in the car. But what I want you to do is almost do like a little loop. So you're literally going to maybe go off the drive round the corner back home again. And you're not, when you get home, you're not immediately going to get out the car. What you're going to do is leave your dog eating their long-lasting chew. If at some point on that loop, they stopped eating their long-lasting chew. It's not a problem. What you're going to do is you're going to go back home and you're going to wait for them to re-engage with the long-lasting chew. So they really start to learn, I may as well stay engaged with this long-lasting chew because I know how this story goes, yeah? You basically, that's kind of the advice that's like quite generic that will work depending on the driver and depend on the struggle and hopefully move things forward for you. But as I say, this is a struggle that, you know, yeah, you've been living with it for 10 years. And it's not something that you have to live with, yeah? I don't want you in a state of survive. I want you in a state of thrive. And the other thing that I like about all the advice that I've just given is if you're watching this and you're like, I've just got my new puppy, you're listening to this, sorry, I've just got my new puppy or I, um, I've just got a rescue dog and I've not yet taken them in the car. This is really nice for the first times they go in the car, right? To build out the perfect picture. You want a happy traveler, yeah? A dog that is a pleasure to have in the car means that they can get involved in more experiences with you. So this is one that's really worth investing in. And those tips rewind and listen to them pack. Those tips are, are going to be helpful even just to top up your dogs already great behavior if you're happy with where, where they're at right now. Hope you've got value guys and we will see you next time.