Dog going mad in the car

[Capri]

Hi,

I have a two-year old brasilian terrier, male. Every time we drive somewhere with the dog, it keeps screaming a lot, really loud and high pitch noise (truly hurts our ears). Nothing seems to help. I sit in the back with the dog and my husband drives. We've tried the other way around, but nothing. The dog is also very restless. We put the dog in the front, and I sit in the back while my husband drives. That helped, until today. We had a two-hour drive and almost the whole time the dog kept whining and wouldn't keep still. It sounded miserable, kept looking at my husband with those pleading eyes and had that pleading tone in its whining. It tried to climbe into my husband's lap, dangerous. And it tried to come to the back seat with me. I let the dog in the back yesterday, but it just climbed in my lap and shouted in my husband's other ear (I sat behind him). What can we do? We have used an anti-bark collar, but it doesn't pick up all the really painful high pitch tones.

We always make sure that the dog has done all its needs before we go, so it can't be that. It has never been sick in the car or anything like that, and it has never refused to jump in the car. Actually it's always the first one there. Every time we take out the car harness it gets really noisy and excited. We have also taken the dog to boring places, like the vet. So I don't think it associates the car with fun destinations as such.

This is really a problen for us, because we can't keep asking people to look after the dog while we're away. And we both go mad with the dog screaming and yelling in the car, because it really hurts our ears and puts us in a bad mood.

[Aidan]

So what would you like your dog to do instead of whining and carrying on?

Get some small yummy treats and train it.

Step 1. Door manners, must be sitting quietly before being let in car. No more car trips until this is achieved. Open door when sitting quietly for 3 seconds and let in car.

Step 2. Sit on seat in car quietly without going anywhere. Praise and reward when quiet, ignore totally when noisy.

Step 3. Must sit quietly while engine running. Don't actually drive anywhere, put the car in "Park" with the handbrake on and the engine running. Praise and reward when quiet, ignore totally when noisy.

Step 4. Sit quietly for a very short trip. Get husband to drive, you praise and reward for quiet. Ignore totally when whining.

Step 5. You get the idea, same deal, longer trips.

Sound good?

[Capri]

Hi,

thank you for the tips. I'll have to try those.