Dog Travel: Preventing Dog Car and Motion Sickness

The Dog Crate Guy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:01:02 +0000

Imagine this…you and your favorite furry friend are in your car heading to the local dog park, listening to your favorite song on the radio. All of a sudden you notice out of the corner of your eye that your dog isn’t looking so good. Before you know it, those dog treats you fed him before he hopped in the care have reappeared — all over your brand new leather seats.

Dog motion sickness is real and it can make even the shortest trip much more stressful for both you and your best friend!

The good news however is that there are things that you can do to help relieve your pets stress and nausea levels. A number of techniques from conditioning the behavior of your dog to using dog car sickness pills can all help with lessening the likelihood of dog car sickness.

So Just What Causes Dog Motion Sickness?

Dog motion sickness just like its human car sickness counterpart is much more prevalent in puppies and younger dogs than it is in adult dogs. The reason behind this is that younger dogs and puppies have ear structures that are not yet fully developed and as a result they cannot fully balance properly in a moving vehicle. It is common however for young dogs to outgrow travel sickness but this is not to say that all dogs will outgrow the problem…if your dog is yet to outgrow its motion sickness be sure to try some of the precautions explained a little later on in this article.

Usually dog car sickness is developed because it has become a conditioned behavior within your dog. What this means is that during one or all of your pets first few car rides he got sick and as a result he has learnt to equate car travel with feeling sick and vomiting. What ensues is that everytime your dog gets anywhere near a car he will begin to stress out and feel like being sick.

This condition usually develops because many of your dogs first trips are to the vet. If the only place you took your dog as a pup was to the vet then every time he goes near a car he will think about the vet and literally worry himself sick whilst on the road thinking about the vet!

What are the Signs of Dog Motion Sickness?

Figuring out when your dog is suffering from car sickness can be very difficult to achieve. Because dogs cant talk and they dont turn that unflattering pale color people normally turn when they are sick you need to keep a keen eye on other behavioral signs of car sickness.

Some of the signs that you can learn to identify include:

Rapid and shallow breathing
Inactivity or uneasiness
Excessive yawning
Irregular whining or scratching
Excessive drooling
Vomiting

How to Treat Dog Motion Sickness

The best piece of advice that can ever be given to begin treating a dog with chronic car sickness is to make the trip as comfortable as possible for the dog.

After you have created a comfortable travel environment for your dog the next step is to reduce the amount of visual cues that can trigger a bout of nausea. You can achieve this by making sure your dog faces forward throughout the whole trip. To ensure this happens you could use a specially designed dog seat belt, or if he is accustomed to a dog crate you could use a special portable dog crate or a travel crate for use while he is in the car.

Lowering your cars windows a fraction can also help alleviate the onset of car sickness for your dog. By lowering your car windows you can help balance the air pressure levels within the car with the pressure of the air that is outside the car. This also helps keep the car cooler and less stuffy which can help reduce any unpleasant feelings for your dog and help reduce the likelihood of a bout of motion sickness.

Tips for Coping with Dog Motion Sickness

There are a number of different techniques that you can employ to try and help disassociate your dogs behavior when riding in your car.

Try some of the following to reduce the likelihood of your dog experiencing car sickness:

Have a break from car trips for a week or two and then slowly reintroduce your dog to the car under favorable circumstances
Try traveling in an alternate vehicle to break the association your dog has with the passt
Use treats to make the car feel like a safe and comfortable place for your dog – however be careful not to overdo it as this may increase the nausea felt by your pet
Start with short car trips to build up your dogs confidence – once comfortable increase the length of your trips
Buy some special car only toys for your dog

Dog Motion Sickness Medication

Some dogs will never outgrow their motion sickness habits and cannot physically respond to any behavior reconditioning program that you may implement. These pets may be candidates for the use of car sickness medication. There are a number of over the counter and prescription medications that may reduce your pets car sickness symptoms.

Some of the medications to look into include:

Anti-sickness drugs
Antihistamines – can lessen dog motion sickness, reduce drooling, and offer sedation.
Phenothiazine – reduces vomiting and provide sedation

For a more natural solution to the nausea problem ginger pills can be quite effective. Naturally ginger is a herbal remedy for nausea. Many pet experts believe that feeding your dog a pure ginger pill 30 minutes prior to travelling can help reduce the effects of nausea. And because ginger is harmless to your dog it is very hard to overdose and cause any problems.

Be sure to consult with your veterinarian before purchasing any medication for your dogs motion sickness.

Hopefully now you are more aware of the cause of dog motion sickness. If you are in the market for a new dog crate be sure to take a look at all of our different dog crate reviews. Or if you are wanting to deck your dog crate out with some cool new accessories, check out our dog crate accessories page. Please take the time to have a look around and enjoy our site.

We wish you luck in reconditioning your dogs behavior so he too can enjoy long car rides to exciting places just as much as we do.