Travel Fear: How Do You Help Your Hound Overcome It?

It’s  not uncommon for greyhounds to be fearful of travelling in the car.   You might drive them home from the rehoming centre and all will go  well…but then any attempts to get them in the car thereafter can be a  bit of a saga!  
It only affects a small percentage,  but why does it happen at all?  Greyhounds are quite used to travelling  as part of their racing career!  So, logic would suggest that being in a  car isn’t that big a deal, right?

When  greyhounds are transported for racing, they are loaded into crates in a  van and have all their greyhound buddies in the crates around them.   While ventilated and air conditioned, they don’t typically have windows,  so once the door is shut, they are kept dark and quiet.  This is what  they’re used to!

When they get  adopted, the likeliness is they’ve never actually been in a car!  So,  while they are used to the movement and sounds of travel, they aren’t  used to windows and seeing all the things as they whizz past!  It can be  very overwhelming, and as sighthounds, they are seeing and experiencing  a massive amount of information while travelling.

The  day you take your hound home, they’re all a bit overwhelmed and quite  often they’ll travel with no problem at all because they’re running on  autopilot!  

Subsequently, for  some of them, they remember that first experience and remember it  negatively.  This can result in them becoming afraid of getting back in  the car…or if they do willingly get in the car (or let you hoick them  in), they can refuse to settle, pant, keep moving from window to window  and have generalised anxiety and distress.

This can potentially be dangerous in distracting for the driver by dividing their attention…which is not good!

Some  just don’t like travelling and build negative associations with it.   This can occur before or after retirement, whether its motion sickness,  associating being in the car as going to the vet or because they just do  not approve of your driving style or music choices!

If  your hound is afraid of travelling, rectifying the situation is more  than just throwing them in the car and driving around until they accept  it and lay down.  It can be a bit of a drawn-out process depending on  how ingrained their phobia is and what the root of the phobia is.

To  address their fear of travelling, you want to counter condition them.   This means you’re going to be changing their understanding and  associations of being in the car, turning a negative into a positive, to  help them overcome their fear.

This  involves desensitising them to the premise of being in the car (without  driving!) and making sure that they feel comfortable enough to lay down  and settle.  

Though as hound  owners know, they can be increasingly precious for no good reason, and  not settling in the car can be as simple as them being physically  uncomfortable…as in the chair isn’t comfortable enough!
Making  sure they are set up in a way that encourages them to naturally feel  that they can lay down is an easy first step to rule out their personal  preferences as the reason for them not settling during travel.

But  before you go throwing the back seats down and putting a mattress in  there, remember that you do still need to transport your hound sensibly  and in safely in the eyes of the law!

As  we discussed previously about travel safety, it’s important to have  your dog secured for transport. The dog is strapped in in case of an  accident and theoretically, they are contained within a stable structure  such as a back seat hammock or crate.

Ensure  the surface the dog is on is stable, non-slip and comfortable.  Sitting  freely in the back seat can result in them falling into the footwell  when you break sharply, which can be really scary!  They may not feel  stable enough to lay down for fear of falling off the seat.  
Even  if you are using a back seat hammock for them, if your dog is  particularly sensitive (or clumsy), they may still not find this stable  enough.  Placing something in the footwells to bolster up the hammock  and prevent dips can make a big difference.  A nice blanket or duvet on  top…problem solved!

Or similarly  just sitting in the boot without a blanket or bed can be uncomfortable  for them, and often boot liners can be slippy.  Greyhounds are just a  bag of elbows and they do really like their comfort, so putting  something soft down can be a very quick and easy solution!

Failing  that, it can be a visibility issue.  As we mentioned, they aren’t used  to travelling in cars and there’s just too much going on outside the  windows!  Reducing this can help.  Items such as window shades can help  and won’t hinder the driver.
Should it be a noise  issue, a ‘happy hoodie’ or snood over the ears can help reduce the noise  and make the dog feel more at ease.

There  are various calming supports you can use such as the Adaptil or Rescue  Remedy travel sprays that you can use on the dog’s blanket or on a  bandana that they wear while travelling, or ginger based treats to help  prevent motion sickness.

It could  also be positional.  For instance, if you may have only tried  travelling your dog in the boot and they find it very unsettling, you  could trial them in the back seat and find that solves all the problems  (or vice versa!).  

For instance,  one of our team’s greyhound dislikes travelling and while they will now  settle in the back seat and tolerate journeys without complaint.   However, any attempt to travel her in the boot results in chaos!  Their  owner gave up on the idea after getting crushed by her automatic boot  closing on her in an attempt to save her hound when they panicked as it  was shutting.  
(Yes, it was very embarrassing for  her having her bum hang out the back of her car while she waited for the  safety features to kick in and re-open the boot!)

While  any number of these ideas might rectify the situation, more often than  not, a hound’s fear of travelling will be more deeply rooted and a  combination of these and desensitiation to being in the car is  necessary.

By desensitisation, we  don’t mean putting them in the car and driving around until they  eventually settle.  When subjected to an inescapable stressor like this,  when they ‘settle’ it isn’t because they are comfortable with the  situation or that they have overcome their fears.  They have entered a  state of helplessness and have submitted to the situation, which can  cause more chronic issues down the line.

If  you want to truly help your hound, you need to build their confidence  and come to the conscience decision to accept, learn and feel safe in  the car.  This is something that can’t be rushed!
You’ll  need to ensure that you don’t have anything in the calendar that will  require the dog to be travelled for a few weeks, while they undergo  training, so not to upset the process.

The  first step is just having them in the car, stationery, and engine off.   No expectation, no movement or intention to turn the engine on.  Just  parked.  Do this for a few minutes at a time with a gradual increase in  time over the course of several days.  
Have  something from indoors that they like such as a favourite toy, blanket,  bed or one of our own t shirts to have comforting scents in the car.

Sit  in there with them, fuss them, talk to them, and give the dogs treats, a  kong, lickimat or other high reward items to build positive  associations with the premise of being in the car.  You can even do some  training with them, to distract their mind, and focus their attention  on getting rewarded despite being in the car.  

Then,  as they progress with this and start showing signs of comfort such as  sitting, laying down, not shaking or panting, you can go to the next  stage.  This is having the engine on.

Again,  no pressure or expectation to go anywhere, you’re just going to sit  parked with the engine running and repeat the same process as they get  used to the vibrations and noise.

It  is important to note during all this not to have any music on, or if  really want to have the radio on, have the volume turned down with  something peaceful on such as soft classical music.  You want to be  reducing any stimuli or potential stressors during the training process.   Dogs are much more noise sensitive than us and if you make a habit of  blaring music while the dog is in the car…they aren’t going to want to  get in there!

Once your dog is comfortable and showing progress with having the engine on, you can start adding movement.  
Not  a lot, we’re not talking about going for a drive yet.  Simply do a  little bit of movement such as slowly moving up and down the driveway.   Do this this over a few days, or until you feel your dog is ready to  move onto driving up and down your street.

Make  sure to have a friend, or family member, with you to supervise the dog,  provide treats or just oversee them chewing on a long-lasting natural  chew or Kong, so you can focus on the road.

This  process can take days, if not weeks, to get to the stage of moving the  vehicle depending on how strong their phobia is.  If you find your dog  starts to regress in their progress once you start driving, back track  and couple of steps and gradually build it back up.

Make  sure to keep the car cool, but comfortable, as if they do start panting  and stressing, they will get hot.  If this happens, you will want to go  back to the parked training.

Once  you have mastered driving up and down the road, you can then start to  increase the distance while avoiding any major roads, or roads that are  likely to have lorries, buses or other large vehicles.

Take  it slow, avoid going around corners quickly and drive in a polite  manner…yes, your driving style can influence your dog’s comfort!  If  you’re driving around like a speed demon with road rage, your poor dog  is going to be thrown around the back and it won’t be a great surprise  that they don’t make any progress with their travel fear!

Eventually,  over time and taking it at the dog’s pace (as time consuming and  frustrating as it can be) you should find that your dog feels much more  comfortable in travelling.  They may never be perfect, they may still  pant, but if they are able to settle, cope and prevent distracting you  as a driver…that’s a win!

Getting  to the root of why your dog dislikes travelling is important, so a  certain amount of trial and error will be involved in the beginning, but  a combination of all the above should help…particularly a very phased  and positive reintroduction to being in the car.

At  the end of the day, no one wants their dog to be stressed in the car  and if you are really struggling and find that working with them in this  manner is not helping, seek the aid of a qualified positive  reinforcement behaviourist to help you.

And if that doesn’t work…as a last resort you can talk to your vet about anti-nausea or anti-anxiety medication!