4 out of 5 dogs of mine love car rides and do so well. They will hop right in the car and will fall asleep and sleep the entire car ride. Destiny does so well with car rides, she goes to sleep right away. Scampers on the other hand is a whole different story. I have had him since March and you would think he would be use to car rides, noooo not him. I go down to my grandma's every 2 weeks to visit, she lives about an hour or more away. Plus I take him with me on short car rides all the time, every chance I get. So Scampers has ridden in the car hundreds of times and have been trying this for months now. Everytime he will shake, pant, whine, become restless and trying to climb everywhere, he is always trying to climb on my head. It is horrible and it really scares me. I am afraid he is going to have a heart attack because he pants so hard and shakes, it is almost like hyperventalating or a panic attack. He has never had a bad experience with car rides so I don't know why he does this.
I thought he would get over his fear, but that wasn't going to happen.
Anyways I was thinking I was going to have to give him a sedative everytime we traveled, leaving him home is not an option. And then Destiny came in the picture. For some reason, maybe she senses his nervousness, she will lay on Scampers and is actually holding him down. When she does this he calms down right away and goes to sleep and is perfectly happy. I guess you could say she is the cure. This is the only time he is calm, if she is not laying on him he freaks out like he normally does. I think it is really weird, but hey if it works, it works.
I wish I could give you advice to help you out but I can't. I do hope that you have more success with Hope than I had with Scampers. I tried everything, made it a positive and very fun experience, didn't baby him or give in and it didn't do any good. Thank goodness Destiny has came along and helped him.
Good luck with little Hope!!