Does your baby get anxious in the car?
 

Hey everyone. I was wondering if your yorkie gets anxious in the car and what do you do about it? I had Maxi since he was a puppy and tried to have him in the car as much as I could so he gets used to it. He was fine but then now he developed this anxious behavior. Its either he is excited when we go somewhere or nervous. He whines and looks in the windows as soon as we stop on the signal lights as of he wants to know where we are and why are we stopping. When I drive on the highways he is fine sitting or laying down in his car seat. Once I get to my destination he is running around and then crash because of being anxious in the car. On the way home he is fine sleeping in his car seat. I want to put a stop to it because I dont want him to lose all his nervs. I found in dog catalog few things like a spray and gel that makes dogs relax in a stressful situations. It says it is made out of natural pheromonoes and doesnt have any toxics. It is made for travel, new enviroment, trip to the vet and so on. I wonder if anyone use this?

Chloe gets sooo nervous with car ride too and she still is:( !! She threw up twice on our way to Chicago from Indy (about 3 hours drive - one way) She always whin and shake for hours! I asked my vet and he prescribed acepromazine for carsick.

Check out this thread for more info....

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=108881

I have no idea about the spray..can you post a link to that product?

I think it's a fairly common problem with a lot of us here. I had the same experience as you have had. When Max was a baby, we rented a big car to drive about a 10 hour drive. He was PERFECT the entire way there and home; slept like a baby either on a blanket on the seat between us (didn't know about carseats then) or in his bed on the back seat. Once he got a little older, he started shaking, panting, whining, etc whenever we got into the car. The interesting this is that when we're just in town, he's perfectly FINE on the way home:confused:.
We have taken him on several of the long trips and I'm just not sure what it is that is making him nervous. I first thought it was b/c my dh always starts an argument when we're getting ready to go anywhere far away;then I thought it was b/c our car was not a great big sedan, then I thought it was b/c he didn't like the sound of the big trucks on the freeway....
I have tried almost everything that's OTC....Rescue Remedy, some pills called "Content-Um", Benadryl liquid, and some pills called "Quiet Moments"....NOTHING has done any good that I can tell. Our last trip, I gave Max the Quiet Moments, and he wasn't TOO anxious, but I think it was just a fluke; once we got to where we were going, I had to take a few hour long trips and he was just as anxious as ever and he was relatively anxious on the way home too. So I just don't know. It seems like he's not quite as bad if I hold him on my lap (only I have to set his carrier with a foam insert in and some other soft items so he's about at my chest level, leaning against me the entire time, and he'll relax a little bit. He isn't any less anxious sitting in a console car seat and my dh freaks out if Max is anxious and he's driving. I have figured that Max seems to have survived his anxiety this long with no problems and I don't want to totally drug him, so I just try to keep him as calm as I can. I hope someone has something else they can suggest, but this is my experience thus far. Maybe they're just so small that it's not fun for them to see things flying by them; I always wonder about the dogs who LOVE to go for rides and sit in the seat with their tongues hanging out, LOL....anything so I don't have to hold him up for 10 hours!

thanks. I really dont want to give him pills thats why I found that spray that just makes them relaxed naturally without any toxics and stuff. My baby shakes too thats why I think is just he is being nervous so I was thinking that this spray will help. It says that you spray on his fav things like his bed or his carseat and it makes them relax

Luckily, my Max doesn't throw up! That would REALLY bum me out! I'm going to check into your vet's suggestion. Thank you!

My Jewels gets really anxious and sometimes gets sick in the car. I havent found anything to help it so I really dont take her on car rides unless I really have to. Chachi my other yorkie however loves to go on car rides. They are all so different

Oh I know what you mean exacly! Maxi does this panting shaking and whining. Its funny that you mentioned the console seat cause I was thinking to get that one so Maxi is closer to me. Hm probably that wont help cause you dog would still whine and pant. Ok here is the spray that I found. Its called Comfort Zone its says that the scent mimics natural pheromones that secreted by nursing mother dogs, sending a signal of comfort and safety to her puppies. When your dog senses the pheromone he feels secure and comfortable, reducing his urge to act out destructively through chewing, barking, whining or house soiling. It says that it is developed by veterinarians and behaviorists in Europe and these were proved remarkable effective. I am willing to try this the thing is it is kind of expensive the spray is 30 bucks.

Rocky is 4 years old and from day 1 he has always gotten car sick. With him I always have to make sure he travels on a lite stomach. Daisy is 3 years old and she never has gotten sick once.

Rocky has a nervous type personality, and Daisy is very relaxed.

Gino gets a bit nervous when he cant sit in my lap, which is never! They just dont understand when you tell them "thats dangerous, little man!" ;)

So far Jeter does great with car rides. He gets excited when I tell him we are going bye bye and he starts jumping around like a mad man.

Your comment about him getting anxious when you stepped on the brake is interesting. Our baby loves to go for a ride in the car and loves to bark at anything she sees while riding. She also will sit on my lap and sleep an entire trip if we are on an interstate. However, as soon as the brake is touched, she has to sit up and look out. She doesn't get nervous, but she has to see what is happening. She can be completely out, but that brake goes on, even slightly, and she is up and looking out the window.;)

Now that mine are used to riding in car seats they are actually more anxious riding on a lap. They prefer their seats. It took them a while to be like this though. When you get in the car stick a bunch of TINY treats in his seat and let him sniff around to get them all, or give him a bully stick or a kong. Something that means car=yummy treats!

Max is more alert too, whenever you either put the brake on or stop. I could hang with him just doing that, but having to hold him all the time is really kind of exhausting, even though he's small. I think I'll give the spray a try.
I also kind of wonder, after reading mmini's thread where alaskayorkie mentioned that one of his dogs reacted badly (sounds like he was hallucinating to me) to the other medication she'd mentioned (ace....something?); if maybe when I gave my Max a couple of the things I mentioned earlier, they weren't part of the reason he was so anxious? I mean, he DOES the shaking thing almost everytime we get in the car, but the panting and whining I just wonder if it's not a side effect of the stuff I gave him? It's so hard to know sometimes.

Re: the console car seat: I think it's always worth a try, b/c like Chachi said "they're all so different". I've read from some people that they had excellent results using a console car seat.

I'm going to at least try the spray around town and see if it helps.

Hmm interesting about the treats yeah I ll try that but I tried his favorite toys and that didnt work lol so maybe treats will...

I'm lucky in that Britney and Brooklyn do great in the great. I travel a lot so I'm very thankful that they do so well. Britney sometimes gets a little antsy, but not to bad. Brooklyn sleeps the entire time.

That's what I'd LOVE to happen eventually! I think in mmini's thread someone (it's post #25)said something about having them in their kennel where they couldn't actually see out the window, but could only see them that helped. I think that might be my next trial if the spray doesn't help. Only thing is, Max has never been in one other than the first night we got him, so.....but I'll try anything once almost! I like the idea of the treats in their bed or whereever, but Max refuses to eat or drink anything practically while he's in the car:confused: . Maybe if I had some peanut butter or something more enticing than his kibbles he might find it more appealing?

Now, my other thought as an option would be.....how about a companion dog...is that a possibility to help keep their mind off the car/traffic if they had someone to play with:confused: . I know it's a little extreme, but it might help my case to get a companion dog for Max;) . Just a thought.

Actually Sammy does better in the car when Loki is with her.

But Loki learned to settle on his own. You never know. You might get another nervous one :)

Oh....yeah.....I never thought of that:rolleyes: . That would NOT be a good scenario, LOL!

Ok so I tried today to take Maxi to the park. I took a bigger carseat for him thinking that he might be more comfortable in it and put his favorite bone there. On the way he was panting and whining but then as I got stuck in traffic surprisingly he lay down usually it is the opposite. He completely ignored his favorite bone though. He was stressed out but was a little bit better than the last time I took him. He acts a little better when he is in the car only with me. When me and my boyfriend go together with Maxi somewhere in the car forget about it. So I took him today myself to the park and he enjoyed the good weather. On the way back as soon as I put him down in the car seat he started to chew on his bone. After he was done he lay down and slept the whole way back. Its like he knows that when we go somewhere its not home its some other place and he gets anxious but when we go back he knows he goes home and completely relaxed lol

Lucy and Rebel both get anxious - but Lucy gets carsick! I give her Rescue Remedy drops and it helps, but she is going to throw up either coming or going.

Rebel's anxious because he wants to be held. It only takes him a few minutes to calm down and then he's fine.

Punkin loves the car A LOT! We had a problem after she was spayed and she didn't want to get in and was shaking etc., so we made it fun with a couple of treats and we just went a short distance and came home and played. That did the trick. We did that twice and haven't had a problem since and that was 2 years ago.

The only problem we have now is that she gets sooo excited when the signal light goes on. She gets way over excited. She is buckled in, but still makes a huge racket in excitement. We are working on getting her to calm down.

A Little Update
 

So finally I got a console carseat for Maxi hoping that it would work better and he would be more calm. IT WORKED! I tried it today and he was fine sitting in it and no panting or crying at all! I went driving for 10 min and then we went home. Usually if he would sit in lookout regular carseat he would start panting and crying as soon as we get in the car and start driving. He was such a good boy I cant believe its over with all the craziness and nervousness! I guess he just wanted to be closer to me when I am driving thats all. Yay!:D Maxi is 6 pounds and he fits the console carseat eventhou it says for pets under 4 pounds. He has just enough space to lay down and relax.

That's great news! If only they could talk to us - it would be so much easier to figure out what's going on in their doggie minds :) Happy Driving!!

can someone post a link to one of these console car seats y'all are talking about?

Oh here is the link:http://www.dog-car-seats.com/lookout-con.htm

Bella does the same thing shaking and panting every time we drive around town. If we get on the highway though she lays down and sleeps. She has never gotten car sick. Sometimes if we are out and about long enough she eventually calms down and the shaking stops. I'm sure she is excited to go. If you asked her, "do you want to go?" she runs to the door and looks behind her to see if your coming. Sometimes she will scratch at the door she gets so excited.

I thought about getting her a car seat but I wasn't sure how she would do in the back seat. If I get a car seat I would have to get one big enough for 2.

Riley does well for car rides excempt when it's raining. She absolutly HATES the windshield wiper. She barks like crazy everytime it passes across. At first we thought it was funny, but then it starts to get annoying. Now we take a light blanket & put it over the carrier.

Bella is very calm in the car. She usually stays in her carrier, the most anxious she gets is just to get out of the carrier and sit on the passengers lap. Rocky is fine when we first get in the car, or if it's just him , me and Bella in the car. If someone else is driving though and he's on my lap, he gets anxious about half way through the ride, and also he knows when were about to arrive such as in someones neighborhood or in the parking lot, he starts whinning and jumping at the window. it's really wierd, like he knows were at our destination or something.

Hi everyone, I've just started the forum. I have a 8 week old named Roxii. When we first got her, my mom and I traveled up to tarheel NC, and that took around 3 hours. On the way home, Roxii was very anxious at first. She settled down after being in the car for awhile. She goes almost everywhere with us, quite honestly. Today we were gone about 4 hours total. We went out to eat and she stayed in the car and slept! So I guess she was pretty comfortable in the car then. My puppy actually lays on the cupholder/storage place in the car between the driver and the passenger seat. She is so content there and just lays and sleeps! Of course when she gets bigger, she probably won't fit. But she loves it now!

We use crates in the car for ours that are anxious in the car. Just today I took one of the boys to the vet - without the carseat - and he ended up so nervious he got an upset stomach.

Our littlest yorkie loves her console carseat....she has had it for about 2 years and loves to go in the car.

Like someone said above....they are all so different!