Helping a Dog Get Over its Fear of Going for Car Rides

By: David Codr

Published Date: July 6, 2020

Akira scaled - Helping a Dog Get Over its Fear of Going for Car Rides

For this Omaha dog training session we help 4 year-old Coonhound mix Akira get over her anxiety of going for rides in the car.

Some dogs are fearful of riding in the car due to a bad experience. Other dogs get anxious in cars due to car sickness or lack of positive experiences as a puppy. Some dogs are aggressive in the car territorially. The good news is you can use this technique Im about to go over to help a dog with any of these issues.

Stopping a dog from hating the car is all about building positve associations and doing so while th dog is calm and what is referred to as under threshold, ie non reactive. If the dog is breathing heavy, drooling, whining, barking, stiff, sniffing the ground instead of listening, refuses to look at you or shows other signs of distress, you are moving too fast.

I have heard back from hundreds of clients who say “its not working anymore” only to find out the reason its not working is the dog is past its threhold or limit. Any work completed with a dog past its threshold is meaningless so go slow and don’t move too fast for your dog.

You can learn how to help a dog get over fear or anxiety of riding in the car in the following free posituve dog training video.

Because the car area is not fenced in, we practiced this secret to helping a dog get over a fear of the car in the back yard using the grill to represent the car. The principal is the same when helping a dog get over a fear of driving in the car. This is an easy way to help a dog get over its fear of the car, so easy in fact anyone can do it. Even if you are not a professional Coonhound mix dog trainer.

Another issue the guardians wanted help with was Akira’s bad habit of trying to steal food. I filmed a bonus video on how to teach a dog to stay behind an invisible line.

Id recommend the guardians practice havingt their child eat meals and snacks at different locaiton in the house and yard so they can practice this boundary exercise.

To help the guardians remember all the other dog behavior tips we shared in this in home Omaha dog training session, we recorded a roadmap to success video that you can watch below.

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This post was written by: David Codr