A bumpy ride

Dear Dogs Today 

I have a four-month-old collie puppy who has a problem with cars. If she knows she is being taken to the car I struggle to get her out the front door, and I eventually have to pick her up and put her in the car. She then goes to the furthest point away she can in the car and lays down and doesn’t move again until the car stops. Her car journeys are normally to go for a lovely walk or flyball competition so they don’t have a negative outcome.

When out walking her it’s clear to see that she has a fear of cars. She either tries to get away from them to the point that I've had to put in her in a harness to stop her from slipping her collar, or she chases them. I’m not sure if playing with her near my car with a tennis ball or giving her treats and getting her closer to the car (but not actually moving the car) would work. I have had dogs all my life but this little girl is the first with this problem. We travel in the car quite a lot and I would like to help her to be happier with it.

Thanks 

Sue, via email 

Scaredy dog

Hi,

I am hoping that people might be able to offer some advice to help our gorgeous two-year-old Labradoodle, Bella!

We rescued Bella at the age of three months. She had spent the first three months shut in a cage in a barn so she had had no socialisation and was scared of everything! We have worked hard with her - it took ages to housetrain her (she thought you used a crate!) and she is still not reliable. She is still very scared of going out and getting her out of the gate and along the road is pretty difficult. However, I feel she has made some progress. But she is terrified of fireworks and when people come to the door, she seems so agitated/ fearful that she attacks our other dogs ( we have two Italian Spinones and a PBGV). She seems to find it hard to relax and is on constant "alert".

She enjoys training and can sit, go down and is doing well with stay. She is a sweet, affectionate little girl and we love her to bits. We do realise that a lot of her problems stem from fear so we try to help her with rewards, putting her alone briefly if someone is coming and so on, but we would love her to be more confident.

Any thoughts/ ideas would be really appreciated!

Many thanks.

Nicola, by email

Karen Wild, behaviourist, advises…

Lucky Bella as she has such a lovely, understanding owner now! It sounds like you are working really hard with her. I think you are doing a lot of really good things already, and I would certainly look at ways to stop the difficulties at the door. In situations like this dogs can often find it overwhelming and can redirect this to whoever is nearby, including other dogs. Can you teach her to run to her bed when there is a noise at the door for example? 

This is quite basic training, where you build on the normal ‘go to bed’ by adding on the door noise as a cue for her to run there for a treat, toy or cuddle – whatever she loves the most. You can in fact train all your dogs to run to separate places if you need to!

With regard to fireworks, this can be tough for most dogs and when working with an already fearful dog can be even harder.

I think asking your Vet for referral to a APBC behaviourist (www.apbc.org.uk) might be a good move, as you can set up foundations for future success this way.