Dog Car Sickness, Fear vs Overarousal

If you’d rather watch than read, follow this link for the video: Dog Car Sickness, Fear vs Overarousal.

Dog car sickness can look very similar on the surface, but not all dogs are struggling for the

same reason. If we treat every case the same way, we can end up getting stuck.

I’ve already made a more step by step video on helping dogs with car sickness, but after a couple of recent comments, I thought this follow up was worth making. What stood out was that the two dogs being described sounded completely different, even though both were ending up feeling sick around the car.

That’s the important point here. Same symptom, different problem.

Two types of car sickness

A simple way to think about it is this.

Imagine two people and a roller coaster.

One person goes on the roller coaster and then feels sick afterwards.

The other person feels sick just thinking about queuing for the roller coaster.

Both feel sick. But the cause is not the same.

That’s how I’m looking at some dogs and car sickness.

1. The dog who associates the car with feeling sick

This is the dog who starts drooling, worrying, or refusing to get in the car before the journey has even started. They may look at the car and already seem distressed.

This type of dog has often made a strong association. Car equals feeling sick.

Sometimes it only takes one bad experience to set that up.

For these dogs, I’d still go back to the original car sickness video and work through the process of slowly rebuilding comfort around the car. The car itself has become part of the problem, so the answer is often to break it right down and rebuild that association gently and gradually.

2. The dog who loves the car, but still gets sick

The second type of dog is very different.

This is the dog who is excited to get in the car, head out of the window, full of anticipation, rushing into the setup quite happily, but then still ends up feeling sick, drooling, or eating grass when they get out.

This is not just about motion.

This is more of an overarousal problem.

The dog is so hyped up by the whole experience that the excitement itself may be contributing to the sickness. The car does not predict dread, it predicts overload.

That means the training focus may need to shift slightly.

Instead of only thinking about getting used to travel, we may need to teach, car equals calm.

So what do we do differently?

For both kinds of dog, my original video still applies. But I do think it helps to understand which sort of dog you’re actually working with.

For the dog who has made a negative association

Go right back to basics.

Build up slowly around the car.

Focus on changing the emotional response to seeing and approaching it.

Do not rush through the stages.

For the dog who is overexcited

Practise being calm in the car without necessarily going anywhere.

Use calm activities rather than building more excitement.

Consider settle aids, licking, or chewing.

Make the car a place where nothing dramatic happens.

That second type of dog may not need more travel practice first. They may need more calm practice first.

Our current car setup

Since the last car sickness video, we’ve updated the way we travel with the dogs.

I still have the option of securing a dog on the back seat with a harness attached to the seat belt, but we also now have proper crash tested crates in the car as well.

Merlin has his TransK9 crate.

Raffi and Kira travel in a DT Box setup with vet bed inside.

For me, that’s not just about safety, it also creates a calmer, more contained space for the dogs.

That’s worth thinking about if you’ve got a dog who struggles to settle in the car. Sometimes the setup itself can help support calmer behaviour.

Final thought

If your dog is still struggling with car sickness, it may help to ask a slightly different question.

Not just, how do I stop my dog feeling sick in the car?

But, what kind of dog have I actually got here?

Are they afraid of the car because they’ve learnt to associate it with feeling ill?

Or are they so wound up by the whole experience that excitement is tipping them over?

That distinction might help you make better progress.

If you’d rather hear me talk it through, watch the video here: Dog Car Sickness, Fear vs Overarousal

Let me know how your dog responds around the car. Are they wary of it, or do they love it a bit too much?

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