Thank you for the advice! I will try and see if any of my friends would be willing for me to lend their cars for a while - they are all 18/19 so not a lot of them have cars which is an issue.
That is definitely useful advice, I hadn't thought of exposing her to traffic/new situations after excersize so that she's less hyper but I will try that!
Unfortunately as soon as she gets anywhere near a car she panics and doesn't even see/hear/smell me or the treats & her only concern seems to be to get back home.
That sounds like a good idea - it is very hard to get her to any new places as she knows exactly where she wants to go & feels most comfortable and if I try take her 1 metre out of this area she panics. I have tried on many occasions to change routes and encorporate cars and other situations into a walk but she always get's out of it and I have made it worse by giving into her as I always feel too bad pulling her towards something she's is petrified of. Obviously in the long-run I would be helping her out so I have to stay strong and probably get some extra help for physical strenght as she can pull me away easily!
I think you're right & I will look at getting a trainer in as I really don't want to worsen the situation and I don't want her to lose trust in me either.
Thank you so much for all the helpful advice, I'll start trying it out as soon as possible!

thank you! I hope so too, I will let you all know how I get on

hi there where abouts in the UK are you. There might be someone on here who lives close to you that be able to help as well.

sorry not much help but a thought

I have the exact same problem except my girl lunges at them to scare them away, not much fun when she weighs 37kg and of course was always rewarded because past they sped.
I tried sitting her near a road in hope she would eventually get fed up but it made her more terrified than ever and we went backwards.
So I chose places to go where she could see traffic but there was a good distance between us and she had her comfort zone. Very very slowly over a year we have decreased this and she is now much better, not cured but better.
Most cars if she is on the inside of me along the road she will let happily go past with no reaction, the majority of vans as long as they are not too noisy or too fast and occasional buses and lorries depending on how close she is.
Motorbikes and push bikes are still a big no no although we did have one get past us the other day with no reaction.
She still can't cope with any traffic on wet roads, the swishing noise from the rain on the wheels terrifies her and she lunges and barks.
The key I have found with her is to take it very very slowly and never break thier comfort zone. I do have times I wish I could just put her on a lead as I do my other one and have a niced relaxed walk round the roads, perhaps one day we will although the rate we are going she will be 15 by then and too old to protest LOL She is 2 now.
However from where we were a year ago we have made quite an improvement.
I would just like to add my girl is happy to go past anything stationary its the moving ones she doesn't like and she will travel happily in my car but will bark at cyclists or motorbikes while in there too.

What will she be travelling in when you move? It may be worth getting her used to being in a covered cage if the vehicle she will be travelling in will accommodate one to lessen the impact of three hours in the vehicle.

If she panics when she's two metres away from a car, start the desensitisation process (ie, look at the lovely car, treat/game/tickles/all three ) at three metres away (or whatever distance she doesn't react at) and gradually (GRADUALLY) work closer. Start with parked cars then re-start the process with slow moving cars, then re-start the process with ................... (gradually upping the number and speed of the cars) Work through each step slowly and make sure she has thoroughly overcome her apprehension on one step before moving to the next.

I think someone has already asked, but where in the country are you? Perhaps one of us could help with desensitising her in respect of getting in a car and gradually getting used to travelling in one. If there's no-one close, then find your nearest trainer or put an advert in your vets/petshops with a plea for help - dog lovers are usually a very helpful lot

No probs! Remember anything you do has to be gradual, you are taking her out of her comfort zone. If she sticks to set routes and doens't want to change, do it at the end of the walk and slowly introduce a change, you may not get her to near a car initially, just get her used to changing her route in the park perhaps.
As a few people have said perhaps if you live near someone on here, someone could help with a car???
Remember most of all, it's taken 4 years for her to get this way, things will not change quickly, take everythign really, really slowly and it will pay off in the long term. Good luck.

All the advice given so far is great and should help enormously. When our GR was a pup he too was rather wary of traffic - a rescue who was in kennels until he was 10 weeks old and so not had a lot of socialisation up until that point.

I used to take him to a bridge over a busy dual carriageway and we would sit and watch the traffic go past underneath us. He was far enough away to not be too spooked but close enough to hear the sounds and see all the movement. It seemed to work for him as he is not at all bothered by traffic nowadays.

I too am only just over 5' tall and can appreciate how difficult it can be to hang on to a large GR who is trying to escape something they are frightened of. Perhaps you could try a canny collar on your dog - gives total control and our dog got used to it really really quickly. If you do a search for the canny collar company on google you will find the site. I use one when walking after dark in the winter as our dog was spooked by a firework and there is no way I could hang on to him without it if a firework went off. With it on I have control of him at all times.

oh dear, i'm sorry you have those problems as well! i have that problem, in that she gets so unbelievably scared of sitting near still cars - only about 5 in the parking area and we live in a cul-de-sac and just pulls in any direction other to get away from there that i eventually give up!
haha i never thought of that - when they're older they wont want to protest so much! my one is only 5 so she's still as hyper as ever! i wish she would even go past stationary cars but there's no way she wants to get anywhere near anything that even resembles a car! thanks for you advice though, and i hope things continue improving for yourself!

i'm not too sure yet, she is quite a large dog so i may have some trouble even getting her near a crate! but i will look into it.

that sounds like a good idea - i have tried many times just to get her used to being around cars but if i take her right outside our house she gets edgy with the parked cars (keeping in mind we live in a cul-de-sac so theres rarely any moving cars), the closer you get her, the more she protests & completely loses interest in all food & me trying to get her attention - it all goes out the window! i find it virtually impossible to keep her there for even a bit, she's not very happy to just sit outside and wait, she'd rather get to the park and run around!
i live in cambridge, but i wouldn't want to trouble anyone! i am still trying to get someone to lend me their car for a bit and hopefully will be able to try that out soon.
that's a very good idea, i think at the moment the best idea is to get a trainer as i don't want to make the situation worse - i just don't know if i can afford it at the moment though!
thank you for your advice

definitely, i've been trying out different routes and taking her home through different ways, though if she sees any cars in the distance she tends to freak out and go the opposite way! i think getting her used to new places will definitely help her though. thank you so much, i think what i need most is patience and to help her get through this, i just get so upset when i have to make her do something she hates and is so obviously afraid of. hopefully she will eventually improve & start getting used to being around moving cars!