How do I solve car sickness without meds?

This is my very first posting. A stray dog chose me to adopt him a month ago. The vet thinks the pup is about 10 months old and is probably a shih-poo. The dog, Harvey, has behaviours which would indicate he has been abused by a male but my husband is gradually winning him over. Unfortunately, Harvey does not travel well. If I take Harvey for short drives...he is ok, though he is not keen about getting into the car. If the trip is about 30-40 minutes, Harvey vomits. The vet said I can use gravol but since my husband and I and our shih tzu love to go in our motor -home, we'd like Harvey to come round to our way of thinking, perhaps with short trip training. Does anyone have advice?

Take him for short runs to begin with, no more than 5 mins, let him sit in the car by himself when it's parked up, Smeags was awfull when she was young, even a 1 mile trip was too much for her, it does take time to get them used to motors.

Not sure if they sell a product called D.A.P (dog appeasing pheromone) in canada - my sisters border terrier puppy had terrible car sickness, she would be sick and constantly drooling every time she went in the car my sister tried quite a few things but finally bought DAP in a spray and as per the instructions sprayed her car 20 mins before she took her puppy out, it worked really well and her pup stopped being sick and started enjoying the car rides after a couple of weeks she stopped using the spray and Bindi is still loving her car rides.

Hi Carole it may be real motion sickness as opposed to fear of the car.

You can habituate your dog to the car by siting in it/playing in it/hiding treats/feeding in it and not going anywhere so the dog learns to associate the car with good things

For motion sickness make sure the car is well ventilated and prevent the dog from looking out of the window by putting it in a box or covered crate, there are some great canvas dog carriers on the market now.

Ginger is also good for all kinds of sickness , it is possible to buy ginger capsules and tablets

I agree with Minihaha - try ginger - we had an Akita who was always car sick. We solved it by giving her ginger biscuits before and during the journey. Worked a treat!

Mick

I've heard ginger can work. I bet she loved the ginger biscuits aswell!

As Minihaha said aswell, it's often them seeing out the window when the car is moving that causes the sickness, though not always. Stopping her seeing out is a good idea to try.

Good luck and keep us posted.

I was recommended an old game keepers trick was to get the dog to travel in the front footwell as this is supposed to help. Wether it does or not i don't know but my grandfather swears by it and says he has weaned a few of his dogs from being car sick by using this method. I have not tried it myself though!

Sounds just like our boy was when he was young. We kept taking him out for short journeys, and cleaning up the vomit. One day he was just fine. So he might grow out of it if he's young. IN the mean time, ginger biscuits.

Hi, my Odin also suffers terribly with "car anxiety"... he doesn't salivate excessively but can produce any or all of the '3 Ps' (puke/pee/poo) not very nice.... but we have been doing short trips, always with happy endings ie a nice new walk... we have arrived "clean" at some but not all destinations... we have learned to be prepared LOL

I reckon a lot of it is psychological. You need to do it more often, on an empty stomach, and after your dog's gone to the toilet. Perhaps when you go out each day for a walk, instead of walking drive somewhere, it could be just 3 minutes away, but that would bring positive associations with going in the car and get him used to it. I've also heard a ginger biscuit helps (since ginger supposedly helps with travelsickness- but make sure you get a biscuit that acually has ginger in it, not just flavouring)