Sunday, we went to weight pull practice (see video a couple posts back). Both leaving the house and leaving the practice, putting Apollo into the car required my husband to physically pick him up and place him in the car. Not because the puppy was incapable of climbing in himself, but because as soon as he realized he was expected to get into the car he went into full panic mode: absolute end of the leash, choking on the collar, trying to get away from the evil car. THIS IS NORMAL for this dog. He HATES the car, probably a side affect of having his first real long distance introduction to one being the 10hr drive home from the breeders (he’d been to the vets a couple times with her, but her vet was literally down the road, very short trip). We’ve been working on it bit by bit, but every time we took him someplace he’d panic at the sight of the open car door.
Today Apollo walks up to the car (unusual), I open the door (expecting him to head for the hills), and he jumps in, sits down and looks at me. WTF??
(so we went for a drive around the block. We got home, he jumps out, I figure he’ll run away next time….right? Wrong, he just jumped, voluntarliy, into the backseat of the car again. Now if only I could figure out what I did that made it all click for him!!)
I hope lots of treats were given to the good puppy!
He probably figured out that he usually has fun when he gets in the car – he gets to go pulling which is attention and fun.
I have a “used” dog, that for some reason I had to physically put in the truck and then he would foam at the mouth. After 8 years of that (he usually only goes to the vet), he just suddenly stopped foaming and gets in the truck by himself.
Goodness only knows what goes on in those doggy minds.
Lots and lots of treats.
At least part of the problem was that he used to get really really car sick in the car, but he's not been outright sick in a while (its hard to tell if he's feeling nausous or not), and we've put quite a bit of effort into taking him “fun” places (plus I think he actually LIKES the vets, all sorts of dog loving people there who are always willing to pet him).