# car sickness



## Evie24 (Mar 8, 2020)

My 5 month old cockapoo gets sick on car rides over 45 mins. When we first got her and started driving home she immediately got car sick. She used to cry a lot on short drives but after giving her treats and taking her out more she doesn't cry anymore. Now she is fine on short drives in her kennel but always throws up on car rides over 45 mins. I really don't want to go to the vet for medication in order for her to be on longer drives. Is there anything I can do that will fix this? What can I do to help make her not sick on car rides longer than 45 mins?


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

She is still only a baby and her first few trips will have been stressful, coming home from breeder and then going to vets. She needs lots of short fun journeys so she can get used to travelling and start to enjoy it rather than be anxious


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## SkiTrak (Jul 16, 2016)

Evie24 said:


> My 5 month old cockapoo gets sick on car rides over 45 mins. When we first got her and started driving home she immediately got car sick. She used to cry a lot on short drives but after giving her treats and taking her out more she doesn't cry anymore. Now she is fine on short drives in her kennel but always throws up on car rides over 45 mins. I really don't want to go to the vet for medication in order for her to be on longer drives. Is there anything I can do that will fix this? What can I do to help make her not sick on car rides longer than 45 mins?


Make sure she can see out the window. Like humans dogs can get motion sick if the are moving but cannot see it. Get her a car seat that gets her up high enough so she can see out the windows.


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## Evie24 (Mar 8, 2020)

I often drive alone so I can't have her upfront with me, she always tries to jump onto my lap while im driving and its safer to have dogs in a kennel while driving. I put all the back seats down and put her kennel right behind the armrest that is between the two front seats, so she can see me and see out the windshield. However if she lays down at one end of the kennel.. im not sure if she would be able to see out of any of the windows. Do you think if I propped up her kennel on something to elevate it that it might help? That way she could see out of the back seat car windows.


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## Evie24 (Mar 8, 2020)

2ndhandgal said:


> She is still only a baby and her first few trips will have been stressful, coming home from breeder and then going to vets. She needs lots of short fun journeys so she can get used to travelling and start to enjoy it rather than be anxious


I do take her on lots of short drives to a trail or dog park and she is fine just pants a lot.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Panting a lot says she is not fine and is stressed so lots more short journeys until she relaxes more


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## Evie24 (Mar 8, 2020)

2ndhandgal said:


> Panting a lot says she is not fine and is stressed so lots more short journeys until she relaxes more


I am trying I take her on short journeys almost every day, if not every other day for weeks now but the panting persists..


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

If she is only five months old she can't have been doing it for that long - if the weather is OK for it where you are at the moment you could even just go and sit in the car for a while, feed her dinner in there and then go back in the house - just start to normalise it all and give her time.


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## Evie24 (Mar 8, 2020)

2ndhandgal said:


> If she is only five months old she can't have been doing it for that long - if the weather is OK for it where you are at the moment you could even just go and sit in the car for a while, feed her dinner in there and then go back in the house - just start to normalise it all and give her time.


Thats a good idea. I could try and feed her some meals in there to have a more positive association with it.


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## Evie24 (Mar 8, 2020)

Update: This still does occasionally happen. She just gets stressed out when she doesn't know where she is going. When we drive to my relatives place now 45mins+ away she might get anxious at first, panting, and when we get off the highway, but on the way back she is completely relaxed and sleeps the whole time. But for example we took her to the dog park and after took a drive around a neighbourhood and stopped at the grocery store (I stayed in the car with her) she barfed after we left the grocery store. I think it was just because we never did that before with her. She rarely does this now, but we line her kennel in the car with pee pads just in case. We did get a different car since the last post, where the seat is folded down and her kennel sits on it, she is higher and has a better view out the window which I think helps. But the car sickness always occurs when we do something different. I think making family visits helped because she loves going and playing with the family dogs, its like a reward for the drive. We dont feed her if its 1-3hrs before car rides which helps. We feed her after we reach our destination because she is always fine on the way back.


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