Behavioural Help Needed Please

[Daggles]

As I was sitting in the passenger seat & hubby was driving I was able watch him closely but I still couldnt tell when he was weeing. I did notice at one stage that his breathing became faster though.

I have popped in to read your thread from time to time and must admit that "unease" was a thought that first popped into my mind. The above highlighted (by me) section could well be a clue.

I hear what you say about the car being full, but the 'experiment' I suggested might at least narrow down WHY the urination at this time is occurring. Just do it a few times by taking him out without all the kids in the car. If he doesn't urinate on those occasions, perhaps we can then make some suggestions that might help for when he is back in the foot well of the car.

Will you entertain this idea? Can you?

ok so you mean some "dummy" runs so to speak? Ok I can do that, so should I put him in the back of the station wagon or on the back seat of the Mazda, how do I stop him from running around the car & jumping over the seats?

[Erny]

ok so you mean some "dummy" runs so to speak? Ok I can do that,

Yep - "dummy" runs are precisely what I mean.

so should I put him in the back of the station wagon or on the back seat of the Mazda,

You could try both ..... I presume you are saying here that you have two cars?

how do I stop him from running around the car & jumping over the seats?

You've got a few options, but because these are just "dummy" runs to begin with and not indicative of anything of a permanent travelling nature, you could perhaps have one of your older children (don't know how old they are, so this will depend) or a friend or partner, in the back seat to sit quietly with your dog. Have it on a flat collar and lead.

Or you can harness him in (using a dog harness - the type that click into your seat belt fitting).

Or you can crate him. (Crate train first.)

If he's not used to the latter two options though, I'd just try the first one. Don't want to complicate the issue with "new" things otherwise we might be wondering if it is those things that is then influencing his 'behaviour'.

[Daggles]

Well we seemed to have some success today.

I got him to have a wee before getting into the car to go to training. He sat on the floor as i had to take my 3 & 5 yearold to mums place first. H e made the 25 min journey without empting.

When we left I tried for 15 minutes to get him to wee but to no avail. i spoke to a few instructors about the problem and the all agreed it was very rare.

One suggested putting him in the car with the engine running for 5 minutes and then he him out & try to get him to wee. Did this but no success.

So I loaded him into the back seat of the Mazda and drove anout 10 min but he kept coming through the console so I had to put him in the foot well again. anyway he made it home WITHOUT EMPTING IN THE CAR!

So I gave him heaps of praise & some treats from my pocket.

On a different note, he has taken to vomiting in the car but only on the 2 last sunday mornings and both times within 1km of my mums house (which is only 1 km from my house )after I dropped off the kids. It is like he knows we are going to training and get worked up. He spent a total of 3 hours in the car yesterday with no sings of vomiting, no drooling ect.

Could be really know where we are going?

[Ms James]

On a different note, he has taken to vomiting in the car but only on the 2 last sunday mornings and both times within 1km of my mums house (which is only 1 km from my house )after I dropped off the kids. It is like he knows we are going to training and get worked up. He spent a total of 3 hours in the car yesterday with no sings of vomiting, no drooling ect.

Could be really know where we are going?

It's quite possible he's noticed the subtle signs of going to training - preparing for training, the clothes you put on, dropping the kids off at a particular place etc etc. Our guys also get super excited when they notice the little things we do in preparation for walking out the door to do something super-interesting, so what our trainer has gotten us to do is to devalue the motions that we go through ie picking up the lead usually means "WALKIES! MY FAVOURITE THING!", or picking up my car keys "DRIVINKS! MY FAVOURITE THING!", or picking up the bin "THE BIN AREA! MY FAVOURITE THING!". What we do is we pick up these items & walk around the house for about 30 or so seconds & then replace them - dogs get worked up but then nothing interesting happens, & little by little they've started to have these motions devalued in their minds.

Do you drop the doggy off to your parent's place at any other time with him in the car? It might be worth adding a component of "devaluing the trip" where you go through those same motions, but then come straight back home without going to training. Trainers will probably be able to explain this a lot better than me but I know we've had some success in getting the dogs to not care when we do something interesting

[Daggles]

On a different note, he has taken to vomiting in the car but only on the 2 last sunday mornings and both times within 1km of my mums house (which is only 1 km from my house )after I dropped off the kids. It is like he knows we are going to training and get worked up. He spent a total of 3 hours in the car yesterday with no sings of vomiting, no drooling ect.

Could be really know where we are going?

It's quite possible he's noticed the subtle signs of going to training - preparing for training, the clothes you put on, dropping the kids off at a particular place etc etc. Our guys also get super excited when they notice the little things we do in preparation for walking out the door to do something super-interesting, so what our trainer has gotten us to do is to devalue the motions that we go through ie picking up the lead usually means "WALKIES! MY FAVOURITE THING!", or picking up my car keys "DRIVINKS! MY FAVOURITE THING!", or picking up the bin "THE BIN AREA! MY FAVOURITE THING!". What we do is we pick up these items & walk around the house for about 30 or so seconds & then replace them - dogs get worked up but then nothing interesting happens, & little by little they've started to have these motions devalued in their minds.

Do you drop the doggy off to your parent's place at any other time with him in the car? It might be worth adding a component of "devaluing the trip" where you go through those same motions, but then come straight back home without going to training. Trainers will probably be able to explain this a lot better than me but I know we've had some success in getting the dogs to not care when we do something interesting

you explained this beautifully and I had the same idea in mind so will give it a go.