Dog's first holiday
Hello we are taking are 4 month old Gsd on his first holiday over the new year. any tips please also he suffering from travel sickness taken him on short journeys but just can't seem to get used to travel tried travel sickness tablets and also not feeding
him beforehand with no success .
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YP, I've had a couple of Pups that didn't like travel, they all grew up to enjoy it knowing what was to come. The not feeding is a good one, I also gave them access to the Windows just like us-if they can focus an a point in the distance it helps. I built
a pallet for the back of my pickup to enable 2 Pups to see out
. They all worked for me, I hope you get sorted. I'm sure there'll be more folk
along with ideas too. Good post
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Hi, It's not uncommon for pups to be travel sick , as our's was ,but grew out of it
dont let him travel with an empty tummy, but just give him a plain biscuit (Bonio) etc, sometimes the type of car you have can make a difference, ie a car with soft suspension can make them feel unwell untill they get used to it
just keep taking him and he will grow out of it
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We had this problem if travelling in a cage with no view, changed to sitting on the back seat with harness and seatbelt clip. No problems now. As a fellow travel sickness sufferer the pup has my sympathies. I too would say don't travel on an emtpy tummy
as not having anything to be sick with is not nice either. I'm much into alternative mediences and ginger is good but I don't know if it's any good for dogs. Make sure that you have familar things in your motorhome or caravan and you'll have a great time.
Always plenty of exercise whilst you're away as everyone is exploring and sleep is not an issue
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Good luck with your pup. I have had 2 dogs that suffered with travel sickness, one was a GSD and the other a whippet. I always travelled them on empty tummies. The only thing I gave to eat was a couple of plain ginger biscuits. I also gave a small dose of
Stugeron (travel sickness preperation), sold for human consumption, most chemists stock them. A 12 yr old child can have 2 tablets. I would suggest 1/2 a tablet for a 4 month old pup. Unfortunately both my dogs were around 4 years of age before they grew out
of it. They both loved the car though, it never put them off getting in. Make sure you do a few short/fun journeys. Some dogs only ever go in the car when they are either going to the vets, or to kennels. Have fun.0 -
Good luck with the GSD - I have a half GSD half Rottie who came at about one year old - she was very sick for the first few weeks in the car and hated getting into it. With a GSD and a Lab as travel companions I tried the back seat of the car as opposed
to the back back with the others - partly to avoid them the embarrassment! After a while she insisted on joining them in the back back and stopped throwing up. I am not sure if dogs stomachs are at all similar to humans with travel sickness but a German
North Sea Ferry Captain told me years ago that us Brits make the mistake of travelling with empty stomachs which resulted in sea sickness. I was guilty and have felt much better myself travelling with food in my tum! The argument was that the food soaked
up the acids but as I say not sure it works for dogs. Ginger biscuits sound a good idea - ginger tabletss work for me too.0 -
Hello we are taking are 4 month old Gsd on his first holiday over the new year. any tips please also he suffering from travel sickness taken him on short journeys but just can't seem to get used to travel tried travel sickness tablets and also not feeding him beforehand with no success .
It took Simon our JRT until he was over a year old to stop being sick in the car. It became less and less frequent but it still happened on occasions. Now at nearly 2 I can't recall the last time he was TBH. He copes with long journey's (eg from the NE of the UK to the Lot France) now with no problem what so ever. I think some dogs take longer than others and your GSD may just need a bit more perserverence. We didn't use any meds. but just got in the habit of not feeding him, which we can now do wih no problem.
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Good luck with your pup. I have had 2 dogs that suffered with travel sickness, one was a GSD and the other a whippet. I always travelled them on empty tummies. The only thing I gave to eat was a couple of plain ginger biscuits. I also gave a small dose of
Stugeron (travel sickness preperation), sold for human consumption, most chemists stock them. A 12 yr old child can have 2 tablets. I would suggest 1/2 a tablet for a 4 month old pup. Unfortunately both my dogs were around 4 years of age before they grew out
of it. They both loved the car though, it never put them off getting in. Make sure you do a few short/fun journeys. Some dogs only ever go in the car when they are either going to the vets, or to kennels. Have fun.A veteinary nurse who's opinion I trust has always said to me to never ever give anything intended for human consumption to a pet. Even if you think you are correctly adjusting the dosage it can have unintended consequences as not everything suitable for
humans is suitable for animals (and vice versa of course!). The only exeception to this is if it is under veteinary supersvision or on their advice (we have given Piriton under such circumstances). People should seek professional advice before doing this.0 -
Our dog yorkshire terrier he's 22 months now, didn't like traveling always sick even on a short journey 4 miles. We don't feed him before we go and make sure he does his business before we go he is fine now. He will get used to travelling just be patience.
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How did your dog's first holiday go youngphil? Hopefully all was ok, and all had a good time?
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I'd just persevere with taking the dog in the car. When we bought Lizzie, we travelled quite a distance to get her and she found the journey difficult on the way home. Now she can't wait to get in the car - it's the only place she can be left on her own.
For long journeys she just curls up and goes to sleep.David
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Hope the holiday went well, and you can go again soon.
Lola was carsick as a youngster, drugs helped (talk to vet!) but herbal/homeopathic treatments didnt. I tried to ensure that every journey went somewhere nice, so that she got the idea car travel gets us to nice places (beach is 15min away
) Regular travel also helped, became more routine to counter the toddlers over-excitement effect. I also had to moderate my driving
style and finally change cars for something smoother around corners and on rough surfaces. We travel to get to a destination, not for the fun of driving.So aged 7 how does she travel? Estate car, rear seat down, custom dogbed covering load area, laying with her head 500mm from my left shoulder (please no safety lectures, I know the risks). Food? If I tell her tonight that we are doing a long journey tomorrow
she will not touch her breakfast! The important thing is that she is with me, and is uncomfortable rather than sick- as I say to her "Loyalty is what defines us, without it we would be cats".0 -
On a connected but slightly different tag, we have had no problems with Lizzie travelling in the car. The big problem came when we came to have our first night away. We had just got her used to sleeping in the kitchen when we took her away in the van. Friends of ours suggested making up a bed for her in the shower. That failed! At the expense of the decoration in the washroom and her scratching the door to bits we let her in with us. She ended up on the foot of our bed - she's slept there ever since. Sometimes she goes in her bed at home, but frequently ends up on the foot of our bed sometime during the night.
I blame it all on the van. Once she realised where we slept at night, we couldn't get her to go back to the kitchen - she was a complete nightmare, and got so stresses and worked up.
Fortunately see is only small.
David
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Thank you all for your help.
just a quick update Leo Gsd is now 7 month's old now the Ginger biscuits seemed to work was only sick a little when we went away for the new year . since then we have been going away each other weekend and he Love's it not a problem at all may have just
grown out of it or perhaps just got used to traveling . he sleep's in the awning in his cage that has a cover bit like his own tent in the awning which he likes tried him in the caravan but he couldn't settle and is much happier in the awning . I think he
look's forward to going away he seems to get excited when I start loading the roof box . he has taken over the car's boot .0 -
Good to know things have gone well. We always take our dogs out every day in car, right from being small puppies. Luckily never had one proper travel sick, more unsettled. We found he hated the motorways worse, must have been the noise. Giving a dog a good
walk prior to setting off will tire them as well, so they tend to nod off.0
