Driving with dogs in the car safely

Please see above – you should never leave your dog unattended in a car.

The only acceptable situation where you can leave the dogs in the car is when you’re ready to drive off and putting something in the boot after securing your dogs first.

Yes they can but we don’t recommend it.

Firstly, you need to make sure that the dogs are safely restrained and the passenger side airbag is disabled as well as moving the seat back as much as you can. Some new cars have a weight limit to enable the airbags so if you have a small dog, you may not need to adjust any settings. Always refer to your car’s manual before you travel with a dog in the front seat.

If you have other people travelling with you in the front seat, you might forget enabling/disabling the airbag every time. That’s why we recommend you set up your back seat or your car boot for your dogs and leave the front seat to humans unless you absolutely have to.

Dogs express themselves by barking. But it could be very distracting driving with a constantly barking dog that doesn’t settle.

There are many reasons why your dog might bark in the car but the most common three reasons are: Excessive excitement and anticipation of going somewhere, fear and anxiety or aggression and frustration stimulated by external factors such as passers by.

How to cure dog car anxiety

First you need to understand why your dog is barking in the car but teaching them the ‘wait’ command is a good start. Then you can just get them used to being in the car in your driveway or garage without driving away, with plenty of treats. Once this is achieved you can start with short rides, extending the journey time slowly.

If it’s excitement, surely your dog loves being in the car and can’t wait til you get to one of those amazing places you keep taking them! Lucy is an example of this but she usually settles once both herself and Daisy are strapped in with their car harness and seat belts and I resume the driving position. For excitable dogs, we recommend ignoring the barking until they settle.

Other than barking, you might be thinking why does my dog cry / shake / pant in the car. Well, some dogs associate being in the car with scary things. For example, if you have a nervous rescue dog like me, you’ll probably never know what they are scared of. How to calm a nervous dog in the car? It’s all about creating positive experiences. Lucy was an example of this. When we adopted her, she was scared of pretty much everything and the car wasn’t an exception. In her case, we think it’s being taken away from one scary place to another, plus never being in the car to go to do something fun.

The key to overcoming the car anxiety is building positive associations in your dog’s mind with car journeys. Get in the car, secure them with their dog car harness and seat belt, give treats for allowing this, then drive for a short period of time, only to come back to your house. See, nothing bad happened. Then extend the journey times that result in a positive experience – such as going to the park.

Barrier aggression or frustration is caused by external factors like people passing by, for example. Your dog might want to go say hello to them or try to protect you from the outsiders. I’ve observed this behaviour occasionally with Lucy where I think she was trying to protect us from the outsiders. There are two ways you can work with this behaviour. Either you can make them travel in a crate with a blanket over the top and sides so they can’t see the outside, just the inside of the car i.e. you in the front seat or you can work with your dog by parking somewhere where people will go past you and you feed them a treat every time someone walks past. Personally, I didn’t need to try either of these techniques but it was my plan if Lucy continued with the behaviour.

You can always get a dog behaviourist’s professional advice on how to train your dog to enjoy the car journeys.

You’re settled in your car, driving nicely, then suddenly you notice them moving around uneasily, drooling and smacking their lips. Uh oh, here comes the vomit… Believe me, we’ve been there. So, why does my dog throw up in the car?

Firstly, it’s important to recognise the fact that some dogs can get motion sickness in the car. If your dog is one of those who suffer from car motion sickness, avoid feeding them before you drive – leave at least 2 hours between feeding your dog and the car journey.

Next thing to do is making them comfortable. Make sure they are safely secured and don’t get to move around much and that they are facing forward.

If it’s a long journey, make sure you take breaks often and to ventilate the car – fresh air always helps. It’s probably wise not to go on such long journeys before you get a chance to build your dog’s tolerance anyway.

When we adopted Lucy, she wasn’t used to car journeys, she was scared of everything and she would be sick every single time.

We took shorter journeys first, avoided feeding her just before we drive and protected our car with a dog car hammock as well as blankets we could easily wash. You should definitely invest in dog car seat covers or a hammock to keep your car clean anyway and they do help with the car sickness too.

How to stop dog car sickness naturally

If your dog doesn’t get used to travelling in the car without being sick, it might be time to seek natural remedies or your veterinarian’s advice. Do keep in mind that the healhier approach would be trying a natural approach before using prescribed medication.

Here’s a great article on how to stop dog car sickness naturally, recommending the use of herbs and tinctures as well as homeopathic remedies to ease motion sickness and anxiety. 

Dogs are prone to overheating while in a car and this takes us back to the rule of thumb – never ever leave a dog alone in the car under no circumstances, especially in hot summer days. See above for more info.

So how do you keep your dog cool while travelling in the car?

First of all, try to avoid car journeys in the hottest time of the day and try to travel early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

Then you should keep your car cool. Make sure you have the air conditioning on, or the fan, and keep the windows open at a safe degree so they can’t hang their heads out or jump out. Invest in sun shades for the summer. Always take care to cool the car first before you let the dogs in so parking in a shaded area is a good idea.

The next step is keeping your dogs cool and well hydrated. Always keep a bottle of water and a bowl with you. We use a stainless steel dog water bottle and its lid can be used as a bowl, really useful.

Cooling vests and cooling mats for dogs are very effective indeed. Make sure your dog doesn’t chew the mat and ingest any of the cooling gel in it though!

What we tend to do is, put on wet cooling suits and wet their heads before taking a journey in the car on a hot day. With air conditioning on, we rarely felt the need to use a cooling mat in the car but you do what you must to keep your dog cool.

Wet dogs smell and most dogs shed hairs. It’s part of being a pet parent so I personally try not to get too obsessed over it. But for sure it’s not pleasant to step into a car that stinks and dog hairs start flying around when the fan is on. So how do we keep our car clean with dogs?

We use a dog car hammock on the back seat and can highly recommend it. It traps most of the dried mud and dog hairs and you can either hoover or shake off the dirt once the journey is over.

For dog hair, you can use pet lint rollers or even some packaging tape, it does the same job.

When the dirt is cleaned, you’ll find that most of the smell is gone.

If you have lingering bad odours in the car, avoid using car air fresheners because most artificial fragrances and even essential oil scents are toxic to dogs. Instead you can use baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) or a water/vinegar mixture.

Leave a bowl of baking soda in your car overnight and discard in the morning, you’ll notice that it absorbs most bad odours. You can use this trick in your smelly fridge too – you’re welcome 😉

Another way to neutralise bad odours in your car is to spray the upholstery with a mixture of vinegar and water in equal parts.