“We need to take our dog on a long road trip. How can we keep them calm and happy in the car?”

Whether it’s to a boarding facility, temporary holiday digs, or even a new house, the prospect of a long drive with a dog who doesn’t like the car can be daunting! Here are our team’s top tips for supporting travel-phobic pets.

Anti-anxiety

If your pet gets anxious in the car, stay calm – there’s lots we can offer to help!

For mildly anxious pets, we’d advise a combination of:

• Pre-emptive anti-anxiety aids, such as:
  • Calming scent hormone collars or sprays (worn on a bandana or sprayed on a travel blanket)
  • Calming supplements, such as those containing the milk protein casein
• A longer-term “brain retraining” program, involving desensitisation and counter-conditioning techniques to help teach your pet that car travel isn’t so bad – don’t worry, we can recommend a behavioural professional to help you with this!

For more significantly anxious pets, as well as the above behavioural modification techniques, we would also consider trialling some prescription anti-anxiety medications. Depending on the extent of your pet’s issue, this may be a regular daily medication (such as fluoxetine) or a medication used on and off as required (such as gabapentin or clonidine).

Anti-nausea

If your pet’s travel-related difficulty is nausea, never fear – we’ve got that covered, too! Depending on your dog’s general health and the length of your trip, we can make personalised recommendations on the safest and most effective anti-nausea medication option for them, such as maropitant or metoclopramide.

It also helps to feed your pet at least 3-4 hours prior to travelling (so they don’t travel on a full stomach), and keep any meals fed on the day light.

For more information on keeping your pet comfortable and happy on car journeys, consult our travel-tastic team!