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How to Teach a Dog to Ride in a Car

When you take a puppy into a car for the first time, you can make the journey for a young pup much more pleasant if allow him to lie on the seat near you. Here he feels himself safe and gets real pleasure from his first ride. Take an old blanket or a towel in case if he gets sick. Most of puppies get used to traveling from the first time and never get sick, but there are some of them, which become used to riding by car only after a large number of short trips. As the pup gets used to rides, make the time of journey longer. Open one or two windows to give the puppy enough fresh air.

The best of all is from the very beginning to train a puppy to sit quiet while the car moves. Dogs that jump from one window to another or from the front seat to back, and those, which are allowed to bark, soon tire their owners and stimulate dangerous situations during driving. If you want your puppy to ride in a car, you must teach him to behave himself well. Let someone else drive the car, while you modulate his behavior. Each time he's going to stand up, say: "Leave, sit!" and make him sit by pressing his rump down. When the puppy sits down, praise him gently. Perhaps, you'll have to repeat this operation dozens of times, but this is worth it in case if you want your dog to have good manners. Assume that you want to teach the puppy to ride at the back of salon. In this case, cover a floor with a thick, slip-resistant rug, so that the pup could clutch at it and doesn't slide. Nothing frightens a puppy so as riding at the back of salon with a slippery coating. There he doesn't feel himself safe, because slides on the floor at each turn, braking or jolt and can do nothing with this.

If a puppy rides with a dog, which is elder and is used to riding, he will right then follow the adult dog. If he is alone, there should be a human at the back seat, who teaches him to lie at the command. If he percepts a human nearby, who talks to him, bends to him and strikes him, a puppy feels himself much more confident.

To teach an adult dog to ride in a car, do the same thing if this is, of cause, a dog, which is scared of cars. In this case you should at first gain his confidence. Leash him and make him know that something unordinary and pleasant is going to happen. Ask him in promising and emotional tone: "Want to go for a ride?" Sit beside him in the car or take him in your hands, if he persists. Let him sit near you on the seat for ten minutes, do the same on the next day, on the third day try the same with switched engine.

Keep this on for a week, then try to ride out of garage, and stay in the yard for ten minutes; then ride back in the garage. Don't forget to speak to your dog all the time, calm and praise him. Such slow method is the easiest one and has the best results. After you'll manage to do a couple of kilometers around the block, you can gradually increase the distance up to fifteen kilometers. If you are going to do more than twenty-five kilometers it's not bad to give your dog some pills from seasickness an hour before the ride. Many weeks may pass before he will be able to bear riding in a car really well. But it is worth making efforts in order to get a pleasant fellow and faithful defender later on.

Teach a dog to wait near the car and get in only at the command. After a ride he must patiently wait until you give a command "Walk". Everybody likes well-bred dogs and if at each trip you will spend several minutes for practical training, you'll get exactly this kind of dog.

If the journey where you're taking the dog is going to be long don't forget a bowl for water. Dogs feel thirsty much often than we do. It'll be fine to take also a bottle of water, because quite often change of water causes diarrhea in dogs. If your dog eats a certain kind of food, don't forget to take a reserve and you won't have to change it for another, which may cause indigestion. There should always be short and long leash in a car. Both they may become necessary. If you have to stop and let the dog have a walk, leash him without fail.

Sometimes they ask if it is recommended to transport a dog in a cage. There's no only one answer for this question. But on our mind it is better to teach a dog how to behave himself well in a car, where he is free to do everything. If he wants to move (of cause if there's a space to move), change posture, stretch legs, drink, play with a toy or lie on the floor, he can do it at any time. One should observe any situation from the point of his dog. If the dog is trained, why can't he be free in the car? Cages are efficient for untrained dogs, and this is the safest way for transporting several dogs at once as well. For a breeder, who's dogs are untrained, for he keeps them for shows, it would be more convenient to transport his dogs in cages than to teach them. He is able to leave one dog in cage inside the car while shows another. He may not bother that his dogs chew the upholstery, fight with each other or play some pranks while he's absent. As for dog, it is usually more active on the ring after being in cage for some time.

If you have decided to transport you puppy or an adult dog in a cage, first train him to it at home. Put coverage or a rug on the cage bottom, to make it cosy and convenient for a pup. Let the puppy get in the cage and lie on the rug, strike him, let him gradually get used to staying inside the cage for some time. Show patience, and after some time your pup will find his cage a fine place and won't upset when will have to stay inside.

Russian National Club "Berner Sennenhunde"