Have you’ve ever been stuck in a vehicle on a long trip while your dog is barks incessantly? This is more than enough to drive anyone up the wall. Every moving object that your dog sees past the window, including cars, people, even still objects like homes and stop signs are enough to make your dog react in a territorial matter which triggers incessant barking. This can be extremely annoying.
When one thing disappears out of a dog’s view, another object reappears, and on and on it goes…its non-stop, like a never ending video.
Most of us get so infuriated (like me) that we begin to yell at our dog just to get him to settle down and stop the constant barking! Yelling only adds more excitement to a dog’s high levels of anxiety. So basically, your dog’s mind confirms that you feel the same way and now you have nothing but a noisy circus act going on while you’re trying to focus on your driving while you are on the road.
There is good news actually. With a little training and some patience, you can begin to reduce your dogs constant barking when you are driving around town. The following are just a few tips to direct you along the way:
1. At the beginning, if you want your dog to be more calm and relaxed, try being a good role model. Play some relaxing music and stay relaxed whenever your dog gets excited. Calmly caress his head and talk to him with a calm tone while he is barking. You’ll be amazed at just how fast your dog will focus on you. He will learn to enjoy more of the attention minus the incessant barking!
2. For a more intense training form, there is nothing wrong with carrying a small water bottle in which you can “spritz” your dog every time he starts to bark loudly. Never dump a bucket of water like one of my house quest did. Most dogs absolutely hate getting quick squirts of water on them. Usually, they will immediately stop whatever it is that they are doing. And be sure to give a strong command at the same time you spritz your dog. You can replace the water bottle with this command because your dog will connect it with the same shocking experience of being spritzed with water.
3. Next time drive along with your dog, use a crate. A very easy solution is to use a crate that your dog can sit in whenever you need to drive somewhere with him. The crate should be visually limited so that your dog does not get excited by all of the action he can see out of the window. This in itself is enough to keep your dog from barking incessantly. This may be difficult at first if you have a large dog …But using a crate is a great way to keep small to medium-sized pets quiet while you’re driving.
