Welcome to another episode of the fixing separation anxiety podcast.
Welcome to the fixing separation anxiety podcast,
where it's all about healing your dog,
regaining your freedom and getting your life back on track.
And now here's your host Julie Naismith.
This week's topic is why is your dog happy alone in
the car when he freaks out?
When you leave him at home?
Now I know this isn't all dogs.
I know that a lot of you who have dogs who
are anxious at home alone,
that your dogs are also panicking in the car,
but it's surprising how many dogs who can't be left at
home alone,
as they do really well when you leave them in the
car. And I was reminded of this question of why is
my dog,
okay when he's alone in the car?
I was reminded of this question this week,
when working with a new client who was explaining to me
that she found it really strange that her dog was okay
when she left him to go to the bank or to
get the groceries.
But as soon as she thought about,
so she left him in the car when she's doing those
things. But as soon as she thought about leaving him home,
he just lost it.
Now, the problem with dogs,
well, there are no problems with dogs really,
are there?
Dogs are perfect for the most part,
there are some things about dogs we wish we could change.
And one of the things that lots of us as owners
find challenging is we can't go into their head and ask
them exactly what's going on.
And with dogs,
actually, with any being,
whether it's humans or another animal,
we really like to know why does that happen?
So with a dog,
we want to know why does my dog do that?
Why does my dog bark men with beards but he's fine
with men without beards.
Why does my dog only play with cattle dogs?
Why does my dog not like small dogs?
We're always asking,
aren't we?
Why does mine?
And the hard part of that is that very often,
we just don't know why.
There isn't an answer.
I don't know why your dog likes cattle dogs and he
doesn't like labs.
I don't know.
We could guess maybe he's just had more fun playmates who
were cattle dogs.
And he's always found labs to be a little bit slow
and boring for him,
but we just don't know.
The great news is though with most behavior issues,
separation anxiety,
stranger aggression,
whatever, we don't actually need to know why the dogs have
a problem before we can work on it.
So as much as it's challenging for us as humans not
to get an answer to our why questions,
we love our why questions,
don't we?
As much as it can really perplexes that we can't get
answers, it doesn't always matter.
However, let's get back to this question of why your dog
does okay in the car.
So let me just say,
there is no concrete research on this.
At least nothing that I found.
So if anybody listening finds any research or has any research
about why some dogs do well in the car,
email me or post on my Facebook page or Facebook group
or the links are in the show notes,
because I'd love to know.
So what I'm going to tell you,
what I'm going to talk to you about now are my
hypotheses, my ideas on why I think some dogs you find
in the car when they get upset at home.
And how have I come up with these?
Well, really just by looking at dog after dog,
after dog and using my knowledge of applied behavior analysis,
using mind stunning learning theory and analyzing the situation and saying,
knowing what we know about how dogs behave,
what they get rewarded for,
what they find punishing.
Here's what I think could be going on.
Okay. So it's a hypothesis.
It's just ideas,
but I'd love to share them with you,
especially because I know that lots of you are wondering what
on earth is going on too.
And actually,
before I get into my two little hypotheses that I'm going
to share,
I must tell you about my dog,
Percy, who was one of those dogs who was fine in
a car.
And it was most bizarre,
fine in the car,
but hate being left home alone.
And actually,
fine the car when it was parked,
but not when it was on the highway or the motorway.
That freaked him out.
He was,
he was really upset.
So he was really comfortable being in the car.
He didn't like speed,
but he was happy to be left in the car when
we went and did our stuff,
very, very strange.
And actually I'll add a caveat to that.
He was happy to be in the car in locations that
he was comfortable with.
So for example,
he got very used to being in the car when we
went and got our groceries.
So he then became comfortable.
He generalized that comfort,
that confidence.
Luckily he generalized that to all grocery store car parks,
all supermarket car parks.
So if we were there going shopping,
didn't matter where we were,
he'd be fine.
However, it didn't translate to all car parks.
So we could go and so we were going to dinner
for example.
And so we were parked in a,
in a car park.
It wouldn't translate for him.
It would not carry over into,
Oh, this is a car park.
I'm finding car parks.
They would just like no no,
I'm not done this before.
Not sure about that.
So they are funny.
They do like to keep us on our toes and they
do keep us wondering,
I don't know why he didn't like all car parks,
but he liked supermarket car parks.
But actually when I talk about my first hypothesis,
maybe this is why he was okay with supermarkets.
My first hypothesis then,
okay, so I think what's going on.
If I had to put my money on it,
I would say that they are getting used to short absences
just by the way that we leave them in the car.
So think about it,
especially when you've got a puppy,
you don't want to leave a puppy in the car for
any length of time.
Not just because we don't want it to be anxious,
but frankly puppies can get up to a lot of stuff
in the car.
Can't they?
So we've got a puppy that we're trying to house train.
We're not going to leave him in the car for any
length of time,
especially not on crated.
And if your puppy is anything like my six month old
puppy, Tex was,
there's a ton of stuff they can find to entertain them
in the car.
And even to this day,
three, four years on,
I still find Nina the cup holder where the little nibble
in it,
or I look at the seatbelt clasp and I see where
he's chewed it or the plastic in the trunk where he's
scratched away,
all these little reminders of the stuff he used to get
up to,
thankfully doesn't anymore.
So we don't leave dogs and puppies in the car for
a long time.
But what we do do is we go and we come
back, we go to the bank,
we come back quickly.
We go get a coffee,
we come back,
we're going,
we're coming back.
We're leaving them for sure.
Safe absences,
mostly safe,
but definitely short.
So if you know,
you've heard me talk about how separation anxiety training works by
using gradual exposure to alone time,
taking tiny steps,
keeping them under threshold.
Can you see what could be happening with the car situation?
We're going to come back.
We're repeating those absences over and over and over again,
unwittingly, we're using the very same method that we would use
for separation anxiety training.
So from an early age or from if,
if we didn't get them when they were younger,
if we got them when they were older,
but from the very early stages of us being their pet
parent, we are showing them that we go and we come
back. When we leave them in the car.
No scary absences,
no being left for four hours for longer than they can
cope with.
So maybe what's going on is we're taking the principles of
separation anxiety training,
and without thinking,
we're applying them to leaving them in the car.
I really think that that's a strong contender for what could
be going on.
Number two,
it could also be the in the car when they see
you go,
they can see for quite some distance so they can see
you leave a carpark or turn a corner.
They may see you go into the bank.
Now for some separation anxiety dogs that I work with,
seeing their own leaf can actually make things worse.
So I'm not as convinced by this theory of mine as
number one,
number one feels more persuasive to me,
more probable,
but for some dogs,
it can be the case that seeing mum or dad come
and go,
can actually help them.
And I do when we find a dog like that,
when it works out with a client dog,
but that's helpful,
then we encourage the dog to look out the window.
If it's helping the training or the dogs,
I'll say,
Nope, seems to be making them worse.
Let's close the blinds,
let's block access.
So it might help in the car context that they can
see you come and go and it might not.
But like I say,
I'm less convinced about this one.
I think more likely what's going on is that we've just
got them used to being alone in the car for short,
safe absences.
Very recently I taught a puppy program.
So this was a program for owners have dogs,
puppies who either had separation anxiety.
Yes, puppies do get separation anxiety or where the owners were
concerned that their dogs were developing or could develop separation anxiety.
So I took them through a program which showed how to
train their puppies to be happy home alone.
And here's the thing,folks,
dogs don't naturally like,
or know how to be on their own.
So if we get a new puppy in the home from
a very early age,
the quicker we can teach them that being home alone is
normal and natural.
The quicker,
the better.
Some puppies will rattle through that training.
You'll go and fix that.
And before you know it,
a couple of days a week,
whatever, there'll be fine on their own.
The anxious puppies will take longer,
but why this is relevant to what's going on in the
car is that stuff we do in the car where we
go and come back.
I'd love all of you with new dogs or new puppies
to do that kind of training.
When you first get the puppy or dog in your home,
do not assume your dog is going to be okay,
assume that they're not do the trainings and gradually getting them
being happy at home alone.
And if then a non-anxious dog,
you will fly through the training.
And if they're an anxious dog,
you'll be doing the right thing and not creating a much
worse condition.
Like I say,
all the things we do instinctively in the car,
think about doing those with any new dog in the home
as well.
Okay. The third possibility then,
my third hypothesis is actually none of the above.
Like I said at the start,
sometimes the answer with dogs is that we just don't know.
Nobody knows you can't ask them.
They can't tell us all the time.
And as frustrating as we might find it,
we just have to take that.
And if your dog is one of those,
that's okay in the car,
you just might never know why,
but what's important here,
is you've got a dog who is okay in the car.
Is he shown you that he can be okay on his
own. And that means with the right training and with perseverance
and patience,
you can teach him that he could be okay on his
own in the house.
So take it as a real positive.
Also, take advantage of it,
depending on your climate and of course I would never recommend
you leave a dog in the car if it's over I
would say even over 15 degrees,
see, I'm a bit paranoid.
I know some people would leave dogs in temperatures higher than
that, but I would,
you know,
I would never want to leave a dog in if the
temperature meant I didn't have to have a coat on equally.
I live in Canada,
so it can be rigid sometimes.
And when we are talking minus 20 minus 30,
so I'm not going to leave a dog in that.
My rule of thumb is,
would I feel comfortable sitting in that car with no air
and with it heating up,
then there's no way I didn't think about it from my
dogs. And actually I'd be cautious of the fact that dogs
feel heat more than we do.
So be really,
really, really cautious about this one and be sensible.
I know though,
I don't need to tell that to you guys cause you
wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you weren't dedicated,
savvy, concerned owners.
Anyway, just need to get that out there.
Don't leave them when it's too hot or too cold.
However, if you can leave them,
if the weather is on your side,
take advantage of it.
Use it as another strategy for management.
If you can take them with you when you get weekly
shopping, do it.
If it means you can go and grab a coffee with
a friend,
do it.
We need all of the help we can get with a
separation anxiety dog.
If it works out,
you've got yourself another option for managing absences.
Know how precious that is.
Oh, okay.
I have loved talking to you about why dogs are happy
in the car.
Do share with me your thoughts,
your experiences.
I've posted links to my group and to my page in
the show notes.
Tell me how your dog gets on in the car and
share with me your insights onto as to why you think
that is.
Thanks for listening.
And I'll see you online soon.
Thanks for listening to the fixing separation anxiety podcast with Julie
Naismith. For more information,
visit the website at www.
subthresholdtraining.com. If you haven't yet,
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Thank you for joining us.
We'll see you again soon.