Took Deeken out to play with Marty (my aunt's dog) and he was incredibly stressed in the car. Hugely panting, drooling, and refusing treats. The drive is about 45 minutes. I noticed the stress about 30 minutes in on the way there and it lasted the whole way back. He was completely fine while we were there. I don't know what to think because Deeken has LOVED the car since he was adopted over 3 years ago. Going for a car ride has always been one of his favourite things. It was raining really, really hard on the highway but I've definitely been on the highway with him in heavy rain before. The only other thing I could think of was I leave him in the car while I'm at tracking (laying tracks) and we were there on thursday but he's used to that and its not a new activity. He's probably almost 4, so definitely an adult. I'm just stumped and nothing I run through my head makes much sense as to the cause. Any thoughts?

After Sammie's first TPLO she developed the same stuff in the car. She was fine before that, so we just assumed it was from left over anesthetic or something. It continued for quite a while. So I began a program of short rides. At first just around the block. When she did well with that, I went to around two blocks. Then I built up to a mile ride. Didn't make a big fuss or anything, either before or after the ride, just made it matter-of-fact that we were in the car, riding, then home. Took a while, but she's back to really enjoying her rides.

That's what I'd do - short rides with rewards or a fun destination to go to then a short ride home.

Oddly enough though we had the exact opposite thing happen with my Bella. She was always awful in the car from the time we adopted her at 10 months of age (she's 5 now). Drooling, crying, puking, the whole deal. We tried everything and nothing worked. The move last year from Toledo, Ohio to Harrison, MI meant hours in a car and I was prepared for a huge mess and drama with her. I had motion sickness meds on hand if needed. She did the entire trip without a bit of trouble and has never been upset in the car again! Go figure.

Just typical of Bella that whatever works for most dogs is the exact opposite thing that works for her.

Thanks guys. Jo I'm glad Bella went in the opposite direction. I know I should just do short rides and build up to longer ones. The problem is that SO much of what we do depends on car rides (including longer ones). I feel like if I'm doing long, stressful rides at the same time as the training rides, he'll still experience stress and they won't help. For know, I'm going to switch cars for a while and see if he doesn't get stressed in the other one. But seriously, this dog likes to do things just to confound me- the car has seriously been one of his favourite places for the last 3 years.

Misha has gone/goes through this exact same thing. He randomly gets afraid of car rides and starts shaking, drooling, etc. What I've done for him is practice loading and unloading, without the car moving. Have him load up, shower him with treats, hang out in the car a little bit, then unload and go on. I also put Misha in with some sort of really nummy distracting toy. When we had to drive 45 minutes for our tracking class, I threw a bully stick back there for him, and eventually he would chew on it and calm down. I also try to throw treats back for him when we're at a stop light or whatever. (This is obviously harder to do if Deeken rides in a crate, unless his crate is against your seat.) Good luck!

Jax began getting stressed in the car shortly after he was neutered...it's been over a year and he doesn't drool or shake anymore but he still pants excessively and is visibly stressed. Sigh.

Try bringing a frozen kong in the car. Associate the car with fun times and nice yummy treats. Charlie was scared of riding in cars when I got her, it helped a lot bringing other dogs with us just for short rides so she could see nothing bad was happening.

We just went for a ride in the car with a jar of peanut butter and some liver brownies- he was fine. Hoping it was just a fluke but we'll do a few more treat-focused rides.

Maybe he wasn't feeling well & the ride/motion of the car was just to much.

I agree with Kelly. Perhaps he got a bit of motion sickness..didn't like the feeling and stressed over it. Short positive rides and hopefully he'll be back to his handsome self in no time at all.