Back in June my daughter and her Bracco Italiano Alfie were involved in a car accident. The car was rear ended and Alfie was in the load space behind a dog guard (estate car). Prior to this he was a very happy traveller, now he's worried when he knows he has to get in the car eg when leaving my house to go home. He hides in the corner of the room and is very reluctant to go out to the car. The accident happened when they left here for home that day. Obviously he is affected by the memory of the collision and seems to be getting worse as time goes on. It's a different car as the one involved was written off. Does anyone have any suggestions of what we might try, to help him overcome this anxiety.

Apart from making loads of exciting things happen in and around the car and keeping trips to the minimum I don't know. If he starts to think of the car as the place where he gets treated and played with rather than a place where he was scared.

First of all I LOVE this breed!!    Secondly I think the best you can do is go back to how you'd teach a puppy to be comfortable in the car.   Take him out there, and sit him in the back (I urge you to use a crate or purpose built dog cage which is always far safer for travelling a dog) and don't start the engine.   Play with him.   Then moving on, shut the tailgate and take him, hopefully only a short distance, to a nice walking area, so he starts to associate the car with getting some good exercise.   It might be a good idea not to use the car for a while, much as dogs do have memories like elephants so you might be better to face this head-on.   

I have found the non-drug Kalm Aid can help in times of anticipated traumatic events.   And never forget your own emotions in all of this.   A car accident is bound to have affected you guys too - some of this may be transferring to your dog ...... try to be matter of fact about needing to go somewhere by car?

Thanks to you both. Alfie comes here to me for doggie daycare a couple of times a week while my daughter is at work, so it's essential he travels in the car. They do go to places to walk that Alfie loves, but he seems to be able to diferentiate those trips from the going home from my house. Aparently he's not so bad when he's on his way to mine, just on his way home. He's just too intelligent for his own good!
I can see how giving him a toy or treat might help him, I think maybe we should fill a kong for him to have on the way home.
Nice to hear you like this breed Mamabas, they are super clever and super sensitive, as we have found with Alf.
Thankyou again both for your suggestions. :)

Dawn R.

Silly thought..........is there any way your daughter could change the route she uses when going home from yours..........even if its leaving in the other direction and sort of going round the block?

I was thinking along the same lines as tatty.

When your daughter leaves your house she could try driving a short way and then getting him out for a walk so he hopefully then learns to associate getting in the car at your house means something good is about to happen.

If it's not possible to stop for a walk on the way home you could try giving him a stuffed kong when he gets in the car to go home - so the leaving is again associated with good things.

Thanks, we'll give some of these suggestions a try. I like the kong idea but she's tried giving a few treats for getting into the car, but he just won't eat them till he gets home.  Thanks all.

Has he been seen by a chiropractor? He may have residual low level pain that the car makes worse too