Tara (Aussie) used to hate going in the car, so she had to be lifted in. Now she loves a car ride, but I can't get her to jump into the car. Fortunately, she is only 21kg and I can manage to lift her, but I'd love to teach her to jump in. What a fool I feel though - I have tried treats, bribery, but no luck :( Our other dog jumps in with no problem, but she won't follow him :( She goes to agility and happily jumps through hoops etc. Any suggestions - she can be a little stubborn tho' :D (She's 20 months)

Daisy

If your dog jumps through hoops use one to train the dog to jump through the hoop into the car until you can fade the hoop!

Will try anything once :D Just have to find a spare hoop (not attached to a frame) now :D

Daisy

Get a cheap hula hoop from Toys R Us!

Good idea - only 1.5 miles from here :)

Daisy

Good luck for getting her ino the car

Rox

I can just see my neighbours' faces when I have a line of jumps set up in the drive leading to the car :D

Daisy

Not answering the question but asking one, how do you stop them, well the puppy who will not wait for the door to be opened, don't want to disscourage him but he is so keen the paintwork is suffering.

Hehe - had that problem with older dog - got him at 1 year (rescue) - just had to put him on the lead and held him well back and made him sit, until he had learnt the 'wait' command :) The day that we picked him up from Battersea, he nearly pulled my daughter into the car as well, he was so eager :D

Daisy

I'm having the same problem with Tundra!  He is extremely stubborn.  He likes the car but like your Tara, he refuses to jump in.  The worse thing is that he weighs 55 lbs and he's only 5 months old so I want him to learn it pretty soon!  He just sits there and waits to be picked up.  We have gotten him in to the habit of picking him up and now he loves the life of luxury and can't be bothered to do it himself!!  It's amazing, he manages to jump over a 4 foot child gate to get out of the utility room but won't get in the car!!!!

Regards,

Charlene

Everything is a training oppertunate! A good chance to teach a dog to jump on command. (Ideal for an agility dogs or in my case, a working gundog.

Make sure there is no chance of slipping on the floor. The carpet in the back of my Volvo seems like a sheet of ice to Anna. I have a piece "Vet Bed" covering the floor and that cures that problem.

The inside of the car can look like a big dark caven particulaly on a bright day so a very light floor covering can also help there.

If the dog likes to jump then you need to ask yourself what is different? My bet would be that the dog is slipping on landing so feels unsafe.

Best wishes, John

Thanks, John. However with Tara she has never jumped into the car, so hasn't slipped :) I have a cream coloured blanket on the floor so that should be light. Perhaps she is put off by the dark coloured backs of the passenger seats - maybe they seem to be a wall in front of her. Perhaps, tho's she is just lazy and likes me picking her up :D Perhaps, also, she just has never learnt to jump - other than at agility. Where we walk in the fields, there aren't any obstacles for her to jump over. At home, she is very well behaved ;) and doesn't jump onto the furniture :)

Will try some of the suggestions and see what can be done

Thanks to all

Daisy