I've posted for help before on this subject and didn't get much response so am hoping to this time as I'm going mad trying to think of a solution.
Charlie never used to bark in the car, I've had him 13 weeks and this has only started in the last 2-3 weeks.
I take hiim to the local park which is a ten minute drive away, occassionaly he will bark at people dogs etc we pass but on the way back it is horrendous, constant barking.
I have tried ignoring him and stopping the car until he quietens but as soon as we get going again hes off again.
He's walked for about 1.5 - 2 hours on a lead and seems to enjoy his walks.
I haven't walked him for the last two days as my younger dog is getting so stressed out, as I am, shes scratching at the windows, trying to jump in the front and crying. We both needed a break from this.
I'm feeling awful for not walking him but it is really getting too much now.
He is in the boot (hatchback) with a guard up and my younger one is on the back seat. He always stands in the boot and wags his tail when he is barking, it's not a squeaky excited bark this is a bark that frightens my younger dog.
He gets fed as soon as we get home from his walk.
When I return home and he is still barking I stand outside the car and wait for him to shutup before I let him out and this has worked very quickly.
At xmas we went away for a break and after 20 minutes of it I had to pull over and swap dogs, younger one in boot and my bf sat in the back with him and he shutup after about 5 minutes.
Any suggestions would be helpful or this poor dog isn't going to get walked until a solution is found.

2 hours is a fairly long walk - when is he fed in relation to this walk?  What happens on the walk before he gets back in the car?  Do you park in a car park and he just gets straight into the car from running about?  I wonder if a period of 10 - 15 mins of walking on lead before getting back in the car would help calm him down?  You might also like to think about changing his place in the car - either sitting down in the foot well, or in a covered travelling crate, to cut down on external stimuli.

HTH

I know it's horribly time-consuming, but is there any way you can take them separately? I'm sure your bitch would be much happier having some peaceful one-to-one, and then you could concentrate on Charlie without worrying that your other one (sorry, I've forgotten her name) is getting distressed.

I know that you want advice as to how to get your dog quiet in the car....and i hope someone comes along who can help.I am however a bit stunned that you are threatening to not walk your dog at all. What is wrong with the street?

The dog won't come to any harm not being walked in the short term, so long as there are other opportunities for stimulation.

First and foremost you are walking him too much for his age. I know that you didn't ask for comments on that, but felt I should comment. At his age I would only be walking about 15-20 minutes at a time.

Secondly, why are the dogs separated? Have you tried keeping them together in the 'boot'?

Try taking him out to the car and just shut him in the boot without taking him anywhere. When he stops making a noise take him out and praise him. If he doesn't shut up I would take him back into the house, ignoring him, until he is quiet. Then try again. I've heard that clicker training is a good idea. This is one case I would seriously look into. It might work for you.

I had a dog that barked every time she went into the car. The only way I could stop her was to take her to the first lay-by (about 200 yards from the house!) and let her out, on the lead of course ;) She felt that she had been somewhere and shut up for the rest of the journey. I hadn't heard of clicker training then.

LindyLou, Charlie is a near-adult (if not adult, I forget his exact age) rescue dog, not a puppy.
:)

Sorry, didn't realise :o

In this case, then, I think that the clicker training would be a very good thing to look into. I don't have any experience with it, but was reading a bit in today's Dogs World. It sounds like a brilliant way to train the dogs. Especially if there seems to be a problem. ;)

Do you take them to the same place every time? If so are you able to vary the route. I am lucky all my dogs love travelling and settle quickly except Penny. She waits to see what direction I take, and if it is the walk direction she literally screams her head off. (thankfully the others take no notice) If I take another direction she thinks its a distance journey and settles down.  I started varying my routes, luckily I have about 5 to our destination. This distracts her until we are nearly there, when she recognises the area.  Or, as you take about 2 hours for each walk could you split it and give then around an hour each seperately. It is a bit of a hassle (I do 3 journeys) but it may help short term. Wish I could be more help

Thanks for all the replies, I'll try to answer them all ,Charlie (2 year old) is walked on lead because he has fear agression, I don't consider 1.5-2 hours a long time, they need it. I have thought of taking them seperately even though this will eat into my day considerably. It would stop casey getting stressed but wouldn't solve the problem.  There is no way I could fit a cage into the boot and there is certainly no way Charlie could fit in the front well, he's huge. I might try Casey in the well though and she mighn't get as stressed if she's closer to me.
I had Casey out by herself the other day and it was heaven, no Charlie to stress us both out.
I can't understand why he has been fine for weeks since I got him then suddenly goes ape in the car.
I might try putting both in the boot to see if it will calm him down.
I thought of maybes covering the windows in paper or something so he can't see out since as I can't fit a cage in and cover it.
As for clicker training, I agree it's good in certain situations, we took Casey to Clicker classes when we got her at 5 months old as she had had no training whatsoever but I don't know how it would work whilst driving a car with a dog barking so loud you can't hear a thing, let alone a click.
I can't remember who mentioned it but do you think feeding him as soon as I get him is getting him too excited to get home and hyping him up?
When we get home I dry Casey off because she always gets muddy, then feed them straight away.
The journey to the park isn't so bad, sometimes no barking atall but mayhem all the way back.
I have a few suggestions I might try there, thanks everyone.

My dear departed Pongo (also a rescued Dal) could be a noisy devil in the car, usually when he was excited about going somewhere nice, like the woods or the beach, or coming home again. For a short journey, I could distract him with food and I wondered whether that might help with your situation? If Charlie is excited at the thought of getting his dinner when he gets home, could you try putting some of his food in a Kong and letting him have it in the car? It might keep him quiet for the 10 minutes that it takes you to get home.

Hope you manage to sort something out. I know it's a horrible noise to have to put up with in the confines of a car.

Firstly, and I don't mean to be a pain in the a**e ;) , but I wouldn't feed a dog within 2 hours of walking. Especially a big dog. There is always the possibility of Bloat if fed too soon.

With your car, can you put down the back seat and put a cage in the back? I have to do that with my car which can be a pain when I need all the seats, but well worth it. :)

As for clicker training, I didn't mean to try and drive with the dog using the clicker I meant putting him in the car, with or without the back door open, and praise him when he was quiet. Then work slowly up to having the engine switched on, but not going anywhere, before moving a short distance, and praising him. I know it is very time consuming, but might just work. Hope it helps. :)

I have had to deal with something similar, my one dog would bark like crazy and work himself into a frenzy if he thought he might be going somewhere remotely interesting (home journey was always quiet and curled up :rolleyes: ) so I stopped the car Every time the barking started   at first this meant I didn't even get the car started up properly and I didn't get out of the street :( and it took a few weeks to get half a mile down the road and back - the dog still hadn't been out of the car!!!!  After about a month I was able to contemplate journeys to places but still stopping every time the barking and screaming started.  And he definately isn't allowed out until he's quiet and calm.  I found lots of 'pointless' journeys where he didn't get out of the car have helped to calm him down.

Have I got the wrong dog, or is he on medication at the moment? :)

I would agree Dill's idea can work; my friend got her flatcoat and golden retriever to lie down like quite mice in the back of her car this way. (Maybe I should try it with my Bsd who although never barks, does love to move around lots ... but then i don't mind that really).

The idea of covering a crate also works very well - would it be possible to somehow set up a similar situation by covering windows or something? It would need to be all round him so he can't be stimulated.

I take it he is comfy in the car and has no health problems - doesn't sound like it.

Lindsay
X

Yes Charlie is on medication to try to calm his agression, i returned to the vets as this is making his behaviour strange (barking has ten folded since) humping blankets, very clingy, but decided to perservere with it to see if it would help with the agression.
I couldn't really put a cage in the back as I use the car for business and cant really be hoovering hairs up every day also the seats don't go totally flat and the cage is 30" x 42, I need a van. Will definately have to find a solution when he's still in the boot.
I put Casey in the boot with him this morning to see if it would help calm him, my bf was in the back and Charlie had his headcollar on with lead attached and passed through the guard so as soon as he started barking my bf tugged on it to close his mouth and it worked, we managed to pass 2 people and he didn't bark. (This is a huge success for him)  I know that sounds a bit brutal but it wasn't, I think he's got himself into a habit of doing it now and better hurry up and get out of it.
Will see what happens tomorrow morning.
As far as behaviour goes he's usually very quick on learning so fingers crossed.
I tried stopping the car every time he barked but don't think he realised I was stopping the car because of his barking because by the time I had managed to pull over sometimes he had already shutup. It's a very busy route and not always easy to pull over.

WOW, Day 2 of pulling on his lead with Casey also in the back with him and he only barked twice, I think he forgot himself as I was totally amazed. Looks like happy walking days are back on. My bf is back at work tomorrow so won't be able to pull on the lead but my daughters off work till Thursday so I'll try and persuade her just till I'm sure he's got the message or I'm sure it will reach through to the front, it's a horse lead.

Wow!! one dog training another. Can I borrow him. My GSD has dog to dog on lead agression and nothing seems to be working.

Gaby, I may have worded that wrong, He is still barking at dogs on his walk just not in the car.
Never barked once today, he's very quick at learning.
Fingers crossed this might be it.