Should my dog have a sedative before he travels?
Posted by Dog Supplies Advice in Dog Supplies Q&A, Dog Supplies Tips, tags: Dog, Dog Advice, dog care, Dog Handling, Dog Health, dog Q&A, dog supplies, dog supplies advice, Handling a Dog, Pet SuppliesShould my dog have a sedative before he travels?
Not as a general rule. Sedatives are best reserved for dogs that become distressed by travelling, but even then only when they have to undertake a long journey. Most dogs will accept travelling by car or public transport without problems arising, though some become hysterical with excitement while others are clearly afraid of the experience. Fearful dogs become very upset, show dilated (i. e. wide-open) pupils and salivate. Excessive salivation and panting are in fact features of both extreme anxiety and true travel sickness.
To minimize the fear of travel make sure that a puppy’s first experiences are favourable; for example, don’t make his first car ride one to the vet, where he may experience the pain of a vaccination injection. A nervous animal (i, e, one that is unwilling to get into the car and tries desperately to get out again) can be trained to accept travelling in a car by first being played with near to, and then inside, the vehicle and then being rewarded with titbits for sitting in the car for short periods with all the doors open, or even fed its regular meals inside it. Gradually the dog progresses to sitting in the stationary car with the doors closed, then with the engine running, then moving a few yards and eventually to short journeys. A dog that has been involved in a car accident as a passenger may be very reluctant to travel again and might well require this type of de-sensitization.
Travel sickness is a response to the motion of a moving vehicle (car, bus, plane or boat) which continually stimulates the organs of balance in the animal’s inner ears and which in turn stimulates that part of the brain known as the vomiting centre. It most commonly affects young adults rather than puppies or older dogs, and the majority of them grow out of it, just as children generally do. A dog showing travel sickness is initially very quiet, and then may salivate, retch and finally vomit. Fortunately, recovery takes only a few minutes after movement ceases.
To minimize the occurrence of travel sickness, don’t give any food for six to eight hours before a journey, and no liquid for one or two hours beforehand. Make sure that the dog receives adequate ventilation, i.e. don’t let the vehicle become hot and stuffy. Allow the dog to urinate and defecate before starting and to have frequent breaks during the journey. As a general rule, it is inadvisable to give food and drink on a journey of less than twelve hours, although small drinks are permissible for animals that don’t become travel sick.
Many more dogs become hysterically excited during car journeys (as shown by a willingness to get into the car, followed by barking and screaming with the tail wagging, and by continual leaping about) although their owners may wrongly attribute this behavior to anxiety. Such animals need to be either strongly dominated to make them conform or for the owner to behave in a manner which fails to reward the dog. As the dog will be keen to get to the journey’s end in order to exercise, if its failure to respond to its owner’s orders leads to the car being stopped and the owner disappearing for a while, the dog will eventually learn to sit still and remain quiet. Often this fact isn’t appreciated, and owners usually react to their dog’s behavior by driving faster (to put an end to the noise) and/or making a fuss of the dog, which the dog regards as a reward. Therefore this type of response effectively reinforces the dog’s behavior and causes it to continue and even intensify.
Sedatives given by mouth as tablets, to control anxiety, excitement or motion sickness, begin to exert their maximum effect within one or two hours. When injected, they are effective within twenty to thirty minutes, though faster if given intravenously. Their effect lasts for around six hours, but some degree of sedation, with a reduced ability to respond to stimuli, lasts for at least twenty-four hours.
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