My husband and I adopted a 1 1/2 year old plott hound from the pound. According to the pound, she was not abused and she was never hit by a car. The old owners gave her up because the 6 year old daughter of the old owner was mean to her.
Here is our problem with the dog-- she is TERRIFIED of cars. She vomits when riding in the car even if we give her dramamine, plus she whines the whole time and drools. AND if we walk her and a car goes by she stops and hides behind us, often making us fall and potentially harming herself because her fear causes her to run into traffic. Plus, since she is a Plott hound, she's around 60-70 pounds! We both have experience training animals (guide dogs) and in a non-car walk setting she can sit, stay, lay down, heel, go to her kennel...all kinds of things. When cars are around--forget it! She doesn't even care about treats or any kind of food, even if it's people food!
Here is what we have tried:
1) Leaving a trail of food along the walk path: ignored food completely, no matter what the food was
2) Feed her near and in a car: worked until the car started. Then she wouldn't eat, ran away, also vomited.
3) praising her when a car goes by/petting her when a car goes by and offering a treat: ignored treat, tried to run away, successfully ran away had to catch her, we were worried she would actually be hit by a car
4) ignoring the car, continuing through the walk and trying to guide her through it: had to pull 60-70 lb plott hound forcibly while saying, "good girl, good girl...." Had cars stop, tell us to "stop abusing your dog!!"
5) Putting our legs up behind/in front of us so she doesn't run into traffic or trip us/run away again and potentially die from running blindly into traffic. This caused people to stop their cars and tell us to "stop kicking your dog!" since she gets so scared that she runs blindly when scared.
Any advice? We can't afford a professional right now or believe me, we would have hired one already!
Here is our problem with the dog-- she is TERRIFIED of cars. She vomits when riding in the car even if we give her dramamine, plus she whines the whole time and drools. AND if we walk her and a car goes by she stops and hides behind us, often making us fall and potentially harming herself because her fear causes her to run into traffic. Plus, since she is a Plott hound, she's around 60-70 pounds! We both have experience training animals (guide dogs) and in a non-car walk setting she can sit, stay, lay down, heel, go to her kennel...all kinds of things. When cars are around--forget it! She doesn't even care about treats or any kind of food, even if it's people food!
Here is what we have tried:
1) Leaving a trail of food along the walk path: ignored food completely, no matter what the food was
2) Feed her near and in a car: worked until the car started. Then she wouldn't eat, ran away, also vomited.
3) praising her when a car goes by/petting her when a car goes by and offering a treat: ignored treat, tried to run away, successfully ran away had to catch her, we were worried she would actually be hit by a car
4) ignoring the car, continuing through the walk and trying to guide her through it: had to pull 60-70 lb plott hound forcibly while saying, "good girl, good girl...." Had cars stop, tell us to "stop abusing your dog!!"
5) Putting our legs up behind/in front of us so she doesn't run into traffic or trip us/run away again and potentially die from running blindly into traffic. This caused people to stop their cars and tell us to "stop kicking your dog!" since she gets so scared that she runs blindly when scared.
Any advice? We can't afford a professional right now or believe me, we would have hired one already!