# Dealing with barking on getting in and out of the car



## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I think I would try setting aside a few hours a day to work on breaking the pattern. First make sure he is not desperate to pee or poo, then put him in the car. If he barks, take him out and walk around for a few minutes. Try again. When he is quiet praise and treat; when he barks the journey stops. At the end of the journey, if he starts barking get back into the driving seat and if necessary drive round the car park a few times. I sympathise - I spent many hours when Poppy was a pup finding places where I could safely indicate without turning, or turn or stop without indicating, as Poppy had decided the sound of the indicator predicted the end of driving and start of walking, and started squealing in excitement. She still tends to yip just before our first walk of the morning - usually because she waits to poo till we are by the river and by then she is desperate - but most of the time now she is so quiet I sometimes have to stop the car and check she is still in the crate!

Oh, and the warm, dark travel crate definitely helps. Given the choice, Poppy would probably spend every journey with her nose pressed to the window checking passing traffic, people and dogs and telling me all about them, so I don't give her the choice!


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## lepetitoeuf (May 3, 2015)

Thanks for the input, I'll have to go and find a quiet place and spend some time practicing with him and see if that works. I was worried that if he persistently barks *every* single time I leave him in the car, by going back to the car while he's barking I'm just re-enforcing with him that barking gets me to come back.

For instance, if I have to park the car then go and get a ticket from the machine, he will bark obsessively the whole time I'm away from the car.

The opposite theory would be putting him in the car and only go back to the car and praise him if he quietens down, but is that cruel? It's a similar principal to crate/pen training though.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

It depends on whether he is barking because he wants to get out of the car, or because you have left him in the car. Either way, lots of coming and going with no fuss and no reward for barking should help to break the habit. I have noticed that my neighbour's dog always goes ballistic when she sees her owner coming back to the car, and each and every time my neighbour lets the dog out of the car and makes a fuss of her while scolding her. My two know that I get in and we drive away, and are decidedly ho-hum about it until we get somewhere nice! Poppy knows every bend and bump in the road on the way to favourite walks and starts getting excited a mile or so before we arrive, but no longer shrieks about it, thank heavens!


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## lepetitoeuf (May 3, 2015)

Thank you for your suggestion, it helped inspire me and I found some time tonight to go out solely with the intention of trying to work on this habit.

I drove to an empty car park where there was plenty of space and no-one to disturb, just in case. I parked, then started to get out of the car. As soon as I started doing this, he began barking, so I stopped, closed the door again and waited in the drivers seat. Once he had been quiet for 30 seconds, I started to get out again, but the same happened, he barked, so I closed the door and sat and waited.

Amazingly, on the third attempt, he was silent as I got out and went round to the back door! So I let him out with lots of praise and a treat, then went for a mini-walk (just... but that's another story!).

Incredibly, when I put him back in the car, he was silent also! I repeated the whole process another couple of times, getting in/out the car and a mini walk, each time he kept quiet.

I can't imagine that's the end of it, but he responded incredibly well to just that short session. I keep on being amazed at how clever he is, these poodles really are switched on!


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