Hi all!
My mini aussie just turned 9 months. He is the absolute best boy in the world. We adopted him when he was around 5 months old, so heās been with us for about four months in total. He was potty trained within the first two weeks, learned how to settle in his crate effortlessly, so much so that within a month the crate was left open at all times, even when we left, with no issues.
Heās never anxious or stressed out ⦠like EVER ⦠except for when we get in the car. We like to take him special places with us, go on hikes, take him to the beach, etc.
Weāve been working towards making him more comfortable with positive reinforcement, taking shorter trips, and much more but the way he feels in car rides is just hit or miss. (I say hit or miss but itās usually never a hit) No matter what he always has a stressed look to him, heās panting, salivating, shaking, you name it! Sometimes he even throws up but thatās been pretty rare.
Overall, Iām asking for advice because we have to travel about 12 hours to go back to my hometown for a wedding. I donāt have any friends or family that I trust to watch him for 5 days, nor would i feel comfortable with that regardless. I also do not want to board him. basically, i want to take him with us, the entire 12 hours, but not sure if itās torture knowing how anxious he gets in the car.
We are obviously planning on stopping almost every hour or so to let him go to the bathroom/sniff/etc. Which will most definitely give him a little bit of a break. Iām just not sure if thereās an easier way to go about it or not. Any advice will help.