beating car sickness

On Saturday the puppies all piled into the back of the car with granny Neka and we made our way across Dartmoor to the vet ophthalmologist to have the puppies' eyes tested.  The tests were all fine (phew!) and so we wended our way the 50 minutes back along the twisty, winding moor road home.

There were many crunchy puppies at the end of it all.

While Neka did a great job of calming the young nerves during their first long drive and was very acommodating when it came to hoovering up any vomit, she didn't bother to clean off the puppies.  It's difficult to ascertain, but I suspect that they were all sick at least once.  And it turns out that Kiittaa (Hopea) is a bit of a drooler too.  Not in the same league as Minna was, but the evidence was there.

So I had the task of cleaning them all off when we got back.  Mind you, I could have saved myself a job because they have got soaked just out in the garden plenty of times since. 

There's no way to combat the sickness these puppies experience during this journey.  The little car visits I undertake during their socialising activities don't really prepare them for a long drive in the back of the car with no one to hold them still.  In older puppies, though, there is a tried and true method to cure the problem.

I always advise new owners to carry their puppies home on their laps rather than in a crate in the back.  There are 2 reasons for this.  One - having the reassuring presence of a human helps calm any travel nerves that can worry a puppy and encourage sickness.  And two - holding the puppy on your lap creates a physical barrier to the puppy getting tossed around too much during the car's movement.  Ok, 3 reasons: it's much easier to clean up the vomit so you don't have to live with it all the way home.

Luckily, you don't have to live with puppy car sickness forever.  The cure, as with so many other puppy ailments and socialising regimes, is to expose the puppy little and often.  So the prescription is many, many short and pleasant car journeys.  Many.  Minna, who still drools during car trips, was temporarily cured when she came to stay with us last year.  There were 2 or 3 10-minute drives everyday as I went back and forth to work.  I dragged her with me everywhere I went just to expose her to lots of short car journeys that she just doesn't get at home.  (Clearly her family are not the slaves to diesel that I am...)  I had an ulterior motive, of course - that drive to Scotland.  And it worked, there was not a drool in sight the entire trip to Glasgow and back.  Until she returned home, that is.  Oh well.

But it does prove the cure.

Here in Devon, the puppies have been preparing to leave home on their big adventures.  Pics tomorrow.  In the meantime, they have been having fun with Neka.

And they have been having fun with Tuuli.

And, in between rain and/or hail showers, they have been having fun in the garden too.