Why Dogs Anticipate The Car

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Really quickly, dogs are like, uh-huh. I know what this means when we go to the car. The same as they know, uh-huh, I know what that means when you put a lead on me. And they start getting this fizzy energy, or they start getting stressed, maybe, if you know walks are stressful for them, or the car's stressful for them, and they just anticipate that something is gonna happen. The car becomes such an event.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sex in a Squirrel podcast. I'm Lauren Langman. I'm one of the world's leading dog trainers, and it's my mission to help owners become their dog's top priority. In each episode, you'll discover how to gain trust and communicate with your dog like never before, creating unbreakable bonds that make you the most exciting part of their world. Okay, we've got a question from a student. I think it's a brilliant question. Sam, you struggled with this. I know how I work with this. Do you have any tips for building calmness in the car? Also in the camper van when we're driving. She does sometimes settle when stationary. So this is a real life student. She's her name's Britta, amazing student, and she's asked us about car trouble. Now, what was her experience with cars? Because you actually spent quite a lot of time in a car. What do you have? I've got a camper van.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

I built myself.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Living the dream, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Living the dream. Yeah. Okay. So like I've got two Jet Russell Terriers. One in particular gets car sick. And so very, very quickly, she started to not like the car as a result. And she also didn't really at that point have like crates or anything like that. And so the car just became a really, really stressful place. I wanted a camper van and I wanted to build it myself. So I really needed my dogs to be okay in the car. And also I need it a lot for work. So I, you know, I sometimes I need to be able to take my dogs in the car and stay in there for a little while, or when we came here as well. Um we come visit friends and families, and other reasons. So, you know, you use it so much, you need your dog to be okay in the car, and it can become a really stressful thing when they're not. And I've seen it with a lot of students as well, where they've got dogs that just really struggle and it just makes life really hard. And I was like, I don't want a hard life. Like not in more, you know, she's already got other stuff. I don't need more.

Crates Create Safety And Boundaries

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Van life, car life, travel life, it makes life simpler. So let's do some top tips making life simpler with a vehicle. Yeah. So I'm gonna say number one, that actually creating really helps. Creating it means it's a it's a god sense. Safety, yeah, actually giving the dog a safe space, giving the dog boundaries, giving the dog effectively this is where you're going in rules and manners within that space. And also, I think for my dogs, you can block off a lot. You can cover it, you can stop them seeing certain things. You can just manage that environment way better.

Purposeless Drives That Mean Nothing

SPEAKER_01 2:44

And I think as well with crates, you can grow it anywhere. So you don't have to always just grow it in your house, uh, in your house, in your car, which means it becomes like your dog knows what to do with a crate because they're like, ah, okay, I go to there and that's my safe space and I'm calm. Portable. Yeah, it's easy, isn't it? It's easy. If you once you teach it, yeah, it is really, really portable. Yeah, so that's like a nice, easy go-to. I really like that one. My one would be with be purposeless driving. So, like, I think that really quickly dogs are like, uh-huh. I know what this means when we go to the car. The same as they know, uh-huh. I know what that means when you put a lead on me, and they start getting this fizzy energy, or they start getting stressed, maybe if you know walks are stressful for them or the car's stressful for them, and they just anticipate that something is gonna happen. The car becomes such an event, and you have them, you've got a dog that's having a meltdown that's screaming in the car. And again, that's a really horrible place to be. What we need to do is more journeys that mean nothing. So whenever I go to things like the tip to do a tip run, or if I go shopping or anything like that, sometimes go to work as well. Sometimes I just take her into the car and and we or into the van, and she just sits in there whilst I'm doing some work, you know. But it doesn't lead to anything. There's no walk at the end of it. We've done it, and then we go back in the house and we've finished, or we take her to the supermarket. I've done my shopping, I've come home. She's just come along for the ride. But what it means is that it doesn't mean that we're going somewhere. And so she's like, Well, I don't know what's gonna happen, I'm just gonna chill out, I'm just gonna lie here, and then you might get me out or you might not, and I'm just gonna go to sleep.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

That non-event is a win, isn't it? Like it's a it's a real win. And we're talking about this earlier. Yeah, sometimes we just haven't done the work.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

No, and we sometimes we don't want to do the work.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Let's be fair, right? It's work, and and it's not like one time in the car doing this is gonna happen. This is like day in, day out, like map it into your week basically. Absolutely. This for me was, and if you live in a hot country and they can't be staying in the car, like in the we're in winter potentially and it's cold, but if we're in a hot country and it's and it's warm at whatever point of year it is, then you're taking another person with you. Like if Matt said to me, Can you jump in the car and do your work in a car? I'm very portable. Like I can just jump in the car and do my work in the car, I can do calls in the car. I see the car as another flexible space. When people say they need an office, I'm like, well, the car's off in my office. Matt's driving, I'll be doing callbacks, or I'll be doing like check-ins with people or students or dealing with consult calls or whatever I might be dealing with, but the car for me is another portable space. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Same. I mean, sometimes I'll just go in there and read, to be honest. Like I'm sitting reading a book. Why not just do that in my van? It's warm enough in there. So, yeah, it's it's really helpful. I think for me, the biggest thing is trying to fit it in your day. Diligence, yeah, day in a diary. Exactly. And if you don't, and uh that might be things like the supermarket or I'm going to the doctor's in the car, put your dog in a car.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Nothing like nothing excites. Those are your perfect times as well. Especially where you can get them out for a quick wee and put them back in again, unless you've got no get in and get out dramas, and that's a different story because then you need to probably play with that at home first, build it, and then take it away from here. So I think those things, those things really matter.

Make Practice Part Of Errands

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah, and it it makes if you can fit it into your normal life, you're more likely to do it. I think that's the key thing. If you have to like find time to do it, then that can sometimes be a struggle. So if you're doing stuff in your car anyway, take your dog with you. Like it takes an extra five minutes. Yeah. And if you feel, you know, oh yeah, but we're going for a really long journey and I'm gonna be shopping for a few hours, and that's okay. As long as it's appropriate in terms of like the the weather and the heat and the safety of it, your dog is okay. You know, there are there are ways around that. Um, I think my other thing to think of, my other tip there would be let's think about where is your where is your food going? So the food that you train with, if this is your your focus and your struggle right now, then that's where we need to put our energy in our food. Um, so our energy and our time, but also then the food that we're feeding our feeding our dogs daily. Now, for for me and Lauren, and I know a lot of the absolute dogs community, that's just their normal food. So that's their daily allowance. Then we don't feed them really out of bowls or anything like that because we we use it all for training because we like to.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

I it's funny, I I gave my dogs two bowls this morning in the garden and they had curly kale, a okay supplements, and an egg. Yeah, and I was looking at it and thinking, I'm so lucky that my dogs are really always quite like up for food because I can't imagine eating that my help, myself. Like it was so healthy, it was like pure health at a bowl, and they both like munch it up and it's all green stuff. And I'm like, oh my god, how do you do that? I wish I could be that healthy. I wish I could be as good as you. And I look a little wild, like eating up her little greens and like loving her her little daily bowl. Like that for me is the only bowl they get. Yeah, other than that, everything's by hand, whether it's um I feed raw, so it might be mine have got uh chopped-up chicken necks, chopped-up fish heads, and they've got you laugh every time I say that. I don't know, squeezie tube with fine like blend mints in it, with all the aocaine supplements. That's why it's funny. A little I know, yeah. Um, and they would have some of Michelle's home baked, yeah, they would have potentially a little bit of kibble because I've I'm I'm versatile, I use what I've got, chopped up meats. Yeah, um, I've got some goat in the sort of oven right now cook cooking in in the rayburn. Sounds awful, but like they will eat that, they'll love that, it'll be a big part of their enjoyment and and and day. And so for me, these are all things they would have and a variety of each, depending on my budget, depending on my daytime, depending on if I'm traveling, depending on where I am, how I am, who I am, what I'm doing. It all varies all of the time. Yeah, none of it stays the same.

Put Daily Food Where Problem Is

SPEAKER_01 7:54

But because you don't feed out of a bowl, it means you've got lots to give. So good.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Yeah, you've got worst case scenario, I'd scatter feed them. Yes. Best case scenario, they earn every piece. With a dog who's having car struggles, no, I'm not scatter feeding them. If anything, if I have to scatter feed them, it's in the car. Yeah. Yeah. So they're actually scatter feeding around the car. Yeah. But that's not my probably my worst case scenario if I was doing that would be in and out of the car for five minutes. Yeah. They'll have eaten their food in five minutes, yeah. Whereas uh, best case scenario, probably some long-lasting like congs and um bones and things they can sit and gnaw on and chew in a crate in the house and then in a crate in the vehicle. And then it would also be sometimes in a crate with distance from me. Yeah, because actually there's a level of separation even in that. But one of my favorite things with dogs who have, for example, separation is if you train cars, that also can become another one of your versatile spaces. Yeah, because your dog can travel with you everywhere. That's right. So actually it makes yeah, it makes the dog with separation a lot easier. Yeah. Um, so for me, a dog who can't car travel is hard. Yes. My my dog all car travel.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And and you know, we've talked before how I mean I actually, you know, I'm a little bit anxious. I'm like, we cannot let the van come a bad place. So we continually work on this with Siri because I don't know, actually, know how we would visit family, friends.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

It makes your life you say it all the time. Yeah, if this wasn't a thing, I would struggle with it.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

I would struggle massively. And I already struggled with this dog, so I cannot have this as a struggle. This cannot become an issue. Like, I have to make sure that this is a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

So the the van's life needs to be like a bit of a balance. And and Sam, I just have to put it out there, high five to Sam, because she set up her own camper van. It was one of your dreams, wasn't it? And you guys listening are gonna love this because you're gonna be like, this is it's so funny, isn't it? We work so hard to like pay off mortgages or have a nice house and all these things. But actually, deep down we all dream of like running away in a van, I feel, or at least some of us do, especially us dog girls. So like beach access, um, sort of being able to see a beautiful view or wake up to a gorgeous sunset or a uh sunrise rather than go to bed to a sunset or simplicity.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

It is lovely.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Having having that and having done that, yeah, you want her to go with you.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Yeah, absolutely, because otherwise I probably can't go, you know. So yeah, she needs to be okay in the car. So we work, we still work on it now, even though actually she's great in in the van. You know, she's actually she's been here with me the last four days. Is it three days, three days?

SPEAKER_00 10:01

And you wouldn't know you have a other than if Sam or her got out at the wrong time and other dogs are in the in the space because you're in a space that you're close proximity. Other than that, you would not know. And even then, that's half of half six of one, half done of a dozen of another, because it depends on the scenario. Yeah, she is golden.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah, she's she's she's like chilled in there. And I go in there sometimes and she's like, Oh, how a human. And I was sleeping in my sleeping bag.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Yeah, and when you when you say like literally the van, it sounds terrible. Like, you know what this is like three, like double bed, um for mod cons, like everything's converted at a gorgeous standard. You've got your like little fire when you go away, and it's just lush. It is really living the dream.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

I am definitely living the dream, it is really cool. And I think I think about what I am able to do with it now because there are parts like originally it was like, right, I need it for family, I need to go and visit family, and I can't because there are other dogs in those houses, can't take her inside. So I need to bring her with me because I haven't got anybody to look after. So we've got all of these problems, and like, right, okay, let's get a van because then I can just take her with me. We can grow the van. The van is new, she's not got any association with the van, let's grow it. But now it's become so much more. Now it's become being able to go on holidays with her. We went to Scotland for a week, you know, two weeks actually, I think it was. And we were just staying outside beaches and stuff like that. I took her to an ice hockey tournament in Wales, you know. I look at those now and I go, wow, like that's really cool. I can do that now. But that's because we work so hard on the van. We know we work hard on crates and we work really hard on that.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

I was gonna reiterate, I think you should make your crates cool. If you can work hard in your crates, I think dogs in crates are always better than dogs on backseat belts and things like that. And if your vehicle really isn't suitable, if there's any option to change it, change it. If it's not an option to change it, then do what you can with what you've got. But I'm gonna say a crate is for me a higher standard, a better standard. And for me, actually, it's become my basic standard. So my worst case scenario would be they'd be on a backseat crate. Yeah, my best case scenario is I've got fitted crate. Yes, but I get we're not all in the same place. So we we are where we are, and and this is not one thing about absolute dogs, it is not a judgy space.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

No, no, absolutely not. You do what you can with that space for sure.

Van Life Results From Consistency

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Do what you can with that space and with what you can. And if you've got the ability and capacity, then do bigger. And if you really haven't, like bigger isn't always better, it's more about what's the right setup for the dog. Now, those of you who haven't already, Games Club. Why should someone jump in on Games Club? Because Games Club has got the answers to most of this, if not all of this, between stop separation and and all of the other things are part of this learning. Yeah. How can someone join right now?

Games Club Trial And Community

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Right now, it's one pound for a trial for seven days. So, really, you've actually right now got nothing to lose at all. You can go in there, you're not, you're not kind of like locked in or anything like that. You go in there, it's a trial for one pound, you try it for seven days, and if you don't like it, you can leave. And in the meantime, in those seven days, you can get loads of value. There's some really, really, really cool stuff in there. So we've got these 10 days to stop courses. So you've got 10 days to stop barking, 10 days to stop separation anxiety, 10 days to stop stealing, 10 days to stop jumping up. Like, we've got a lot in there. On top of that, you've got so much more as well. Like, there are boundary games, which is like bed games, teaching your dog to like love their beds. There's crate stuff in there. Um, there's an amazing, amazing community as well that comes a part of it, which I think is really, really special because it can be really lonely owning a naughty dog.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Isolating, really isolating. So if you haven't already, um jump in, one pound, seven-day trial, do it. Secondly, if you have already, then tell a friend. So give it to a friend. The more people that know about this, like, is this not a real special space when we all know about it?

SPEAKER_01 13:24

It's insane. I I honestly we've talked about it a few times. I don't know, I wouldn't have her, I wouldn't have her, I wouldn't have known what to do with her.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

I also don't think that she wouldn't be alive, and I know that sounds really extreme, but I just think she would have been put to sleep.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

She would have been a dog that would have bitten someone, she would have either bitten someone or gotten herself in trouble with a bigger dog because she thinks she can take on the world. Yeah, she would have. Seriously, she is going to, yeah. But with with the games and with and with the community, because sometimes we need the support, but with the games and with the community, like I know how to manage her, and we're moving forward with her training, and she's getting better and better every day. So we're still on a journey, you know, it's ongoing, that's fine. But actually, I feel really positive about it. Whereas once upon a time, I would have been really negative about it. So it's a really, really, really special place, um, which is why I'm here talking about it because I'm super passionate about it, and why a lot of people that that like either work or are involved with absolute dogs in any way are the same. Like we're all so passionate because we've seen the change that it's made to our lives, I think. So why would you not join?

SPEAKER_00 14:20

It's one pound. Changes lives one pound for all of that, right? Changes dogs, changes lifestyles and yeah, car journeys, games club, learning games with your dogs. Guys, go out there, grab it, share the good stuff, make it an amazing rest of your day. Woo!