How To Help a Dog With Motion Sickness on Long Road Trips

The first time I loaded my newly-adopted shelter dog into the car, I was in for quite a surprise. While my ancient Chihuahua would happily curl up in the back of the car for a snooze and my childhood beagle-mix would ride for hours with his head out the car window, my new pitbull mix was not a car lover. Within six blocks of the shelter, he made that abundantly clear to the backseat. Turns out that dog motion sickness is real—and it can make even short car rides stressful for dogs and humans alike.

Motion sickness in dogs is more common in younger pups, because, according to Dr. Tammy Hunter, writing at VCA Hospitals, “parts of the inner ear involved in balance are not fully developed.” The good news is that puppies will often “outgrow” motion sickness by the time they are about one year old, especially if they know that car rides can be fun. If your older pet gets sick, it may be due to a nauseating combination of a lack of conditioning and what Hunter describes as “the overwhelming unusual stimuli associated with moving inside a vehicle.” If they aren’t used to watching the world zip by from the back seat of a car, it can be disorienting and lead to nausea.

There may be another issue at play: Stress. “If your dog has only ever ridden in the car to go to the vet, he may literally worry himself sick on the road,” according to the Pets section at WebMD.com.

As for why some dogs get car sick and others don’t, well that’s a bit of a mystery. “Genetics and physiological variations might account for the differences between dogs,” Dr. Jeremy Campfield, a veterinary technology instructor told PetMD.

Since dogs can’t tell us what’s wrong, symptoms of car sickness in dogs include panting, licking of the lips, excessive drooling, yawning, whining, acting afraid to move, and vomiting. If those weren’t stressful enough, according to PetMD, “an extremely emotional dog may even urinate or defecate in the car.”

To avoid that fate, be sure to feed your dog several hours before you travel, try to make sure they stay hydrated, keep them safely restrained in the back, get fresh air circulating by cracking a window, and try to make sure your pup is calm and stress-free. You may also want to talk to your vet about getting anti-nausea medication, which could include ginger.

Finally, to help anxious puppy passengers get used to car rides, the AKC has a few suggestions for desensitizing dogs to help them get used to car rides, including just sitting in a parked car with your dog, going on short rides to fun locales, and showing the pooch that cars can be happy places. That was what worked for my pup. He slowly started to realize that cars meant trips to the country. He also was quite happy to be in the car if I let him sit on my lap—all 90 lbs of him. At least he didn’t get car sick though!