travel anxiety

Question
I have a 6 yr. old Yorkshire terrior. She hates traveling in the car; however, my
husband and I have to take her with us every weekend to our place at the
beach.  I've tried many different things to calm her in the car, but finally had
to resort to crating her. When we are on the highway she settles down a bit  ,
but as soon as we hit stop and go traffic she freaks out. She barks so
incessantly and loudly that we have to wear earplugs to survive the rest of the
ride to our destination. Needless to say, we are at the end of our rope until
we arrive. The ride is incredibly disturbing to us and makes it difficult to
concentrate on driving. Last year she suffered a long bout of colitis. I don't
know if traveling triggered this or not. I don't want to repeat last summer. Is
there anything we can do to ease her anxiety in the car. My husband wants
me to get rid of her because he can't take the anxiety of traveling with her
anymore!

Answer
Discuss this with the veterinarian.  Rehabilitating this sort of anxiety cannot include long car trips.  It would take most likely at least a month or two to build positive associations with short trips and the first long one would most likely precipitate a full return of the anxiety.  The veterinarian might prescribe a mild sedative which you can give the dog an hour or two before departure.  Sometimes, when a dog is in the middle of a fear provoking incident and recuperating from sedation, the fear self extinguishes.

While I understand the frustration of dealing with any sort of fear behavior (including those in humans), thinking about dumping this dog is outrageous.  Mature adult coping skills include finding alternatives to anger and frustration.  'Nuff said.