hyperventilating bulldog

Question
My 6 year old English bulldog will when excited start to hyperventilate. It could happen on a car ride where she might become very excited or over stimluated.Sometimes it gets better once I stop the car and pull over. Today she could not calm herself down and I thought she was going to have a heart attack. It took lots of water and a immediate return home with a big dish of ice water. She finally calmed down but what else should I have done?

Answer
Eric,

You are going to just work in small steps to get your bulldog to be able to handle the stress of car rides or whatever he gets excited about.  Whenever you see him start to get excited, stop what he is doing.

Also, you should not give your bulldog ice water after he is excited.  He should have water at cool or room temperature.  You also want to keep him from drinking too much, too fast.  Bulldogs can get a twisted stomach from drinking too much watter, too fast.

The best thing is to keep him from getting excited in the first place.  If he does get excited, stop what is exciting him immediately.  Then give him cool or room temperature water, but make sure he doesn't get too much all at once.

Hope that helps,
Christine Puetz