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Can i train car rides?
My cat was an inside cat for 1 year +/-, we got him 5 months now and he can walk on a leash outside in his harnas if there are not too many things going on, he loves to roam around and sniff / chase everything . He is not afraid of cars but if there are too much people or dogs he will show stress signals and wants to go home which is okay because i dont want to go in crowded environments either.
I want to train him for car rides since i camp in nature a lot and im often away from home. I noticed he is not scared at the vet, but he is in full panick mode (tongue out breathing and vocal) when he is in a moving car. I tried it with short 5 minute sessions ending at home or ending at a large field so he can play, but when he sees the car on his way back he wants to run away and hisses if i pick him up.
Its incredibly stressful to return in the car at that point.
I feel like im traumatising my cat and it makes me sad… But we are very attached ( waits for me in the bathroom till done showering, sleeps next to my head etc. ) and i dont want him to be alone and hire a cat sitter for months. Anyone advice please?
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3 Replies
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Hi L, I really appreciate the bond you’ve formed with your kitty and the difficulty you’re having. I’d say you’re on the right track initially with trying short periods in the car.
One tenet to any kind of training through severe stress triggers is that you have to find a way to bring the level of stress or anxiety way down with a bad trigger. It sounds like your cat does reasonably well in a lot of situations but triggers very badly with car travel.
What you’ll really need to do is work with a vet to utilize a sedative or anxiety medication to help bring down the level of stress to a manageable level so that you can then work on some behavioral modification strategies. If you can’t bring that triggering stress down, a pet will not be receptive to training. I do think you’ll have a hard time without medication assistance based on your descriptions.
One example of a medication commonly used to reduce stress of car travel is gabapentin. A close relative to it is pregabalin, which is FDA approved for assisting cats with stressful situations.
Once you’re able to get him in a more relaxed state, try exposure to the car without driving anywhere, and only start with 5-10 minutes. Offer some high value treats. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so you may need to continue with short periods for a few weeks. If you get the sense you’re making progress, you can gradually increase the period of time, maybe up to 30 minutes.
After that, if you feel like your cat is comfortable, you can try moving the car, but maybe only down the driveway or out of your parking lot, etc. Gradually increase the distance.
The goal can always be to remove the medication at some point if you feel like your training has been able to take over. Now, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to go completely medication free, especially if the car’s a big trigger, but you may be able to reduce the dosage and at least have a less stressed cat and some more freedom to travel together.
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Thank you very much for your honest reply. I hoped i didn’t need to use medicine on him but if training is impossible there is no other option. Thank you for the input, i appreciate it and will discuss it with his vet.
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You might also want to ask your vet about trazodone. I’ve tried gabapentin with my cat but it doesn’t work well for him. (I had been trying to train my cat to get used to his soft-sided carrier and for airplane travel, but he was pretty much back to normal after 4/5 hours; the effects of gabapentin are supposed to last 12 hours). A friend of mine told me he uses trazodone with his dog as an anxiety medication, so I wonder if it may be helpful for cats as well.
Also, if you haven’t tried this already: putting a thin blanket over your cat’s carrier (so they can’t see their surroundings) while transporting them decreases the stimulus they’re exposed to and can decrease their anxiety. This has helped with my cat. I put the blanket over his carrier before I leave the house and the whole time I the car. I just discovered this recently and he almost never makes a peep while on car rides now. I am working on increasing the amount of time he is comfortable in the car (in his carrier). I suggest a thin blanket so your cat doesn’t get overheated, which would not be good especially if your cat tends to pant from anxiety already.
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