Traveling with your other family member, the dog travel safety tips

Happy New Year, hopefully everyone and their pets have had a healthy 2008.

Although the peak holiday travel season is over, most are preparing for the Spring and Summer family trips, most who plan to bring the other family member, their family dog.

Whether it is on the plane or in a car, most dogs do get anxious either by motion sickness and or traumatic traveling experience.

Start your dog young when it comes to traveling and make the first few trips a pleasure casual trip, not a trip to the kennel or vet where they can associate car travel with a negative experience.

My sister and I started Freedom, our black lab, when he was 16 months old. Our first family trip together was to the beach, our second trip was to the park and then he sat in the back seat for a trip to the comic store, all positive short traveling experiences.

Safety and security is important for both you and your dog. Freedom was placed in his kennel and then securely fascined in the back seat when he got older.

Motion sickness in cars is usually due to anxiety, therefore, keeping trips short, talking upbeat, making positive fun trips, keeping some toys in the car to keep the dog occupied are all experiences to keep dogs from getting anxious.

In home training is important. Even if the dog is securely fascined and occupied. Dogs are easily distracted and thus can become hyper and noisy, a distraction for the driver. Simple consistent training commends such as "stop" and "down stay" should be practiced in and out of the car.

Giving him/her a treat after the ride or when a command is listened gives an incentive for the dog to behave. Freedom's favorite car ride treat is peanut butter dog biscuits.

Luv Sheila & Freedom, my black lab