So this weekend Kota, my Fiance, and I are taking a road trip to North Carolina to visit my parents. From here in Ohio, its about a 6 hour car ride if we only stop for gas once, so needless to say its going to be a long haul. This will be Kota's first real big car ride since she was a little little puppy, and we are very excited to see how she does. Typically she rides pretty well in the car with us, but only if she is halfway in my lap so we're not sure how she will do 6 hours in the car.

Our vet told us to give her a benadryl to help relax her a little bit, what do ya'll think. It that a good idea, and if it is how long will it last? I don't want to drug her but I also don't want her to get to nervous being in the car that long. Even with the frequent stops I know we'll be making.

Geezus Benadryl must be the now drug of choice. I'd wait on just popping it in her and see how she does first. My 2 have never been a problem, a little eager when you 1st start out but then just settle in until the trip is done. Be sure to stop for pee breaks every 2-3 hours.

See thats what I thought. I thought the whole benadryl thing was a bit much but the vet said it would be fine. I know ive given it to my GSD after shots, and things like that but just giving it to her to pretty much sedate her just sounds wrong. Ill keep it handy just incase I suppose but hopefully she'll just hang out and be completely relaxed. Lol

I would probably suggest attempting to tire her out before starting your trip. Aevyn's always been incredibly fabulous in the car, but it's always just a little bit easier when he's at least exhausted (Less pulling on my seat belt? Yes please.)

I'd also suggest bringing along one of her toys - both for boredom and so she has something from home to ease her mind if she gets anxious about the trip/new area. Wherever Aevyn goes so does one of his toys, even after he's been there multiple times.

I'm sure Kota will do fine if he's used to car rides, even short ones. I would not do Benadryl though. Most dogs are excited at first but generally settle down for the long haul and sleep through it. Six hours is not very long.

My sibe always starts out super excited when we load him up in the car and he generally stays up and excited while we drive through city streets because he doesn't know if we're on a short trip to the dog park or a long multi-hour trip. Usually once we've been on a highway for a good 10-15 minutes he'll settle down and sleep until the car starts slowing down and we hit city driving again where he knows we're likely to make a stop and he's up and all excited again. It wasn't always this routine and easy for our sibe, but it's something he had to learn through experience...just like Kota will have to learn in his own time. My other two dogs came to me absolutely terrified of car rides and we conditioned them the same way we did our sibe (without drugs) and eventually they all became first class passengers.

Val's right. Most dogs will settle down into a long car ride...it's the 6 hours worth of pent up energy that you have to deal with at the END of that car ride that I hate

Bad mother confession time: Our first son refused to sleep more than a couple hours at a time in any other house or hotel than his own for at least the first 3 years of his life. So I took the advice of a friend and gave him Benadryl one evening before bedtime while a grandparent's house. Oh my, it had the exact opposite effect than I was expecting! He was bouncing off of the walls...

We just took our two SIbe's on an 8 hours trip to Iowa and back they are great in the car. Blaze always get up when we slow down has to check out the sights. Kerian only gets up and excited when we need to stop for her to go. We did stop about 4 hours in the the trip to Iowa and took them for a 20 minute walk at a park just to wear them out and let them poo. I would consider tiring them out before you leave if possible like a walk or some time at the dog park. We also reduce their food a bit didn't give them a full cup before we left just gave them about a 2/3 to 3/4 of a cup.

We brought the crates and them stayed in them at night with no problem in fact when we got readyh to pack up to come back Kerian got upset with us when we start to take the crate down.

You should be good with just tiring out. Callie's longest trip in the car so far has been two hours and she was content just sleeping the whole time. Of course, each dog is different though. The chihuahua rode an 8 hour trip practically glued to the window the whole time. I wouldn't do the benadryl unless Kota really isn't taking the ride well. But I'm sure with frequent stops to potty and maybe get a little exercise, she'll be content to just sleep or watch the different surroundings. I'm sure you already planned to, but just bringing familiar things like her bed or blanket and a couple toys should be good enough.

I took an 11.5 hour and 13.5 hour drive to Michigan and back in July with Bella. While Bella loves going in the car and has never had a problem with the ride itself, she gets extremely antsy after sitting for long periods of time and she will scream (not whine, high pitched scream) so she got Benadryl the entire drive and she even fought the affects of it enough to scream in the 10th hour until we got to Michigan -_-. (The ride back was longer but my dad met us half way so she got to see him)

When we went to Iowa this weekend all three of my dogs each got a benadryl on the ride there, and on the ride home. They did fine and slept the whole time. Personally I feel it's for their safety otherwise they're running around and going to cause us to get into an accident.

I went on an 18 hr trip with Juneau from Houston to the Quad Cities in Illinois.

Bring a few toys, bully sticks, etc.

I also bought a thing called Pet Ease at Petsmart (it's a green package in the nutrition section). It made Juneau sleepy and relax easier on the trip. It was about $12. Money well spent. She slept about 80% of the way. It's specifically for stress and anxiety situations in traveling and moving.

Good luck, and enjoy your trip!

I just wanted to thank everyone for the advise!

Kota did fine, much better than I expected. She was very ansy at first but eventually she settled down. We got her one of her favorite bones so that entertained her for a while. I did discover that she loves music. She would just lay in the back seat and relax as long as we had the iphone plugged up, but as soon as we turned the music off she was up moving around. Didn't need any Benadyrl at all.

Thanks again everyone!

I wouldn't hesitate to use benadryl in the car if I needed to. Mine don't need it anymore, because they relax but if I had a pup with anxiety in the car or who was constantly walking around, I would think it is safer than an accident. Not to mention, if reduces the stress of the dog and the human.

When Ceara came to see me Bella did just fine and probably was better off because of it.

I've taken benadryl for sleep and i don't see it as a problem when used sparingly. As I said, in some cases the positives outweigh the negatives.