Why Do Dogs Love Car Rides

Natural Dog Training ^ | June 1, 2009 | kbehan

[SamAdams76]

Dogs love car rides because they feel as if they are on a hunt. For example, cats never love car rides, or at best merely learn to endure them because when riding in a car cats don’t feel as if they are on a hunt. Why when in a moving car, can a dog feel as if it’s on a hunt whereas a cat doesn’t? Because dogs evolved to hunt by feel whereas cats hunt by instinct.

This will make more sense once one understands what hunting for an animal feels like. In our mind hunting means stalking, chasing and killing prey in order to obtain food, but in the animal mind a hunt is a state of “emotional suspension” whereby the predator when highly aroused, projects its “self” (i.e. its “emotional center-of-gravity) into its prey—and if—the prey acts like prey, then whatever the prey does the predator mirrors by feel the equal and opposite movement in order to counterbalance it. This in fact is how a predator “knows” how to catch its prey. (Best visual example of this is watching a cheetah take down a gazelle on a nature show wherein the cat by virtue of “being in drive” has projected an emotional calculus onto its movements so that at some point in time its own trajectory intersects with the gazelle at a common point in time and space.) And in such a state an animal feels weightless. Feeling weightless is what hunting feels like.

Cars are perfect vehicles for arousing an emotional state of suspension because the feeling of weightlessness can be induced by the phenomenon of physical synchronization. (This allows wolves to pool their collective energies onto a midpoint so that as a group they can take on prey animals in a coordinated manner that they cannot physically overpower even when in numbers.) Because a dog projects its “self” into the forms of things toward which it is strongly attracted or bonded with (for example people in a car), and because everyone in the car is 1) facing the same direction, 2) swaying in unison to the dips and bends in the road, 3) accelerating and de-accelerating perfectly in sync with the momentum and change of direction of the car, the dog is induced by all this synchronized physical movement into a state of emotional suspension and therefore the dog feels as if it is part of a group that is on the hunt. The more the car moves and the faster stimuli whiz by the more the physical energy is channeled into the feeling of suspension. The question now becomes how much sensory input, i.e. energy, can this feeling of weightlessness sustain and here we can see different temperaments of dogs begin to precipitate out so that they respond in various things.

For some dogs the feeling can grow so strong that when their emotional or carrying capacity is exceeded, they strike at things going past. This is when the prey instinct, an automatic, hardwired reflex, takes over in order to make the kill. (We need to remember that it’s only in our mind that a dog on a sidewalk is motionless relative to the dog in the moving car. For the dog in the car, the dog on the sidewalk is moving 30, 40 or 50 mph and that’s a pretty fast prey animal.) Some dogs have a higher carrying capacity and can retain a feeling of arousal for the potential moment in the future when they will be let out of the car so as to express the internalized energy in a concrete way, such as running around, rolling on the ground, playing Frisbee or going for a hike with their owner.

Cats on the other hand (as well as all other animals) have a far more limited emotional capacity than dogs and so the phenomenon of induction by virtue of physical synchronization is not as likely to get going. For example, a lower emotional capacity is why when cats have their bellies rubbed and they start to get excited, they quickly hit an overload circuit breaker and then the reflex to claw and pounce comes up and, since the owner’s hand as prey-isn’t-acting-like-prey, they have to run away. Whereas dogs of course can have their bellies rubbed all day and simply wallow in higher and higher states of ecstasy, i.e. weightlessness.

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

'Mama' dog (Sylvia) resting her head on 'baby' dog (Lily).

We rescued mama dog from the neighbours at 8 months old, where there was some physical abuse including being picked up by the tail, being fed beer, very often having dope smoke blown into her face and being left outside overnight in -4C (25F) temperatures with no doghouse or shelter. They also did not bring her inside during her first heat. On the day we were getting her, a male Pit Bull/Rottweiler got in their yard... The result, sixty three days later was Lily, and two brothers. The two boys were given to friends and we kept Lily as a companion for Sylvia. In the photo below, Sylvia has the bigger, Shepherd-like ears and Lily, the Lab-like ears.

Lily had a tough start to life. When she was born, mama dog knew enough to chew off the membrane, but did not know what else to do and had the most shocked look on her face. My wife and I dried Lily off and laid her near Sylvia as she lay in a area that we had set aside for her and the brood. Within ten minutes, both Sylvia and Lily figured out what each needed to do. Two more puppies then arrived and all were healthy.

At approximately six weeks, one of her brothers picked up parvovirus. After much prayer and laying on of hands by my wife and me, Casey get through it. Unfortunately, he passed it to Lily. Fearing the worst, we took her to an animal hospital where after two days in the hospital at $1,100 per day, she survived.

As my better half has moved back to her mother's house and served me with divorce papers, and I was also recently laid off, I thank The Lord that He saw fit to bring these two girls into my life!

[skr]

It’s as simple as dogs love to sniff, and the air going by is chock-full of mysterious scents.

BTW, animals have no concept of spaying/neutering. If they’ve had a bad experience from an animal clinic, something happened while they were awake, or they felt abandoned by the owner and are afraid of a repeat when they smell the clinic smells.

[luvbach1]

That is a great animated GIF! Hopefully the dog survived - looked like the car was going at least 40mph.

It was. It appeared the dog outside was keeping pace with the car. I think Greyhounds can run over 40 mph but can the average dog?

[gonzo]

When our dogs get to stick their noses out the car window, I think that they’re imagining that they’re flying ........................................... FRegards

[scrabblehack]

I don’t think dogs can understand language...if you take your dog to the park, he or she will jump in the car every time you open the door...if you take your dog to the vet (and never to the park) the dog will not like going in the car.

[scrabblehack]

I don’t think dogs can understand language...if you take your dog to the park, he or she will jump in the car every time you open the door...if you take your dog to the vet (and never to the park) the dog will not like going in the car.

[Ladysforest]

Well, kinda. I think my Dobes were super sensitive because they seemed to pick up on “business trip” v. “pleasure trip”.

Ah, it was quite the circus having two Dobes in the back seat - on leather surfaces no less. When we would get within 1/4 mile of a place where we walk they would go super nova. Dobes bounce - everywhere.

They remembered each location after only two visits, so you couldn’t sneak it on them.

I’m down to just one now, but he still acts that way when we go for a ride instead of walking the neighborhood.

And I could say to you that my Dobe does understand many words - we have to spell “walk”, “stroll”, and “go”. Otherwise he goes bonkers and gives us the “look”. He understands a lot of short phrases and many words. I like it - it’s kind of weird, but really cool just how smart this breed is.

[5th MEB]

Now that is a handsome family

[rusty millet]

One of my cats used to go for long rides with my wife and me. She would always want to sit in the lap of whoever was driving. I always considered it a position of dominance, but stability also makes sense.

[onona]

All I can say is HOLY CRAP !!

[onona]

OMG they are beautiful

[pops88]

“And I could say to you that my Dobe does understand many words - we have to spell “walk”, “stroll”, and “go”. Otherwise he goes bonkers and gives us the “look”. He understands a lot of short phrases and many words. I like it - it’s kind of weird, but really cool just how smart this breed is.”

It’s the same with German Shepherds. I refer to my dog jokingly as my “toddler” he’s so smart. I just discovered he knows the word “popcorn.” He doesn’t get many treats, but messy mom tends to drop popcorn on the floor when she eats it. His vocabulary is mind boggling compared to other breeds I’ve owned/known. I, too, have to spell a lot.

[pops88]

Oh, I want to add- a few years ago they were running ads here in Las Vegas about making your dogs pool safe. We’d just moved into a home with a pool. My dog kept trying to rescue me. I didn’t have to teach him pool safety, but quit dragging mom to the stairs. German Shepherds are not soft mouthed water dogs!

[trebb]

Dogs generally love being with their people. I had a Red Coon Hound mix that would run 40 miles to stick with me when I went out on my bike - he would range the fiedls and periodically appear as he double checked where I was. Once I could drive, he loved th car and his nose never stopped sampling all the neat stuff we were going past. Probably some of both our happiest moments happened together all those years ago.

[BobL]

“I don’t think dogs can understand language...if you take your dog to the park, he or she will jump in the car every time you open the door...if you take your dog to the vet (and never to the park) the dog will not like going in the car.”

It may depend on the breed, and the dog. But believe me, if I say, with the same same inflection “Let’s go bye-bye!!!”, he BOLTS, to his leach and the front door and is more than ready to go. If I say instead (or then instead) “Let’s go bye-bye and to the vet!!!” He freaks, and takes a dive under the dining room table, trying in vain to hide. He’s knows exactly what’s going on.

[left that other site]

Linda-The_Dog LOVES to ride in the Car, but has no use for the Harley.

[Altariel]

....and if they *did* catch you, then it’d be time for him to do his job. ;)

[Excellence]

I had a dog who would stick her nose in the vent.
My cats used to ride in my motor home, one on each of the driver’s seat armrests, watching out the window. They’re housecats now.

[rottndog]

Okay...I’m laughing myself silly just imagining a cat in freefall...

Now you have to do this and record it on video...all you have to do is place a cargo net between the the front and back seat so the critter can’t reach you...it would have to be the world’$ funnie$t video.

Of course you would have to wear one of those shark mesh suits to get the cat out of the plane after the ride.

[gundog]

dogs like the various smells

Had a pit that would ride with his nose to the air vent. Anytime I passed a dog, he'd look out the window.