Relaxopet - Anyone used this

Family, Education, Health and Pets
1
Has anyone used this product. My now one year old GSD has never really liked the car ever since a small puppy.

He has two issues: he gets car sick and he will also throw up when he gets super stressed. Back in September he was really sick and I ended up having to take him to the vet pretty much every day for about 2 weeks where he was on IV drips, ultra sounds, X Rays, blood being drawn etc etc so a pretty stressful time for him. He now associates the car with going to the vet and it is really hit and miss if I can get him in the car or not.

I have worked with a trainer, tried to make the car a fun place, driven him in the car to some fun places for walks, worked with clicker training and treats, sat in the back and cuddled him when my son was with me. Sitting in the back and cuddling worked the best but I am normally alone.

I still have to take him to the vet about every 3 weeks and he is likely to throw up in the car when he realises where he is going. He doesn't throw up on the way back so this is stress.

I am supposed to be going to France for Christmas and my biggest worry is that I can get him in the car at home but if I stop to let him out that I might not get him back in again and I'll be stuck at services somewhere. I have taken him for very short journeys and we have parked somewhere and gone for a walk only for him to refuse to get back in again. We walk home and then I go and retrieve the car.

So, having tried absolutely everything, this product was recommended to me.

https://en.relaxopet.com/hund-pro/

Thanks for any feedback or other suggestions

2
I use one.

I have three dogs, and they each reacted differently.

The collie, high strung, tending to barkiness, a few fries short of a happy meal- in other words, a typical rough collie - does seem to relax a bit with the sound version on. Set to the lowest volume, as I find it rather loud, and their ears are so much more sensitive than mine.

The elderly sheltie did not change her behavior at all. But then, she was already starting to go deaf at the point I plugged it in. I don't know if she could hear it or not.

Interestingly, I have recently switched it to mute mode and I sort of imagine I see some improvement in the 'sundowning' that occasionally happens. (I fear CCD might be setting in...)

I have to say I was worried when I first tried it, as she is epileptic and some sounds have been correlated to seizures in the past - but no problems there.

The pint sized Monster... nothing relaxes him. In fact I once in a while I wonder if it might wind him up more. He, too, is highly sound sensitive.

The units are expensive, so if you want to trial one before investing I could send you mine. I don't have the instructions anymore, but it's really just plug and play, easy to figure out. If interested send me a PM and I'll pop it in the post to you.

FYI - I use it in the house, plugged in. I have no idea what the battery life is. I have an older version, not the pro version in your link. No motion sensor or timer. But at least you'd get a sense of whether or not your dog responds positively to the sound.

Another FYI - The repetitive sound drove one of my human guests batty. I rather like it, but YMMV.

3
Such nonsense. You are a sellers dream come true!

4
Omtatsat, with apologies to William Congreve:

Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast beast.

There is science behind the notion that certain sounds can influence emotional state and thus behaviour. That's the premise of the Relax-O-Pet.

doG knows, I react to sound. A suite of madrigals calms and centers me . The last movement of The New World Symphony inspires me to go out and Get Stuff Done. Fire up 'Flight Of The Bumble Bee'... you get the drift.

(Nerd note: The music you hear playing in many stores is not random. It's carefully chosen to prompt behaviours. One of the ways I mis-spent my youth as a market researcher.)

Critters can be affected by sound as well - for good and for ill. For the latter, think 1 August. Relax-O-Pet tries to do the former. Many kennels, animal clinics, training schools use certain music or specific repetitive sounds to help bring down the stress levels of the animals in their facilities.

The extent to which an individual - human or animal - responds to calming music varies, as per my post above. It's an interesting area of research.

Hence Relax-O-Pet or other curated calming sounds products out there.

When one has a dog with certain 'issues' a good owner looks at the various possible tools that might help, as Mr Dog is doing. Not every tool works for every individual, but as long as the tool is in line with animal welfare best practices, why not try? When it works it can be life-changing.

5
So buy a CD for a couple of franks with soothing " doggie " music. I suggest ACDC And people also get sick in a car-from the movement itself so why not dogs?

https://pets.webmd.com/dogs/dogs-and-motion-sickness#1

6
Mr Dog,

One of the ancillary ways to use the Relax-O-Pet is as a marker.

The idea is that you establish a link to a safe, calm, environment and the sound. Then use the aural link in an environment you know is stressful, hoping to trigger the feelings the dogs gets in that same safe, calm environment.

It's simply classical conditioning.

Relax-O-Pet is a good tool for this as the repetition is short, distinct, easily identifiable. So the sound plays at home, where the dog feels safe and comfortable, where good things happen. Once that link is thoroughly ingrained, you then use the same sound in the car, a place where your dog experiences stress. The hope is that the dog hears the 'home' sound and those associations are brought to the stressful car environment.

This is a learned, rather than instinctive, response to the music. Same goal, different approach.

And yes, Omtatsat, you could use other music. But first you need to do a fair amount of research as to what sound combinations might possibly trigger the response you hope for. Why not utilise development that has gone before you?

There are plenty of calming music videos on You Tube - Mr Dog could also experiment with these as well. (But he should investigate the bonafides of the folks behind each.)

Will all this work? It does for some, for others it does not appear to. But no harm is done, hence the suggestion of a trial.

7
So put him into a dog home for your Xmas trip. Logical

8

Hi Meloncollie and thank you so much for your reply and kind offer of loaning me yours to try. Really really appreciate that. I think my son has gone ahead and ordered it (probably with a few more new toys for him as well) and we got the pro version because it has a USB cable so it can stay charged in the car. I will also try your other suggestions, especially using it is as marker as clicker training worked really well with him. I will also investigate other reputable calming music videos to see how he reacts. When we first had him a friend in London did a couple of Reiki sessions on him and it was amazing how relaxed he was after them. (We had just got him and he was adjusting to completely new surroundings and people)

Btw I read your link on Shadow the rescue GSD and it was an amazing read. GSD certainly are really sensitive souls.

9

Yes, dogs absolutely do get carsick and I know our boy does but we managed to control it by doing pretty much everything the article suggested. (I even bought a new and bigger car which is more comfortable for a big dog) We were able to drive all the way from UK without him being sick once. He also used to go out in the car every day so he could have better walks. I guess you are not a dog owner as you come across as having extremely limited knowledge. His problem is stress caused by being driven to the vet every day for 2 weeks

10
So having done a little research on relaxing audio for dogs, "Through a Dog's Ear has not only good reviews from users but seems to have undergone thorough testing. It is modified classical arrangements changing the tempo and using different orchestrations to regulate the amount of high and low frequencies. Apparently high frequencies tend to arouse or 'charge' the nervous system while low frequencies tend to calm. Can be sampled here

https://www.soundstrue.com/store/thr...-828-4981.html

Something different is Canine Heartbeat Lullabies and again there is a sample

https://caninelullabies.com/

So some testing for us both as I neither want the music to send me to sleep when driving nor for it to grate on my nerves for 5 hours! At least Relaxopet does have a silent mode!

11
We had a dog who suffered from car sickness. Things improved when I got a van with windows where she could see out and she was in a very open style dog carrier. Before we adopted her she had never been in a car except to go the vet so perhaps it was a similar problem to yours where she associated the car with negative experiences. Things did improve with time so please don't give up hope.

Our recently adopted dog is okay in the car as long as it is moving. He gets very restless if we are sitting in traffic. On longer trips on the highway he goes off to sleep.

12
Oh, thanks for understanding this! I went over to listen to relaxopet, and the links to canine lullabies posted by Mr Dog, to learn about this, and those sounds... well, yes.... grrr.... "batty" is a nice little euphemism .

But if they help to soothe your dogs, that's great.

13

Thanks. Yes, Axel gets more stressed and likely to throw up when we are stuck in traffic. I nearly took a 6 month let on a property in Wengen which he would have loved as it is car-free and he doesn't mind the train from Lauterbrunnen! I would have just been too isolated in case of an emergency.

14
Its the owner who is distressed and passes that on to his poor dog

15

Just hoping it won't drive me batty as well although it couldn't be as bad as me standing by my car in the middle of nowhere, miles away from home with a 37kg dog who absolutely refuses to get back in the car! While I really don't want him to be sick, I could put up with washing old towels if I could at least guarantee he would get in the car in the first place. Problem is that we can spend a week playing around the car, giving him treats and toys and getting him to jump in (and quickly out again) but the minute we start driving even short distances I'm back to square one. It's either this or hire a limo and driver so I can sit in the back with him.

Going to try the lullabies because the neighbour's kid plays the same two tunes on the piano really, really badly a few times every day and that sound really does drive us all, dog included, completely batty!

16

There always has to be one ill informed fool who thinks wrongly that their sarcasm is witty and wanted

17
well in theory it sounds fine.

18
Our dog has always been horrible in the car. Fortunately not car sick, but rather destructive till we got a dog box for her.

She was very reactive as a young dog and chewed seat belts and headrests. Finally, we got a dog box, and she is generally quiet.

One thing we noticed is that she calmed down listening to Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending.

Now that she’s 15, she still rides in the dog box, but is a lot calmer in the car, and goes to sleep.

Good luck with your pup.

19
Public transport is excellent in CH, and in some places in France might work. Can you take him to the vet by bus or train for a while to give a break and try to disassociate? Maybe not the fix that you are looking for, but maybe could help.

20
I’m sure it works for lots of people, but when my dog was young, she was reactive and the sounds and number of people coming and going would have provided way too much stimulation. She would not sit still, and neither could she be quiet. Now she’s just really old and some of the transport is hard to navigate.