Hi,
I have a 4 year old black lab who has always been good as gold in the car. He always has the back seats to himself and likes to either lie down or sit with his head out the window.
We recently went to Dartmoor and when driving around he started sitting up with his front legs at a 45 degree angle (similar to this pose image.shutterstock.com/z/stock-photo-a-cute-little-brindle-coat-four-month-old-puppy-dog-sitting-with-front-legs-wide-apart-while-254132176.jpg ) He was also panting and clearly unhappy, not wanting to get in the car etc.
On the journey home, he was like as described about for the first 45 mins or so, then once we got on a decent A road, settled lying down to sleep. So I put it down to the winding roads and varying altitude of the Dartmoor roads (we live in London so not a regular issue!)
However, he still adopts the sitting up with front legs a 45 degree angle pose occasionally around here now. He doesn't seem to pant or not in any obvious discomfort, and won't adopt the pose constantly, but it doesn't seem right?
He does have "traumatic arthritis of the left wrist" according to our vet, which sometimes manifests in a limp if he's overdone it. But he hasn't been limping when adopting this pose. He has cortisone injections and flexiden tablets to manage the arthritis.
Does anyone have any ideas why he might be doing this? And whether it's even an issue?! And finally, anything I can do to make him more comfortable in the car?
Thank you :)