Puppy spooked by loud car

[Puppleberry]

My pups a confident little dog, and I’ve been working hard at socialising, so far so good, until yesterday. I was on a very quiet country road with pup happily sniffing verges etc when this idiot (sorry but it’s how I feel) drove past with an obviously faulty very loud exhaust. There are very few cars on this road at all but this morning pup wasnt happy on the same road when a perfectly ordinary car went past. No problem with cars in a busier setting. Anyone got any suggestions how to deal with? I go on this road a lot as it’s close by.

Take plenty of treats with you, when you see a car coming ask him to focus on you and reward the calm behaviour

Thank you I’ll try that, hopefully will be ok.

Distraction is the way to go. Take lots of treats, as said above, and start giving them before you get to the spot where it happened, being calm and praising. If they react, go back to where the feel calmer and try again. It might take a while.
I remember when my dog was a pup and we were waiting to cross the road at a pedestrian crossing when a huge lorry, tractor type vehicle, with massive wheels went past and was so loud it made her jump. Prior to that she had been fine with lorries etc going past.

Thank you also @longtompot I will go armed with treats. I suppose they also need to become accustomed to surprises but I could well have done without the banging exhaust!

I recommend grated cheese. Easy to sprinkle for a distraction

I would give her a couple of days away from the area it happened - let her cortisol come down a bit.

Then, lots of positive association with cars in other locations, then you'll be able to take her back with high value rewards and hopefully she'll be confident enough that she's not bothered anymore.

Absolutely @andrainwillmaketheflowersgrow Sadly where my pup was spooked was the only crossing across a busy main road where I took my dd to school so couldn't avoid it. Maybe because the start of our walk there was next to a dual carriage way, that helped her desensitise to loud vehicles?

@DarkForces great suggestion thanks!

@andrainwillmaketheflowersgrow thanks also. She’s been good in the village which is pretty busy with tractors, buses, motorcycles, lorries etc as well as cars and seems to become accustomed quite quickly. I’ll avoid the very quiet road for a couple of days. I think it’s hard on such quiet roads as a single car passing is an ‘event specially when they don’t bother slowing dow and there’s no pavement!