Car theft in the news makes it seem like a great idea to have a dog  guard your car. How comforting to think that your dog would prevent a thief from taking your car when you leave the dog alone in it, or a robber from taking the car from you by force. This idea leads to people encouraging dogs to behave aggressively in cars, resulting in serious problems and dogs who are actually LESS likely to ever save you from car crime.

What Doesn't Work

The dog who barks, snarls, growls, lunges and snaps at anyone approaching the car is such a hazard that soon you'll find yourself having to leave the dog at home. For necessary car trips the dog will require crating, which allows the dog to make a huge amount of noise to distract your driving, but doesn't allow the dog to protect you at all. Uncrated, the dog's wild behavior can do damage to the car's interior and contents, and cause the driver to lose control of the car.

Crating a dog in the car is the best way to keep the dog and everyone else safe, and certainly is always a good option. But a dog having a noisy, raucous fit in the crate only stresses the dog and everyone else in the car, and provides no security against crime.

In the event you desire a dog to be able to ride loose or stabilized with a doggy seat belt in order to provide a degree of security-perhaps to a woman driving on her own-it's simply too dangerous to have the dog behaving aggressively. The stress of this overprotective display also reduces a dog's already fragile tolerance for heat. For a dog to "ride shotgun" in the car, you need a dog who rides calmly.

A Good Foundation

As soon as you get your dog, start making the car a happy, peaceful place for the dog to be. Part of the training will be the basic program to help the dog learn to ride in a car without fear or carsickness. This includes taking the dog for very short trips, feeding the dog in the car, sitting in the car with the dog while you read a book, making most of your trips together to places the dog will enjoy (not just to the veterinarian's office), and rolling windows down about 3 inches to help prevent carsickness.

Set up and seek out situations in your driveway and elsewhere that give your dog positive experiences with people passing and people standing outside the car. Praise and reward the dog for behaving calmly. Distract the dog in any situation where the dog behaves aggressively, and realize that such behavior is a warning that your dog requires more training.

Say, for example, that your dog behaves aggressively when a man walks past the car. You can approach this from more than one direction in different sessions. A good training class will help your dog learn to deal with exciting situations and remain under control. 

Teach the dog to look at you when you say the dog's name, so that you can use this training in every situation, in and out of the car, to direct the dog's attention and develop a safe response to the presence of other people and other dogs. To control a dog in the car, you must be able to control that dog elsewhere, too.

Going on lots of outings with the dog around friendly strangers to practice the skills you are learning in training class will further help the dog learn that scaring every stranger is not the dog's job. Use the name/attention exercise in these settings, too.

Enlist the aid of friends, neighbors, and helpful strangers to stand and visit with you outside your car with the dog inside the car, feeding the dog treats through the slightly open window. As training progresses, you can walk out of sight, have the person walk near the car window, and then you appear to reward the dog for calm behavior.

If the dog doesn't remain calm, you can repeat the exercise, backing up a step. That might mean you staying with the person as they approach the car, or having the person not approach as closely. Your goal is to have the dog succeed-behave in a calm manner-every single time, which means not advancing the training faster than the dog is able to progress.

If you have accidentally advanced too far, too fast, back up to a previous step where the dog can succeed, and then very gradually work your way back toward the eventual goal. In this kind of training, slow progress can give the best results. Advancing too quickly can cause huge setbacks.

Never fear that a dog of a protective nature (which describes most dogs) would not know the difference when someone really tries to harm you. Training the dog to calmly accept friendly strangers will not interfere with the dog's ability to repel criminals. If the dog is large, the very presence of the dog is all the protection you will normally need. That presence is only possible if the dog is mannerly in the car. So, contrary to what people might think, a friendly dog is more protection than a surly one!

Cautionary Notes

If necessary to keep other people comfortable and safe, use a head halter or muzzle on the dog for practice sessions until the dog clearly has the idea. Reward the dog for calm and/or friendly behavior.

Carefully observe strict safety precautions concerning heat and a dog in a car. Dogs have such poor physical tolerance for this situation that a dog can quickly die in a closed car on a day you don't consider particularly hot at all. Be EXTREMELY careful about this in all your training and car travel with a dog.

While you are driving the car, don't attempt to train your dog! Either have someone else drive while you work with the dog (making sure you and the dog do not distract the driver) or wait until the car is parked in a safe place to have your training session.

Real-Life Practice

As your dog learns to behave safely when people are near your car, reinforce this behavior with trips through such places as your bank's drive-through, fast-food windows, toll booths, and other situations where you can reward the dog for behaving calmly toward a safe stranger outside the car window. If your dog is going to ride loose in a car at any time, this ability will be necessary.

If the dog can't behave calmly around such situations, be sure to always crate the dog in the car. You can never know when you might need police, rescue personnel, or any number of other people to be able to safely approach your car to communicate with you or even to save your life.

(For additional information, see Attention, Please! and car rides.)